Mörderische Leidenschaft (1982) watch online HD

Murder is Easy (based on the novel Murder is Easy aka Easy to Kill) differs from the Agatha Christie novel in that the amateur sleuth Luke Fitzwilliams is changed to American Luke Williams for American TV-Movie reasons. Aptly so, that an American actor (Bill Bixby) could assume the role. Having said that, it is fitting to say that Murder is Easy is a wonderful adaptation for television. Old-time greats Olivia De Havilland and Helen Hayes have some nice spots as British spinsters Honorea Waynflete and Lavinia Fullerton. Other Brit stalwarts Timothy West, Shane Briant, Lee Lawson, and the stunningly beautiful Lesley-Anne Down round out the great cast. Also in an early role was Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean) as Mr. Ellsworthy. Bill Bixby is adequate, but Olivia De Havilland is very engaging in one of her latter day roles as Miss Waynflete, as is the great Helen Hayes as Miss Fullerton.

Wonderful English countryside scenery, a great cast and an engaging story are more than enough reasons to view this movie over and over again.

Agatha Christie's 'Murder Is Easy' gets off to a brisk start with Helen Hayes as a little old lady on her way to Scotland Yard to report a series of murders in her village. She describes the look that made her realize who the murderer is and tells Bill Bixby, "If no one suspects you, murder is easy." Shortly after she leaves the train station, she is killed in an auto accident. Thus, Bixby decides to investigate for himself.

Carmen Culver's teleplay would have been better if it hadn't updated the Christie material and tried to modernize the story with foolish computer nonsense. Furthermore, by devoting entirely too much time to the red herrings and focusing almost all of the remaining time on Lesley-Anne Down and Bill Bixby's growing relationship, it turns the surprise ending into little more than a sham for which there is no preparation. Bill Bixby's character in the novel was a young policeman--here he is an American computer wizard who delves into use of the computer (to no avail) to solve the crime. He's charming and believable enough but too many scenes are throwaways involving him and Lesley-Anne Down.

Suffice it to say that this is not one of the best adaptations of Christie's work. The technical aspects are excellent--the color photography of the English settings is impressive and all of the performances are first-rate. Nice to see Olivia de Havilland and Helen Hayes as "special guest stars". Helen Hayes contributes so much to the opening scenes that she makes up for the fact that there is no Miss Marple in this one.

But the tight suspense of the final scenes in the novel when the murderer is caught and revealed is missing here and the explanations are too swift to carry much weight.

Still, an absorbing who-dun-it for mystery fans although modernizing the story with computer detection work is no help at all.

Agatha Christie's 1939 story has been updated to the Eighties and it's hero/protagonist made an American allowing for the casting of Bill Bixby as Luke Williams, mathematical genius and computer programmer. He takes a fateful ride on a British commuter train and meets up with Helen Hayes who has an important errand to run.

Helen's a talkative old biddy who is worried that there have been a number of strange deaths in her small village recently and she fears that village constable Freddie Jones isn't quite up to a homicide investigation. She's confides in Bixby and then gets run down by a hit and run driver as she leaves the train.

Bixby's mathematical mind can't take in the random probabilities of all this coincidence and it intrigues him. He goes back to Hayes's village and turns detective, annoying village constable Jones, but finding romance with Lesley Anne Down and a host of suspects and a couple more deaths before the mystery is solved.

Among other inhabitants at the village is the local librarian Olivia DeHavilland and Timothy West who owns several newspapers. It's a pity that the story called for Helen Hayes to be killed off immediately so there could be no scenes with DeHavilland and Hayes.

As this story was written in 1939 I suspect that Agatha Christie had Lord Beaverbrook in mind for Timothy West's character. Audiences in 1982, especially American ones couldn't possibly appreciate the satire that Christie was employing with West as the tyrannical ego-maniacal newspaper publisher. Still I suspect citizens of the United Kingdom of the older generations knew quite well who West's character was modeled on.

I don't think the updating especially hurt the story however. The cast does very well by their roles and it's an intriguing film and idea that Helen Hayes voices.

