Review of Murder Is Easy

... 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.)