Thirteen at Dinner
Thirteen at Dinner is a 1985 British-American mystery film featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and adapted from the Agatha Christie novel Lord Edgware Dies.
Cast:
Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot
Faye Dunaway as Jane Wilkinson / Carlotta Adams
Jonathan Cecil as Arthur Hastings
Bill Nighy as Ronald Marsh
Diane Keen as Jenny Driver
David Suchet as Inspector James Japp
John Stride as Film Director
Benedict Taylor as Donald Ross
Lee Horsley as Bryan Martin
Allan Cuthbertson as Sir Montague Corner
John Barron as Lord George Edgware
Lesley Dunlop as Alice Bennett
Avril Elgar as Miss Carroll
Amanda Pays as Geraldine Marsh
John Quarmby as Sir Montague's Butler
Pamela Salem as Mrs. Wildburn
Lou Antonio as Movie Producer
David Frost as Himself
Tony Hawks as Man in Background at party
Differences from the book:
- While the novel takes place in the '30s, the film is set in the' 80s.
- In the novel, Jane Wilkinson asks Poirot to talk to her husband, approaching him while he is having dinner in a restaurant with Captain Hastings. In the film, however, asks him during a dinner at home.
- In the novel it is Carlotta Adams, as she plays Jane Wilkinson, to get up first from the table where thirteen people are seated. Donald Ross is instead in the film.
- The ending of the novel is slightly different: in the last chapter, before her execution, Jane Wilkinson writes a letter to Poirot where she explains how she committed her crimes. In the film this does not happen and is in any case made to imply that the woman will spend many years in prison without going to the gallows.
Curiosity
In Thirteen at Dinner we can see a young David Suchet interpreting the Inspector Japp. David Suchet will later became very famous for his role as Hercules Poirot in the television serie.