"Murder is Easy" begins promisingly enough, with the charming Helen Hayes boarding a train to London, where she plans to reveal to the Scotland Yard the identity of a serial killer above suspicion in her quiet little village. Unfortunately, she gets killed about 10 minutes in, and we're stuck with the bland Bill Bixby as our lead for the rest of the movie. Bixby's character acts like an amateur sleuth, but he barely figures out one thing right in the entire movie! With the exception of the lovely Lesley-Anne Down and the dependable veteran Olivia de Havilland, the rest of the cast is forgettable and their characters underdeveloped. The direction is flat. However, there is one very well-done bit towards the end: a confrontation between 2 characters who keep talking to each other suggestively, and the viewer knows that one of them is the killer but NOT which one, and only after the whole thing is over do we find out the truth. Those 5 minutes, and the 10 featuring Helen Hayes, cannot fully compensate for the dullness of the other 80, though. (**)

When Luke Williams meets an eccentric old English woman on the train and she tells him she knows of three murders and she is subsequently murdered, I felt that the film had started well and was likely to develop into a good whodunit. Unfortunately, it was down hill from there on.

With one exception, the suspects are wooden, providing little other than simply having a list of suspects to consider. The exception is Bridget Conway, the object of the Luke Williams' desire. Attractive as she (Lesley-Anne Down) is though, there is a limit to how often I want to see close ups of her facial expressions.

The plot - will Bridget Conway prove to be the murderer damming Luke Williams hopes or will it be someone else? - first stumbles along and then grinds its way to an inevitable slushy conclusion.

Bill Bixby shed his image of "My Favorite Martian" to portray an American on holiday in England who naturally stumbles into the typical Ms. Christie mystery of who-did-it.

Even with a great cast, the film suffers from being way too talky. The dialogue is often quite boring and the characters are exactly this way as well. You reach the point where you don't really care who has been committing all these dastardly murders.

Each character appears to be quite stilted. The bodies tend to pile up quite rapidly and yet there is little to no action.

The guessing game intensifies during the last 10-15 minutes but by then, you just couldn't care less.

Olivia De Havilland brings us another seemingly Melanie Hamilton like performance, but much older of course. However, she can be as devious as she was in "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte," (1964)

Leslie Ann Down is interesting as the woman that everyone wants to suspect.

This is not an outstanding film by all means, but it is a very decent one, that is faithful in story, tone and dialogue to the book. The story is compelling and interesting, hindered only really by the nonsense with the computers which was underdeveloped and added very little to the story.

The pace starts very briskly, and Helen Hayes brings a lot of charm to her brief role, but once more in the story unfolds it gets slower up to the conclusion, which is well-paced and rounds things off nicely as it should do. Bill Bixby starts off rather wooden and dull, but gets better.

That said, the production values are excellent, the photography is pleasing on the eye and the costumes and scenery are beautiful. The music has some nice parts as well, the direction is decent and the dialogue is charming, controlled and witty. The cast do do very well, while some of the characters could have been developed a tad more, the cast do great jobs especially Lesley-Anne Down, Olivia DeHavilland and Timothy West.

All in all, a decent film and adaptation. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is a TV movie from 1981 featuring a starry (for it's day) Anglo-American cast and based on one of Christie's novels from the thirties. It has been updated to the early eighties but that seems to have done little harm as the 'English country village' setting could just as easily be from the thirties anyway (slow but sure policeman on a bike, tweedy middle aged ladies, tennis parties at the big house etc). The eighties only really intrude in some of the more bizarre outfits for heroine Lesley Anne Down and in the fact that Bill Bixby's character is supposedly a computer whizz. The whole 'computer' thing is actually quite poorly thought out and contributes very little and I never believed that Bixby was any kind of whizz at all in that particular field. Some of the music is good (the main theme, love theme for Miss Waynflete) and some of it is dreadful (the comic 'Carry On' moments and especially the 'sexy' sax for the main couple).

There are plenty of positives though. The film is astonishingly faithful to the book and plays out almost to the letter. This actually has a slight downside as there are far too many characters and most of them are barely fleshed out. The whole thing is very well shot and there are some very good performances. I was pleasantly surprised by Lesley Anne Down as Bridget - a very good performance indeed. Olivia de Haviland is appropriately tweedy and sympathetic as Miss Waynflete and Timothy West puts in a good turn as Bridget's childish fiancée. Helen Hayes is lovely in the brief but memorable role of Miss Fullerton. Bill Bixby is OK but not much more as the leading man. The story plays out well but the final confrontation between two possible killers is rather unconvincing but, to be fair, I think it would be a difficult scene to carry off really well.

