"Halloween Party" does what the better of the late Poirots do best, i.e., have lovely production values, and making them watchable for costumes alone. Then they throw in a few familiar names from the old school (here, Eric Sykes and Timothy West, among others) and mix them with younger names (Sophie Thompson and Julian Rhind-Tutt), and a few up-and-comers.
And like all later Poirots, this one has been changed, but not as egregiously as some ("Murder on the Orient Express" where an odious murderer is murdered, but has all the joie de vivre sucked out of it; "The Big Four" has another story altogether, making a travesty of an admittedly difficult book to adapt; and others, that change who the murderer is!--no spoilers for that here).
One change from the book was a wise move on the part of the original producers, to set all the books in the 1930s. After all, Poirot was retired with his first case, set during the Great War. Even if, like Sherlock Holmes, he retired in his early 50s, he would have been more than 100 years old by the 1960s, when this book was penned.
Other changes from the book were necessary, such as the reduction of characters, and minor alterations for modern sensibilities. After all, the book involves the murders of children (in the book, one is nearly killed a pagan altar, though that was changed here perhaps to keep from offending neo-pagans).
The film, like the book, is set in a village which, despite its size, has had an inordinate amount of murders. At the behest of Ariadne Oliver (a thinly-disguised self-portrait of Christie herself, down to her affection for apples), Poirot sniffs around to find skeletons in closets and uncover buried secrets (literally), and blackmail. Some events in the story are unfortunately shifted around, perhaps unnecessarily so, as the writers smugly pretend to show how much smarter they are than Dame Agatha. Nevertheless, she wrote the book and they're riding on her coattails.
A late Poirot worth watching for the garden alone, though I enjoyed the Halloween customs at the atmospheric party.
By the way, Dame Agatha dedicated this book, despite its horrific contents, to a fellow writer of the time she much enjoyed, humorist P. G. Wodehouse.
And like all later Poirots, this one has been changed, but not as egregiously as some ("Murder on the Orient Express" where an odious murderer is murdered, but has all the joie de vivre sucked out of it; "The Big Four" has another story altogether, making a travesty of an admittedly difficult book to adapt; and others, that change who the murderer is!--no spoilers for that here).
One change from the book was a wise move on the part of the original producers, to set all the books in the 1930s. After all, Poirot was retired with his first case, set during the Great War. Even if, like Sherlock Holmes, he retired in his early 50s, he would have been more than 100 years old by the 1960s, when this book was penned.
Other changes from the book were necessary, such as the reduction of characters, and minor alterations for modern sensibilities. After all, the book involves the murders of children (in the book, one is nearly killed a pagan altar, though that was changed here perhaps to keep from offending neo-pagans).
The film, like the book, is set in a village which, despite its size, has had an inordinate amount of murders. At the behest of Ariadne Oliver (a thinly-disguised self-portrait of Christie herself, down to her affection for apples), Poirot sniffs around to find skeletons in closets and uncover buried secrets (literally), and blackmail. Some events in the story are unfortunately shifted around, perhaps unnecessarily so, as the writers smugly pretend to show how much smarter they are than Dame Agatha. Nevertheless, she wrote the book and they're riding on her coattails.
A late Poirot worth watching for the garden alone, though I enjoyed the Halloween customs at the atmospheric party.
By the way, Dame Agatha dedicated this book, despite its horrific contents, to a fellow writer of the time she much enjoyed, humorist P. G. Wodehouse.