Sparkling Cyanide is a 1983 television adaptation of the 1945 Agatha Christie novel of the same name. In 1979, Warner Bros signed an agreement with Agatha Christie Ltd to adapt five novels. The first to be released in this set was Murder is Easy in 1982. Sparkling Cyanide was next, although it was not one of the five titles originally envisaged. The TV film was directed by Robert Michael Lewis and produced by Stan Margulies, with a script written by Robert Malcolm Young, Sue Grafton and Steven Humphrey.
The film is set in present day (1980s) California with mostly American characters.
Synopsis[]
The film is a fairly faithful adaptation of Christie's original novel with the location transposed to 1980s Pasadena, California, with a cast of American characters. The relationships between the characters are slightly adjusted in some cases but the main dynamic and premise of the original is retained. As in the original, Rosemary Barton, a wealthy heiress, dies during a dinner party. Her husband believes that one of the other guests at the table must have been the killer. He plans a second dinner party with the original guests with the intention of setting a trap for the killer but ends up being killed himself.
Comparison with original novel[]
- The film is a fairly faithful adaptation of the original with the setting shifted to 1980s Pasadena. The backstories of the main characters intertwine more so than in the novel so that most of the lead characters have some relationship with every other. This does not however affect the main premise or dynamic of the plot in a way which deviates from the original.
- Colonel Race has been omitted but elements of his plot role are given to Eric Kidderminster.
- George Barton is an attorney who is the corporate lawyer for the industrial empire headed by Eric Kidderminster. Barton consults Kidderminster (in place of Race in the original) about his plan to trap Rosemary's killer.
- Captain Kemp is a friend of Eric Kidderminster and also on first name terms with Sandra Farraday. This and the above point allows Kidderminster to play a much larger plot role so that he takes the role of Race in collaborating with the investigation.
- Lucilla Drake's first husband was Paul Bennett. They divorced and she married someone else--Victor Drake is the some of this second marriage.
- Iris Marle is the best friend of Sandra Farraday and this gives Sandra Farraday a slightly larger plot role.
- Lucilla Drake was present at both dinners--unlike the novel where she is never present. This is common to other adaptations. Probably this was done to introduce more plausible suspects.
- Like many other media adaptations, the death of Rosemary is depicted--in the original this was recalled in retrospect.
- George Barton does receive an anonymous note saying that Rosemary did not commit suicide but was killed. Here however we never find out who prepared the note or why.
- The second dinner takes place just a few weeks after the first, not a year later.
- After Rosemary's death, Iris does find a note in Rosemary's dressing gown while packing her things, but this note is not the "leopard" love note to Stephen Farraday. It is a note telling Iris what items she wanted left to Stephen and Sandra in the event of her death. She submits this to Kemp and it served as support for the supposition that Rosemary may have committed suicide. In the book Rosemary did not leave anything to Stephen and Sandra--other friends of hers were named.
- Where in the original, Rosemary's affair with Stephen is hinted at for a long while, the film makes it very prominent by showing the two of them together in an early scene. The affair is well known to many. Eric Kidderminster challenges Stephen about it and we also see George Barton finding a pile of Rosemary's letters early on. There is no "leopard" note, however.
- The attempt to gas Iris at the end is depicted but there is an additional earlier attempt on her life--when a power boat tried to run her down when she was water-skiing, the obligatory action scene for an American television movie. This replaces the attempt to run her down with a car in the novel. In the novel Ruth Lessing drove the car. Here, the police were able to confirm later that the culprit who rented the boat was Victor Drake.
Cast[]
- Anthony Andrews as Tony Browne
- Deborah Raffin as Iris Murdoch
- Pamela Bellwood as Ruth Lessing
- Nancy Marchand as Lucilla Drake
- Josef Sommer as George Barton
- David Huffman as Stephan Farraday
- Christine Belford as Rosemary Barton
- June Chadwick as Sandra Farraday
- Barrie Ingham as Eric Kidderminster
- Harry Morgan as Captain Kemp
- Anne Rogers as Viola Kidderminster
- Michael Woods as Victor Drake
- Shera Danese as Christine Shannon
- Ismael Carlo as Medical Examiner
- Linda Hoy as Boat Manager
- Abby Haman as Cabaret Singer
- Juan Fernandez as bus boy
- Eric Sinclair as Charles
- Uncredited actress as Chloe West
In addition, IMDb lists a large number of uncredited extras who were the party guests or who played other ancillary roles.
Filming locations[]
- Arden Villa - 1145 Arden Road, Pasadena, California, USA - the Kidderminster house