Teresa Reviews Rendezvous with Death (2019)

Teresa Reviews Rendezvous with Death (2019) and was shocked to discover the second-best adaptation behind the Japanese version.

Available on: YouTube Premium Channel (subscription)
Fidelity to text: 3 stranglers

The motive, the backstory, the abusive Mrs. Boynton, and her victimized family with an extra body thrown in. And a dog.

Quality of movie: 4 stranglers

Surprisingly funny, with a satisfying, character-appropriate love story, and Grand Guignol theatrics.

Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.

Also, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movie on her podcast.

When Les Petits Meurtres rises to this level, it makes their other episodes even more disappointing. The production company can take a classic Agatha, with one of her great villains, and turn it into a good film. This adaptation, despite its unevenness and plot holes, delivers the chills, the thrills, and all the feelz.

This is my fourth film adaptation of Appointment with Death (1938). Which is the best? Why, the Japanese version in 2021, naturally, with Mansai Nomura. It is superb. Then, believe it or not, comes this version. Shocking, I know, considering how often Les Petits Meurtres reaches for greatness and then falls flat on its face. That leaves Peter Ustinov’s mediocre version (1988) in third place, and bringing up the awful rear, because it was a truly awful film, David Suchet’s version in 2009.

If you know the novel, you’ll recognize the film’s plot beats. You’ll probably immediately figure out who the murderer is, simply because he fits the profile outlined in Appointment; a prominent person with far too much to lose and a past he doesn’t discuss.

You’ll identify the venomous Clémence Berg as future murder victim #1 and my goodness does she deserve it! But you’ll be wrong. The first murder victim, in a sadly underwritten part, is that of Clémence’s abused maid, Mélie.

Why was Mélie wearing Clémence’s clothes (shades of Peril at End House)? Why did she travel with Clémence and the family from Guyana to France? What diabolical hold does Clémence have over her? You won’t get answers but you can safely assume that evil Clémence forced the maid to come with her. After the maid’s body is found, Clémence excuses herself from Laurence’s list of suspects because she does not murder her toys, telling you everything you need to know about the relationship between mistress and maid.

Clémence’s family is downsized from the novel to Philippe (Lennox), his wife Caroline (Nadine), Louis (Raymond), and Suzanne (Ginevra). Peripheral characters like Jefferson Cope are dispensed with entirely. As with the Japanese adaption, but unlike the other two, you can tell her children have been emotionally abused since the day they were born. You’ll also wonder why Caroline married Philippe. Since the film doesn’t address it, you can assume Clémence hired Caroline as a live-in nurse and she fell in love with Phillippe, married him, and is now as trapped as her husband and his siblings. She’s the one administering shots to her hated mother-in-law to keep her alive. It’s her hypodermic syringe that’s stolen to lace Clémence’s chocolates with arsenic.

You won’t recognize Marcel, the scruffy mongrel who demonstrates that Laurence has a heart and is probably a very lonely man under his “I hate the world because it doesn’t meet my high standards” exterior. Marcel belonged to Tricard’s dead mother; owner of the hotel now fallen on hard times. It’s at the funeral of Tricard’s mother that you meet his hated and feared older sister, Clémence. Tricard never mentioned her and you’ll soon figure out why. She was the bane of his youth.

Clémence shows up at the funeral to make sure she gets her share of the inheritance and to find new people to persecute. Maybe she was driven out of Guyana when she pissed off the wrong person, but again, you won’t be told. She apparently has money of her own, via her late husband, the prison warden. But she wants more and is very angry to learn she inherits virtually nothing. Even the hotel handyman gets more, with a car and an annuity.

Clémence instantly loathes Marcel the dog and does not want Suzanne or Louis to befriend him. She wants hotel handyman Roger to murder the dog. But Marcel is a smart dog! He not only avoids death but provides Laurence with a clue to the first murder. Later, he provides a clue to the second murder. He recognizes Laurence needs a faithful dog and moves in as only a sad-eyed, fluffy little scrap can. Laurence does his best to resist Marcel’s charms but fails.

Laurence must also resist Clémence who’s instantly taken by that tall, dark, handsome arm of the law. She even fakes a poisoning by arsenic-laced chocolates to give him a reason to come out to the hotel and flirt with her. But all the passion is one-sided; she pursues and he flees in disgust and horror.

It’s radically different from the other romances woven into the plot.

You’ll be charmed by the gentle bond that develops between two very lonely people, Ernest Tricard and Arlette Carmouille. You’ll be amused at how deftly, gently, Marlène tells Louis no, despite how he yearns for her and how Laurence needs her to find clues to the murder. You’ll be glad when you see Philippe and Caroline reconnect, even though their story was woefully under told.

You’ll be amused and annoyed by the production company once again bringing up Avril’s psychic abilities without exploring the implications. She infiltrates the hotel to work as a maid and to prevent Clémence’s murder, which she can “see,” even though she loathes the woman. Laurence needs her there because he, like everyone else, can see impending doom and death. Having Marlène and Avril report overhearing Louis and Suzanne discussing murdering their mother is all the warning he needs. Clémence may need murdering to bring happiness to everyone around her, but it’s still illegal.

For her part, Clémence is delighted to have a new toy to torment. She gets Avril to put a cap over her red hair, but Avril has the last laugh: she uses a sunny yellow swim cap instead of the maid’s cap the harridan was expecting.

While at the hotel, Avril sees repeated visions of Clémence’s death; death by poker, death by poisoned brains, death by gunshot. It’s funny in a wonderful, Grand Guignol way. But once again, despite her obvious paranormal abilities, nothing comes of it.

Avril also gets to know Suzanne, the youngest Berg, and is she a weirdy. She’ll end up insane if mom lives but with mom murdered, she’s got a fighting chance at a normal life. Suzanne discovers her mother’s bloodied body, face bashed in, sitting by the lake. As you’d expect, Philippe, Louis, and Caroline rally to protect her. They clam up, willing to be implicated in the murder.

What makes the trauma of their hated mother’s death even more heartfelt is Tricard, the uncle they barely knew existed, also lets himself be blamed to save his niece. He, as Laurence points out, must vividly remember what it was like to be a child and bullied unmercifully by Clémence. Does this get in the way of his budding romance with Arlette Carmouille? It does, but she — showing her own character — can’t believe Ernest Tricard murdered his hated sister. He’s not that kind of man.

The murderer is that kind of man. He regrets murdering the maid by accident. You can see his rage when his past returns with a vengeance. Before he can do the deed, Clémence cheats him by dying of a heart attack in front of him, and he still bashes her head in. She was that kind of woman; enraging and terrifying everyone around her. This adaption does her justice.