The Man in the Brown Suit (1989)

This could have been a lot better. Stephanie Zimbalist and Simon Dutton are good as the leads with romantic sparks. The rest of the cast is good, but the script does not give them much chance to show their talents.The main problem is with the pacing. The set-up to the story is interesting, but the action really drags at times, especially near the end. On the plus side, this is a basically enjoyable little movie, and a reminder of the now-vanished art form of the network TV-movie! I think it would have been more fun, had the producers chosen to set it in the 1920's or 1930's, prime Agatha Christie periods; but perhaps budget issues made them make it contemporary.Bottom line: a modest, fairly enjoyable light mystery with some humor, and two leads with charm. Not a standout mystery film, but not bad.

***SPOILERS*** Much too confusing and complicated in watching the first time around movie that has to do with diamond smugglers globe hopping operation from Africa to Europe to South America with this man in a brown suit Harry Lucas, Simon Dutton,having something to do with all this mysterious goings on. It's Lucas who was spotted by American tourist Anne Beddingfeld, Stephanie Zimbalist,in Cairo Egypt at the airport where she witnessed a fatal car accident. It' turns out that the person who tried to come to the accident victim's aid was non other then Harry Lucas who after going through his jacket suddenly checked out of sight. Playing detective Anne soon runs into all kinds of troubles where she ends up on a ocean cruise to Africa and then is kidnapped and threatened with death by the Colonel, the mystery man in the movie, as well as ends up exposing a major diamond smuggling ring run out of South America with white South African hoods.It's Anne together with her dizzy friend Suzy Blair, Rue McClanahan, as well as Lucas who track down who's behind this smuggle ring-The Colonel-but only after a number of member of the cast end up getting murdered by him and one of his henchman Rev. Edward Chichester played by Tony Randall in a Doctor Strangelove-paying three different people-type role. As for Anne herself she escapes to murder attempts herself one on the cruise boat and another on land when the killer, The Rev- rolled a one ton bolder in her direction that had her fall almost to her death down a waterfall. ****SPOILERS****We also have the CIA involved in all this in that one of the characters in the film and the person who everyone thinks is the Colonel is working for the agency and uses both Anne and Lucas to expose the smuggler as well as killer. The not so unpredictable ending has to killer blow his cover in feeling he'll never get caught only to have the wool or rug pulled from under him and leave him, by losing his firearm, in a helpless situation. As for Anne and Lucas, who's really an English Barron, they decide to get married with Suzy, who been married six times before, taking off with the CIA agent who developed the hots for Suzy the moment he first saw her!

For major fans of the book (such as I), you will be extremely disappointed in the movie. I watched it for 15 minutes and was done. I was hoping to see an adventure film set in the early 1920's with Anne being portrayed as a young, charming, and clever girl on her first adventure who encounters romance and thrills. The movie is nothing like this. It is set in late eighties/early nineties and every detail from the book has been thoroughly twisted and overdone. I am truly disappointed. It is true that my opinion stems largely from the fact that The Man In The Brown Suit is my favorite book of all time, and I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie. When I saw this DVD in the library, I was absolutely shocked that it existed and could not wait to go home and find the time to watch it. For those of you who have not read the book...I'm at a loss for words due to my own biased opinion except to say the acting is cheesy and there is nothing quaint or cute about this film at all.

Rue McClanahan as her trademark southern matron on-the-make teams with Stephanie Zimbalist, an American photographer seeking adventure in this "Perils of Pauline" style of pot boiler. Complete with CIA agent -- Ken Howard, wealthy British heavy -- Edward Woodward, and Christie's standard "red herring" the bumbling Tony Randall, who performs in both clerical garb and drag, combine to be entertaining in this Agatha Christie mystery. Zimbalist manages to cross Eastern Africa without luggage but with occasional change of wardrobe -- including a flashy harem girl costume on a boat that moves north along the coast of Africa, when the plot says it's going south. In the style of Hollywood "B" of an earlier age, it comes off funky and cute.