Well, for most favorite, here are my choices.
1: Jacqueline Bisset as Countess Andrenyi. She was just so graceful and elegant, but also showed her vulnerability and the stress that the situation was taking on her. Also, I loved the moment at the end between her and Lauren Bacall. The last survivors of the family. She is also my fav in the book.
2: Vanessa Redgrave as Mary Debenham. You see the cool stoic side, but you also see her fire and the love she has for Arbuthnot.
3: Colin Blakely as Cyrus Hardman. I really like his performance in the interview with Poirot. He starts as as being this hardened, cynical detective type, but when he sees Paulette's picture, you can see his face fall, the sadness in his eyes and you hear the break in his voice when he says her name. It's heartbreaking.
4: Jean-Pierre Cassel as Pierre Paul Michel. This character is great because he is a mam who is under extreme stress throughout the who film, but does not break or show his feelings, but when he does at the end it is moving. When Poirot takes about his wife and daughter so see his stance collapse and all the stress and sadness comes out. I get teary when I watch him.
Ok. Now on to least favorite. I would have to say Anthony Perkins as Hector MacQueen which is funny because he is one of my favorites in the book. His whole performance seemed weak and had a Norman Bates undertone to it which I found to be kind of distracting and undermining to the character. The MacQueen character is one that requires grit and determination because he was the one who had to get really close to Rachett and become as close as a confidant to him as he could without showing his true feelings for a long period of time. That's why he, as well as Hardman, were given the jobs they were given because they were not members of the household or family members and were least likely to be recognized or have their connection to the Armstrong's discovered by Ratchett. I just don't think Anthony Perkins was right for the part.
Also, I noticed in the film that they brush off the fact that MacQueen was in love with Sonja Armstrong which is made perfectly clear in the book. As I remember it, they had been friends as children since their parents knew each other (his father is the family's lawyer) and he had loved her since then. That is rather an important point since that is his motivation for taking part in Rachett's murder. I did not get that in Perkins's performance, Those are just my thoughts on it.
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onepotato2
16 years ago
4: Jean-Pierre Cassel as Pierre Paul Michel. This character is great because he is a mam who is under extreme stress throughout the who film, but does not break or show his feelings, but when he does at the end it is moving. When Poirot takes about his wife and daughter so see his stance collapse and all the stress and sadness comes out. I get teary when I watch him.
by - GHudson426 on Sat May 24 2008 15:35:28
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When his resolve breaks, all the emotion of the crime, which has been withheld becomes real. All of a sudden you see a loving father crushed by the loss of his daughter. it makes me tear up too.
The finale is an emotional powderkeg because of his performance.
Also, I vote for John Gielgud who has some very dry lines.
WORST!!!!
Perkins is frickin' awful. Did they make the character "emotionally retarded" because Perkins actually was? He always strikes the wrong note. He comes off as a runty, oily, mommy-fixated closet case. Every emotion he portrays is phony and off.
Michael York is miscast even with his tiny part. He in no way comes off as someone who would be physically intimidating to rivals for his wife's affection.
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