Murder Is Easy *** (1982, Bill Bixby, Lesley-Anne Down, Olivia de Havilland, Helen Hayes) – Classic Movie Review 9,654

The 1982 crime mystery thriller film Murder Is Easy stars Bill Bixby, Lesley-Anne Down, Olivia de Havilland and Helen Hayes in an atmospheric and good-looking adaptation of a complex 1939 Agatha Christie novel.

Director Claude Whatham’s 1982 crime mystery thriller film Murder Is Easy stars Bill Bixby (as Professor Luke Williams), Lesley-Anne Down (as Bridget Conway), Olivia de Havilland (as Honoria Waynflete) and Helen Hayes (as Lavinia Fullerton).

It is an atmospheric and good-looking adaptation of a complex but only average 1939 Agatha Christie mystery (Murder Is Easy, or aka Easy to Kill), set in a quiet English village once again disturbed by murder most foul.

Bill Bixby as an investigating American tourist doesn’t help, but veteran stars Helen Hayes and Olivia de Havilland do, along with the delicious British cast of Timothy West, Patrick Allen, Shane Briant, Freddie Jones, Leigh Lawson, Jonathan Pryce, Ivor Roberts, Trevor T Smith, Anthony Valentine and Carol McReady.

In this adaptation, Luke is not a retired policeman called Luke Fitzwilliam, as he is in the novel, but an American computer expert professor from MIT on vacation called Luke Williams, who meets a meets a Miss Marple-like old lady, Lavinia Fullerton (Helen Hayes), on a train going to London and she tells him that a killer is stalking her village.

Murder Is Easy is a polished, professional job of work, with first-rate photography by Brian Tufano.

Hayes went on to be a creditable Miss Marple on American TV in two films, Murder with Mirrors (1985) and A Caribbean Mystery (1983).

It was remade in a 2008 adaptation, with the inclusion of Miss Marple (played by Julia McKenzie), which is included in the fourth series of ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Marple. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Luke Fitzwilliam and Shirley Henderson plays Honoria Waynflete.

Murder Is Easy is directed by Claude Whatham, runs 96 minutes, is made by David Wolper-Stan Margulies Productions, CBS Entertainment Production and Warner Bros, is released by CBS (1982) (US) (TV), is written by Carmen Culver, based on the novel by Agatha Christie), is shot by Brian Tufano, is produced by David L Wolper and Stan Margulies, is scored by Gerald Fried, and is designed by Ian Whitaker.

This is Bixby’s only film made outside the US. It was shot on location in England, including London and Oxford.

The two-part British mystery thriller television serial Murder is Easy, adapted by Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre and directed by Meenu Gaur, premieres on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 27 and 28 December 2023. It stars David Jonsson as Fitzwilliam,  Morfydd Clark as Bridget and Penelope Wilton as Miss Pinkerton.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,654

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