Change Your Image
mikecrisp
Reviews
Poirot: The Plymouth Express (1991)
Very good but with at least one error
I watched this on ITV3 yesterday and was consequently somewhat surprised on reading these reviews today that some were upset by the extreme violence of the murder scene. What violence? It was seen, when it was shown for the second time in the story, that the murderer entered the carriage and wielded a knife at the victim. That was all. I can only assume that, as the programme was screened pre-watershed, the violence was not shown. Incidentally the murderer did take a huge chance, I think. Apart from not knowing that the victim would be alone in the carriage (no doubt that was the reason for her maid rather strangely being placed elsewhere on the train), there was always a possibility that someone would pass along the corridor and raise the alarm.
And the error? I am assuming that the story was set in its original timeframe of the late thirties which makes the clip of Hastings' newspaper showing the share movements of, among others, British Railways, an entity which came into being only in 1948, somewhat odd.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
Just to set the record straight
I think that this is a brilliant film with Morley's "Oscar Wilde" not that far behind but enough has already been said about the merits of both. Could I just correct a few errors in both threads to the effect that there were gaps of one or two years between them. No there were not. They were released almost simultaneously in the Spring of 1960, Morley's having a West End premiere and Finch's not. I have often wondered about the (slightly unseemly) race to be first or even why there needed to be even one film on the subject at all just then and can only assume that it had something to do with the fact that the releases coincided (almost) with the sixtieth anniversary of Wilde's death, on 30 November, in Paris.