Teresa Reviews The Four Suspects (1990)

Teresa reviews The Four Suspects (1990) and found despite the gang gunplay to be a dull tale of revenge and romance.

(c)2024 by Teresa Peschel

Fidelity to text: 4 stairs

It’s mostly there, including the framing device of Sir Henry telling the gang a story.

Quality of film: 2 1/2 stairs

Maddeningly static considering the gunfire, assassinations, car chases, and so forth.

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

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

Having a group of people sit around and tell mysteries isn’t the best format, even for print. The reader is distanced from the mystery. You know it will end okay for the teller because they’re alive to tell the tale. You don’t meet the people involved so you don’t care about them.

Transforming this narrative structure to film does not improve it. If anything, it’s worse. We open with Miss Marple, Sir Henry, Dr. Lloyd, and Col and Mrs. Bantry sitting outside having tea. It’s cold! The wind is blowing, they’re wearing heavy coats, you can practically see their breath on the air. As soon as Sir Henry starts on his story about the four suspects, Miss Marple — sensible as always — has everyone move indoors.

Sir Henry continues and this is where the action comes in. The Black Hand indulges in gunbattles, assassinations, car chases, and other kinds of mayhem. Dr. Rosen bravely goes undercover to infiltrate them to get everyone arrested and jailed and The Black Hand permanently disbanded.

Then it’s back to the gang sitting around, with flashes of the four suspects, one of whom must have murdered Dr. Rosen. Any one of the four could have done it but why wait five months? How was the message to kill sent? And most importantly for Sir Henry and Miss Marple is the question of who will live the rest of their lives under a cloud of suspicion. The three innocents will always suspect each other and so will everyone else. Charles Templeton and Greta Rosen can’t trust each other. Housekeeper Greta and Gardener Dobbs may never find work again.

Fortunately, Miss Marple and Dolly Bantry are gardeners. The solution was simplified because the Estonian word for death needs different flower names, nor is it mentioned (criminal!) that the flowers in question are dahlias.

This is the only version of “The Four Suspects” you’ll get so even without dahlias, you may want to watch it.