The Alphabet Murders (1965)

Lose adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel the A.B.C. Murders. The movie starts rather strangely, and I'm not referring to the murder of the diving clown, but rather to the introduction of the protagonist Hercule Poirot, in which the actor Tony Randall comes on screen as himself at a sound stage and tells you he is going to play Poirot, and then flash he's Poirot on a street in London. It's an odd, pointless introduction, for what proves to be an odd and rather pointless movie. You get the sense that the producers were not so much interested in making an Agatha Christie film, despite the little cameo of Miss Marple, but rather wanted to turn Poirot into something like a more competent Inspector Clouseau. The film emphasise is on comedy, though it largely fails to be funny, in fact I don't think I laughed once. They brought Robert Morley into the thing to be an oft humiliated comic foil for Randell, but in the end I just felt sorry for Morely having to play this undercooked part. Anita Ekberg's also in this, so there's that. Anyway a waste. *1/2