shakspryn 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.

nmoore-16 The Man in the Brown Suit is one of those Agatha Christie TV movies that gets overlooked. But the production values are quite high for a TV of that period, the locations are sumptuous and the cast are pretty well known (Tony Randall, Edward Woodward, Stephanie Zimbalist to name a few)and the story is quite fun. A young woman in search of adventure gets involved in mystery on an exotic cruise. This isn't Schindlers List - and nor should it be. Its enjoyable Sunday afternoon fluff thats worth catching if you want something light to watch. Okay whoever adapted it for film has made some slight changes from the book, but you can let that go if you have something really intriguing to hang on to.Ladies...for Man in the Brown Suit, that thing is Simon Dutton.He's all sexy intensity and piercing eyes - absolutely wonderful if you are curling up on the sofa with a glass of wine and a yen for a little romance. He's not on screen that much (sadly) but when he is, he's terrific. Some of the other performances are a little hammy, but you get the impression Mr D is actually making an effort to turn in a good performance and as such (for my money anyway), he steals the film. He's charismatic and gorgeous and you can see why he got cast as 'The Saint'.If you like Agatha Christie or if you like your men dark and mysterious check out this movie.

Voyeur_Femme This is definitely nostalgic and reminiscent of those great unreal late 70s mystery-dramas, but this is IN NO WAY related to the Christie's book. The book is set in the early 1920s and deals with an orphan who spends her last few dollars to travel by ship to South Africa after witnessing an accident in the tube station and finding a scrap of paper (referencing the ship) on his body. This '89 version could have held its own as a made for TV piece and need not try to take credit as any sort of adaptation of the novel - because it definitely isn't. There are some great moments in this one though - the crossdresser is great but Zimbalist is FAR too precocious and the plot is ridiculous (it's filled with unreal 70s style nonsense - getting on the wrong plane by accident and ending up in Egypt for one, among others.) But all in all, it's cute if you like that early 80s made-for-TV mystery. And, incidentally, UK TV plays it periodically so even if you didn't tape it off American TV in 1989, you could still catch it from time to time in England.

Movie_Man 500 First off, the book is better than this. And second off, Tony Randall all but kills the mystery with his dorky obvious disguises. Rue McClanahan is the only spritely member of the dull cast, which is put thru the bland predictable motions that again, are less romantic and adventurous than the novel. Miscast Stephanie Zimbalist is more irritating here than she was in Remington Steel, which I didn't think was possible.... Should have had a spunky Brit in the lead, but oh well, can't have everything, can we?