Overall, this is a very worthy adaptation and worth a look if you can find it.

Pretty good mystery. Lesley-Anne Down has never looked better and Bill Bixby portrays the hapless American well enough. Plot twists abound and the viewer is left with a very satisfying mystery. Agatha Christie would approve!

My reason for watching this Agatha Christie film is probably pretty unusual. I am NOT a huge fan of her stories but instead watched it simply because Olivia de Havilland was in the movie. Considering what a fan I am of this wonderful actress, it's not surprising I'd see "Murder is Easy".

The film focuses on events that happen to an American professor and computer expert (Bill Bixby) on his visit to the UK. Soon after seeing an old friend, the friend is killed in a suspicious accident--and you know it COULDN'T have been an accident since it IS a mystery film! And, given the title of the film, you know they won't stop at just one! So, Bixby decides to investigate the crimes--after all, he IS a professor (now THAT's movie logic for you)! What follows is an amazingly ordinary film--with mostly second-rate actors (though Lesley Anne-Down was gorgeous), some serious logical errors and a mystery that never was all that involving. Helen Hayes (who played in some excellent Christie films) only makes a token appearance--so don't look for her to reprise her Miss Marple or have an active role in the movie despite her appearing at the beginning. Worth seeing if you are a die-hard Agatha Christie fan but otherwise very easy to skip--even if you adore Miss de Havilland.

Here are a few stupid portions of the movie that made me laugh. A doctor tasted the white powder found next to body of dead woman to find out what it was!! What if it were laced with strychnine or arsenic?! What doctor would do this?! What a dumb scene! Also, the film was obviously written by someone with a very limited understanding of computers. You can't rely on a computer to solve a crime, as the computer is only as good as its programming. If you could program in all the possibilities and variables (which isn't possible), then you'd know the killer already--and such a program would take an eternity to create. Unless, of course, it was a very, very simple murder and the evidence was obvious. And finally, when one person is pretty sure they know who the murderer is, do they go to the police? Nope--instead they go to the killer's house to confront them...alone!! What follows is a hilarious cat-fight between a 28 year-old and a 68 year-old that is too dumb to be believed! And, when help arrives, the scene gets even funnier! You have to see this to believe it!

Finally, while you won't believe it, Bixby and Timothy West (who play romantic rivals) are just about the same exact age in the movie--though they appear at least 10 years apart.

American adaptations of Agatha Christie (especially for television) tend to be on the low end of the scale. It's principally the writing, secondarily the directing – i.e. the writers and directors mold the Christie work into something they *think* American audiences want instead of giving us what we actually *do* want – which, when it comes to English murder mysteries, is the same thing the English want.

So, I was greatly taken by surprise so see that *this* adaptation of *Murder is Easy* was NOT bad. It is not grade 'A' quality by a long shot; but it is definitely a high 'B' grade. And it is certainly more faithful to the original than the 2008 adaptation (which has a lot of *very* bizarre flights of fancy that do NOT make for a better story; just a bizarre one).

In this version, Luke is not a retired policeman from India but a computer expert from America; but the age difference is the same (or at least Bixby was 20 years older than Down, which is the age difference in the novel). Lavinia Pinkerton has become Lavinia Fullerton for some reason, but she's killed the same way under either surname. Gordon Ragg, Lord Whitfield (no known relation to June) has become Lord Easterfield (in full credit, Lord Gordon Easterfield; but Easterfield would be his lordship, not his surname - so he might still be a Ragg, at least by birth). Honoria Waynflete, Rose Humbleby, and the rest (so far as I can tell) are all the same.

The plot develops steadily and cleanly, as the suspense slowly builds. As in the novel, Luke believes the killer is a certain individual – which, of course, is a classic signal to reader and viewer that it must be someone else; but who? Ah, therein lies the mystery – and when the identity of the killer is finally revealed, it *is* a surprise (unless, of course, you have already read the book) because it is somebody whom nobody would suspect.

And as long as nobody suspects you ... Murder is Easy.

Side Note for Radio Fans: The best adaptation of this novel to date (November 2016) is one that was done a few years ago for BBC Radio 4 by Joy Wilkinson. It stars Patrick Baladi (New Tricks, Poirot), Lydia Leonard (The 39 Steps - 2008 version), Michael Cochrane (Downton Abbey), Marcia Warren (Agatha Raisin, Dangerfield), and a lot of other very good British actors that most Americans will not have heard of.

