In one case, strong enough to kill. Characters were introduced briefly, with thumbnail descriptions in voice-over, instead of being allowed to show us who they were. "Sparkling Cyanide" (or "Remembered Death", as it was released in the US, leading me to assume that the publishers’ mandate was just to get the word “Murder” or “Death” into every title) is an expanded retelling of "Yellow Iris", a Poirot short story, which was effectively adapted for … 894646. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Just like the 1980s' US TV movies ("Murder in Three Acts" and "Murder Is Easy" were the worst examples), it simply 'adapts' the action, the characters and everything else to the present, including the most hideous hairstyles and clothes. There's no personal chemistry between them. It doesn't. Beautiful Rosemary Barton , wife of wealthy George Barton, dies by poison at a dinner party, and as one of the guests is a government minister who was having an affair with Rosemary, Colonel Geoffrey Reece (Oliver Ford Davies) and his wife Dr Catherine Kendall (Pauline Collins) are called on to solve the mystery. Actually the original Christie story is teeming with adultery - read the book! Sparkling Cyanide is a very good story if perhaps not one of Agatha Christie's masterpieces. And this is not just as an adaptation, where it is lacking both in detail and spirit to the book, this is on its own terms as well. I generally avoid calling audiobook readers performers as so many come unstuck when they overact. The pace just drags with little momentum, I know most Agatha Christie adaptations and books unfold slowly but in a modern setting this approach just doesn't work, and the solution is largely unsatisfying with at least two things that don't make that much sense(that I can't mention really without spoiling it for people). I love Agatha Christie & was really disappointed by this version. Sparkling Cyanide is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1945 under the title of Remembered Death and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in the December of the same year under Christie's original title. To my mind, the Christie original story had more than enough fascination not to be messed with, but this movie doesn't do a terrible job of making it "2003-y" and plausible for the current day at its time. They have more of a working relationship than a personal one. Besides, having two grandparents as the detectives is an unusual concept for a Christie film; Oliver Ford Davies and Pauline Collins make for agreeable leads. After watching this 2003 version of "Sparkling Cyanide", I dug up and watched parts of the 1983 version, to see how closely the stories resembled each other; taking into account the updated computer technology, the CCTV footage, etc. Although some of the characters are very different from the ones in the book, the basic plot remains the same, as does the identity of the murderer. The rest of the acting is poor(even from a talented actor like Kenneth Cranham who ends up overdoing his gruff patriarch role), nobody really being able to give credibility to their sketchily-written characters, Rosemary faring worst. Soon later, another body shows up. Registered in England No. The 1983 film is dated but there is something enjoyable about it, and while not necessarily a good adaptation The Yellow Iris Poirot mystery was interesting. But you won't like it. The entire story could have been over and done with in under an hour, but this bloated modern monstrosity drags on for over two. Of course they have to use computers and mobile phones the second they are introduced, and get themselves offstage with "You shadow the husband, I'll go and DO SOME RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET, you know, that modern thingy that they didn't have when Christie wrote her books I mean in her day they probably sent messages by a man in a cleft stick and were hopelessly dull and oldfashioned and never never did anything interesting like having sex." I would have liked to see them in some more adventures. Sparkling Cyanide is an Agatha Christie tale brought into the modern world. I did not like, however, the transformation of the very interesting Anthony Brown character into the Fizz character (a footballer, which doesn't at all fit with the original story, although the actor is good). I suppose it's too late now for a spin off series. The direction lacks style and atmosphere, and the film often plays like a plodding police procedural that could be an extended episode of a TV series, but Christie's story is enough to pull you through. As far away from sparkling as you could possibly go, Fair updating of the Agatha Christie novel, one to avoid if you want to see Poirot and "ze leetle grey cells" at work, Only Pauline and Oliver halfway save this film. The solution isn't really explained at all, the interval of two years is clumsily merged into two weeks, and Rosemary Barton is portrayed as a wrist-slitting slut, a tragic loss of one of Agatha Christie's most beautiful descriptions. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. The detectives are two elderly MI5 agents (compare that to the respectable retired colonel in the book), it just doesn't work, investigating the murder of an uneducated footballer's wife at a nightclub (compare that to the glamorous wife of a successful businessman who dies at a high-class resteraunt in the book). So overall, a modern day Agatha Christie adaptation but without the sparkle. . The "technology" used is questionable & an unnecessary addition to the tale. I love the novel, and I enjoyed this adaptation, the reality is there isn't much similarity, apart from a few names and scenes. Updated version of a classic Christie novel. Sparkling Cyanide, the movie starts out at a dinner party where Rosemary Barton, the wife of a lawyer dies. It's a glitzy adaptation, one the Christie purists will hate, those willing to accept changes will enjoy it to some degree. Still, it worked in its TV-movie way and the acting is pretty decent throughout. Please, The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. Pauline Collins, Oliver Ford Davies head an all star cast as the husband and wife secret service agents, including Jonathon Firth and Susan Hampshire in this classy adaptation of the 1983 smash. So you can imagine my delight when I heard of a new film of it, starring Oliver Ford-Davis. Tony Browne, a guest at the dinner party, starts looking further into the death.