1937: manipulative and malicious, recently widowed Emily Boynton ruthlessly rules her step-children's lives. She even makes a luxury family trip to Europe and the Middle East hellish. Things come to boiling point in British-controlled Palestine and fellow traveller. Hercule Poirot is soon intrigued and appalled to discover that death never takes a holiday - nor can his famed "little grey cells".

One of Dame Agatha Christie's best Poirot books comes to life in an adaptation directed by Michael Winner, and no, there's no vigilantes, rapes and grisly murders in sight - only two murders, one of them being done with digitalis injection and the other by gunshot. Winner's an odd choice to direct this lavish mystery headed by a big cast, but he does a fine job; it's well-directed and acted mystery. Peter Ustinov, a definitive and the most fun Poirot in my book, does a brilliant job as the Belgium detective, as does the rest of the cast. But it has to be said that Piper Laurie is a standout as the horrid Mrs Boynton.

This is an excellent addition to the other two Peter Ustinov mysteries, and like those ones, the location is breathtaking, setting the scene of a little murder.

A Golan-Globus production of an Agatha Christie novel?, you may ask. Thankfully, the financers of Charles Bronson's entire 1980's filmography, among many other (cheapie) things, actually put some money into this project, allowing for location shooting in England, Italy and (mainly) Israel, period costumes and vehicles, etc. However, the locations are shot without much flavor and the film ends up feeling more like a TV movie than a theatrical release. The plot itself is not among Christie's strongest, though co-screenwriter Anthony Shaffer at least tries to mix it up a little with some interesting ideas (Poirot assembles all the suspects for the first time, we expect him to reveal the murderer....and he doesn't). Ustinov is still delightful, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, as Poirot; he reminds me in a way of Roger Moore's James Bond: purists argue that these two are not 105% accurate to the books, but I'm having too much fun watching them to care. In the supporting cast, the standout is clearly Jenny Seagrove, who has all the beauty, the elegance, the spirit and the courage of the best Christie heroines.

The latest (2008) David Suchet - Poirot season also produced a version of this book. It changes the story almost completely, only keeping a few names and relationships intact. Personally I preferred it for its dark, psychological approach and its truly magnificent scenery, but for a more faithful, lightweight version, this 1988 film holds up better than I remembered. (**1/2)

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH is the last of Peter Ustinov's big-screen outings as Hercule Poirot and perhaps that's for the best, as this isn't exactly high art. It's an acceptable but rather familiar outing for the detective, following the exact same formula as DEATH ON THE NILE and EVIL UNDER THE SUN by plonking an all-star Hollywood cast into an exotic sunny locale and working out which of them is the murderer. The direction is by Michael Winner and rather bland like a lot of his '80s work, although the cast - including Lauren Bacall, David Soul and Carrie Fisher - is decent as ever for a Poirot movie. Piper Laurie plays the murder victim with the same kind of unpleasantness as Carrie's mother, and far too much time is taken with the set-up so that the denouement feels a little rushed. I also think the identity of the murderer was pretty obvious here based on the casting alone.