Bill Bixby, not actually turning into the Incredible Hulk, tries to solve the deaths of citizens in one of those quaint English villages where murderers seem to thrive. A nice fair adaption of a fun Christie book with pretty Leslie Anne and a hefty Olivia huffing and puffing thru the scenery. She's a wicked gas here.

Wooden performances, the usual dire changes to make it fit better with the main target audience- how on earth did so may good actors find their way into something as awful as this?

I suppose being paid is the answer as it cannot have been challenging in any way shape or form as far as a performance was concerned, they could do this stuff in their sleep.

The final scene ( and this isn't a spoiler!) is monumental in its awfulness-I actually sat open mouthed at ineptitude of both the dialogue and performances.

I have to write ten lines but there is nothing more to say! I can only thank heaven that I will never have to see this again!

... and worlds apart from the dire new UK TV versions. Bill Bixby is attractive, charming, funny and vulnerable. Lesley-Anne Down is beautiful and her outfits are... interesting, especially her loungewear. But should she really sleep in so much make-up? They're surrounded by a solid cast: Leigh Lawson, Anthony Valentine, Timothy West, Helen Hayes, Olivia de Havilland (but surely that's not her voice?). Shane Briant makes a wonderfully creepy doctor - what happened to him? What makes this film so good, tho, is that it sticks quite closely to Christie's book, and Tells The Story, something that the present gang of Christie pirates seem to think is far less important than appalling overacting by self-congratulatory thesps. One thing missing from this version is the present-day witchcraft theme that's present in the book. (Ellsworthy has sinister visitors who congregate in the woods at night and slaughter small animals in sinister rituals, making him more of a genuine suspect.)

My heavens.

One thing I like, absolutely find hypnotizing, is how the classic detective stories get munged around. Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie are the ones that I want to follow. Now that there is new twist — probably a whole rope walk — on Sherlock coming, I wanted to check this out.

It had a comparatively big budget, and some named actors, but not in their finer phases. It is roughly based on Christie in terms of the setup and mystery. But there is no real mystery. How it messes up in this department is uninteresting.

But it has a detective that is roughly placed between Poirot and Marple. This is the truly bizarre part. This detective is an MIT professor, presumably a genius, right? He follows the TeeVee version of mathematical logic, which is based on a simple notion of "calculating the probabilities." Its a bit of a hoot, because it takes the detecting, the narrative richness of projecting in the future, into other folks' minds, into a mechanical exercise.

It is precisely the opposite of what advanced mathematical logic is all about. In fact, I've been thinking about Terrence Malick recently. I encountered him as an MIT professor, wondering about what the relationship of future is to past. It is, in a way an extension of the concerns of a detective. It has nothing to do with probability, instead about understanding causality instead of measurement.

It means that for me this is a particularly disturbing version of the genre, a genre that has a particularly intelligent origin. I feel like I'm in bigfoot territory.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Basically Agatha Christie is not my cup of tea (Exceptions: "And Then There Were None" & "Murder On The Orient Express"), but this film is different. The reason is Leslie-Anne Down (Bridget Conway), beautiful as always (And perhaps never more so than in this film). Spoilers: The basis for the film is interesting where Luke Williams (Bill Bixby) meets Lavinia Fullerton (Helen Hayes) on a train heading for London because of the mysterious deaths happening in her small Village. When he sees her get run over by a car, and get killed, he realized it is statistically impossible for so many deaths in one small town to occur, so he decides to play amateur detective and prove his theory correct. There he meets and falls in love with Bridget( Who is engaged to a much older man (Major Horton (Patrick Allen). Now although his computer said Bridget was the killer, he refused to believe it, and of course, she is not. Who is the killer? It was pretty obvious, but I will not say. Needless to say, at the end, Maj. Horton who also is NOT the killer, realizes that marriage is not for him, and Luke has a very quick marriage proposal for Bridget, which of course, she accepts and they leave the village and live Happily Ever After. I give it 9/10 stars, mostly for Leslie-Anne but also for Constable Reed (Freddy Jones) who is a fun chap always loving to ride his bike, and is very happy when the small town returns to normal.