NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

tomsview I wanted to see this movie after seeing "Agatha Christie's Marple: Endless Night", which I thought was one of the better Miss Marple movies although the original novel wasn't a Miss Marple story.The story of Michael Rogers, a scheming chauffeur, who dreams of building a spectacular house along the Devon coast, and the people he ensnares to achieve his ends including marrying a beautiful heiress Ellie Thomsen, has darker psychological overtones than many of Agatha Christie's works. However it needed the right touch to translate it to the screen.In the Miss Marple version the tone is right and although Miss Marple is grafted onto proceedings, it all comes together. "Endless Night" is more shrill, and the treatment makes it feel a little old fashioned – except for Britt Ekland's flash of flesh towards the end.But this film does have stars I like. Anyone who grew up with the Disney movies of the 50's and 60s would have to have a soft spot for Hayley Mills. As Ellie Thomsen in "Endless Night" she is grown up, but looks about 10 years younger. Hayley Mills has always looked much younger than her years. I was surprised to read once that she regretted not accepting the role of Lolita in Kubrick's film. Now that may well have eclipsed memories of "Pollyanna" if it had ever taken place.George Sanders plays lawyer, Andrew Lippincott. It's not a big role and it was about his last film. He hardly shifted gears throughout his career but he didn't need to; he lifted every film he was in. His sang-froid contrasts with Hywel Bennett's somewhat hyper performance as Michael Rogers. Britt Ekland is in it too, sexy as Ellie's friend Greta.Letting the film down are some self-conscious photographic effects and a strangely schizophrenic score. The usually brilliant composer, Bernard Hermann, decided to overlay his orchestral score with a Moog Synthesiser. It was all the rage at the time, but nothing dates a movie like the Moog. He wasn't happy with the result and it's easy to hear why.The Miss Marple version is a much slicker production and shows how the story could be nuanced. Over 40 years later, "Endless Night" is a little too manic, but has some intriguing stars that still command attention.

dbdumonteil This is a special case in Agatha Christie's canon .She reportedly wrote it in six weeks and ,coming back to "Roger Acroyd" style ,told her story in the first person by chauffeur Mike ;this is one of her most depressing books ,and the last line is unforgettable,echoing Blake's poem which is mentioned as a foreword.A character ,Ellie's friend Claudia,is ruled out.The detective plot is not unlike that of "death on the Nile",without the exoticism,but with more emotion.The writer also found inspiration in some of her old own short stories "the dream house" (1926) and mainly "the case of the caretaker" (1942 )in which the curse of an old shrew (the character of the movie resembles Christie's depiction) is included.Gilliat worked with Hitchcock as a screenwriter and it shows,not only because Herrmann wrote the score;the pictures of the seaside and the magnificent Gypsy's Acres landscape recall some early scenes in "Vertigo" .So does Mickael's museum visit.There are good ideas in the directing :the "four seasons " dream house ,very modern ,in which Ellie sings her baroque aria ;the death of the architect in the hospital;the characters on the painting,coming to life for the final trial ;it seems that -Hitchcock's influence again- the director wanted an ending à la "psycho" .The stars of "the family way" are here again:Mills and Bennett ; the cast also includes Lois Maxwell (everybody knows as Moneypenny) and George Sanders in his last part.Remade as a MTV work in which Miss Marple -who solved "the case of the caretaker" I mention above -appears .Christie reportedly did not like the hot sex scene.

39-0-13 I just watched Julia McKenzie in the recent adaptation of the Christie novel, inserting Miss Marple where she was originally absent. I clicked on the IMDb and Amazon to learn more about the production and found that there had been a 1971 movie which hewed more closely to the original. A purchase of a used DVD gave me pleasure for my money. It's interesting to see how different script writers turned and twisted the basic story lines and how the movies surprised and shocked the viewer. I won't repeat the comments that have already been said on this forum about this '71 film, but I will emphasize the value of seeing the opening minutes again to pick up fat clues that might be missed on first viewing -- the footsteps heard in the Van Gogh museum and the statement of the mother later that her son had experienced something significant. The movie just seems to sail along making one wonder what the mystery is, what the crime was, until the revelations that suddenly come toward the end. Talk about the technique of the unreliable narrator in mystery stories! By the way, Jon Tuska in his great critical work THE DETECTIVE IN Hollywood casually dismisses this movie as not very good. He's wrong.

scott-palmer2 Endless Night is a very fine, interesting, and unusual film-just like the novel on which it was based. It seems amazing that this under-appreciated film, which follows Christie's novel closely, was never released theatrically in the U.S.Acting is very good for the most part; Hayley Mills is good in a somewhat difficult role, as is Hywel Bennett. These two had starred together in several films over the previous five or six years, and work well together. As always, George Sanders is great, as is Leo Genn in a comparatively small role as a psychiatrist-one wishes both of them had more screen time. Britt Ekland also turns in one of her better performances as Greta.Other actors in the film of note are Peter Bowles, Lois Maxwell, Aubrey Richards, Ann Way, Helen Horton, Walter Gotell and David Bauer. Allso good are Patience Collier as Miss Townsend, and Madge Ryan as Hywel Bennett's mother. Per Oscarsson as architect Santonix is the only weak spot in the cast; he often mumbles his lines and is difficult to understand.Endless Night is a very good film that deserves a lot more attention and recognition than it received at the time of its somewhat limited release. Fortunately it has been released on video and later DVD and is not difficult to find. Fans of Agatha Christie will enjoy it and also anyone who likes a well-made psychological thriller.