Lord Edgware Dies

Agatha Christie's 13th whodunnit was filmed the year after its publication. It was intended to be the start of a series of Hercule Poirot movie adventures, with Austin Trevor as the fastidious Belgian sleuth. But such was the wave of apathy that greeted this lacklustre adaptation that the plans were shelved. Trevor is wincingly bad, completely missing the trademark mannerisms of Poirot that later actors would bring to the character, and Jane Carr is little better as the milady accused of bumping off her husband to marry a duke. Peter Ustinov would do a much better job as Poirot when the story was remade as the TV movie Thirteen at Dinner in 1985.