Dead Man's Folly (film)

Dead Man's Folly is a 1986 British-American made-for-television mystery film featuring Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It is based on Christie's 1956 novel Dead Man's Folly. The film was directed by Clive Donner and starred Peter Ustinov as Poirot.

The cast included Jean Stapleton, Tim Pigott-Smith, Jonathan Cecil, Constance Cummings and Nicollette Sheridan. It was shot largely on location at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, England.

Plot introduction
Hercule Poirot and his associate, Captain Hastings, are called in by his eccentric mystery author friend, Ariadne Oliver, to a manor house in Devon. Oliver is organizing a "Murder Hunt" game for a local fair to be held at Nass House, but she is troubled by something she cannot quite put her foot on.

Things take a turn for the worse when during the "Murder Hunt" the girl playing the "dead" body is murdered for real. Soon afterwards, the lady of the manor mysteriously disappears and an old man's body is pulled from the river. Poirot must discover who and what are behind these seemingly unconnected events.

Cast

 * Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot
 * Jean Stapleton as Ariadne Oliver
 * Constance Cummings as Amy Folliat
 * Tim Pigott-Smith as Sir George Stubbs
 * Jonathan Cecil as Captain Arthur Hastings
 * Kenneth Cranham as Detective Inspector Bland
 * Susan Wooldridge as Amanda Brewis
 * Christopher Guard as Alec Legge
 * Jeff Yagher as Eddie South
 * Nicollette Sheridan as Hattie Stubbs (as Nicolette Sheridan)
 * Ralph Arliss as Michael Weyman
 * Caroline Langrishe as Sally Legge
 * Alan Parnaby as The Boatman

Sequels
In 1974, Murder On The Orient Express was released, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. As Finney was unable to reprise his role in 1978, for the sequel, Death On The Nile, Peter Ustinov was cast. He reprised the role for Evil Under The Sun in 1982 and later committed to several made-for-television-films. Apart from Dead Man's Folly, Murder In Three Acts and Thirteen At Dinner were released. Another screen adaption of one of Christie's novels in 1988, Appointment With Death, marked Ustinov's final portrayal of the Belgian detective.