The Man in the Brown Suit

Uneven Agatha Christie adaptation with great locales, a swift adventure pace, and an odd assortment of acting styles from an equally odd assortment of then popular TV stars. Ken Howard ("The White Shadow") does a Humphrey Bogart spoof, Tony Randall ("The Odd Couple") does comedy skit impersonations, Rue McClanahan ("Golden Girls") plays her familiar Blanche character, Edward Woodward ("The Equalizer") is doing light theater, and Stephanie Zimbalist ("Remington Steele") at times looks like Pinocchio with wooden legs trying to balance on her two feet. I can't tell if the film was badly miscast (Tony Randall's role should really been done with an unknown unrecognizable actor), badly scripted, or just bad direction choices. My guess, a little of each. Imagine the director telling each of his actors that they were in a different type of film (spoof, mystery, adventure, drama, comedy, etc...) and you get an idea of what happens on screen. Still, the pace, humor, and locales actually make this one of the most enjoyable Christie inspired efforts and one you won't likely be nodding off to. Maybe there is a method to the madness afterall, or at least a purpose. I taped this film during it's original broadcast in 1989 and still watch it from time to time as a guilty pleasure. Go figure.

This could have been a lot better. Stephanie Zimbalist and Simon Dutton are good as the leads with romantic sparks. The rest of the cast is good, but the script does not give them much chance to show their talents.

The main problem is with the pacing. The set-up to the story is interesting, but the action really drags at times, especially near the end. On the plus side, this is a basically enjoyable little movie, and a reminder of the now-vanished art form of the network TV-movie! I think it would have been more fun, had the producers chosen to set it in the 1920's or 1930's, prime Agatha Christie periods; but perhaps budget issues made them make it contemporary.

Bottom line: a modest, fairly enjoyable light mystery with some humor, and two leads with charm. Not a standout mystery film, but not bad.

Being a fan of Agatha Christie, I searched for this rare TV movie for quite some time. All of the VHS copies I found were in PAL and as I live in America, I was unable to view them. When I located a DVD copy of this film I pounced on it and wasn't horribly disappointed. Anne Beddingford has purposely put herself on the wrong plane and ends up in Cairo. She encounters an accident when a man runs in front of a taxi to get away from someone. All that she has as a clue now is a small bit of paper and a glimpse of the "man in the brown suit" who has been linked to a beautiful night club singer's murder. The plot thickens and Anne finds herself in a sea of suspects and, later, on the killer's hit list. While the plot line has been changed quite a bit, this film still has the undeniable touch of Christie to it. Many of the characters are a bit phony (the heroine Anne) and others were almost unbearably BAD (Tony Randolff), but they are overshadowed by Rue McClannahan, whom I thought stole the show. The plot is far more exciting than other Christie books. There are a couple killings, a couple attempted killings, a love story, and a kidnapping sequence. I enjoyed the film, it had a campy edge to it which made it kinda fun.

This film is fun, but of course does not live up to the original novel. (It's been Americanised for one thing). That said, the cast is strong, and the plot has plenty of intrigue.

But read the book - it's one of Agatha's best adventure novels (as opposed to Country- House-Body-in-the-Library novels) and the mystery is pretty good too.

This is definitely nostalgic and reminiscent of those great unreal late 70s mystery-dramas, but this is IN NO WAY related to the Christie's book. The book is set in the early 1920s and deals with an orphan who spends her last few dollars to travel by ship to South Africa after witnessing an accident in the tube station and finding a scrap of paper (referencing the ship) on his body. This '89 version could have held its own as a made for TV piece and need not try to take credit as any sort of adaptation of the novel - because it definitely isn't. There are some great moments in this one though - the crossdresser is great but Zimbalist is FAR too precocious and the plot is ridiculous (it's filled with unreal 70s style nonsense - getting on the wrong plane by accident and ending up in Egypt for one, among others.) But all in all, it's cute if you like that early 80s made-for-TV mystery. And, incidentally, UK TV plays it periodically so even if you didn't tape it off American TV in 1989, you could still catch it from time to time in England.