The Fourth Man is an unusual Agatha Christie story. It is a psychological even a a supernatural story delving into a character being possessed.
Raoul Letardau (John Nettles) joins three men in a train compartment to discuss the suicide of a young woman. She strangled herself as she suffered from some kind of multiple personality disorder.
The other men on the train are a doctor, a lawyer and a priest who are left intrigued by the story Raoul recalls. Raoul is a journalist who was present at the lecture the doctor gave. He also knew two women involved in this case since childhood.
Raoul made friends with Felicie and Annette when they were both girls. Annette was clever, pretty and talented. When she grew up she enchanted everyone as a performer but illness cut her life short.
Felice was hardworking and strong. She was not pretty and used to be cruelly mocked by Annette. Time after time Annette could dominate Felice, even after her death.
It took a while to get the story going. I was also distracted because the actresses playing the young girls were clearly too old for the roles. Although they would later also play the older Felicie and Annette.
It needed to be more surefooted at the beginning although it did get better as the story went on. A rather bold story from Christie.
are sharing a compartment in a night train, enjoying some casual conversation along the way. Their order is disrupted by a fourth passenger in the same compartment, who was present at the doctor's latest lecture, and tells them a personal but also related story of growing up, dual personalities, and possible murder. His story is quite absorbing, and his small audience, as well as the bigger one watching this movie, is carried along, trying to guess where it's going. When it arrives at its destination, the nature of the story is left ambiguous: is it about supernatural "possession"? A strong personality dominating a weak one? A girl with excellent acting abilities that has been fooling everyone? This is yet another Agatha Christie tale which shows how ahead of her time she was in many ways, like her questioning and challenging of the "established" authorities in both the religious and the scientific fields. Exceptionally well-cast, unusual and haunting episode. *** out of 4.
Raoul Letardau (John Nettles) joins three men in a train compartment to discuss the suicide of a young woman. She strangled herself as she suffered from some kind of multiple personality disorder.
The other men on the train are a doctor, a lawyer and a priest who are left intrigued by the story Raoul recalls. Raoul is a journalist who was present at the lecture the doctor gave. He also knew two women involved in this case since childhood.
Raoul made friends with Felicie and Annette when they were both girls. Annette was clever, pretty and talented. When she grew up she enchanted everyone as a performer but illness cut her life short.
Felice was hardworking and strong. She was not pretty and used to be cruelly mocked by Annette. Time after time Annette could dominate Felice, even after her death.
It took a while to get the story going. I was also distracted because the actresses playing the young girls were clearly too old for the roles. Although they would later also play the older Felicie and Annette.
It needed to be more surefooted at the beginning although it did get better as the story went on. A rather bold story from Christie.
are sharing a compartment in a night train, enjoying some casual conversation along the way. Their order is disrupted by a fourth passenger in the same compartment, who was present at the doctor's latest lecture, and tells them a personal but also related story of growing up, dual personalities, and possible murder. His story is quite absorbing, and his small audience, as well as the bigger one watching this movie, is carried along, trying to guess where it's going. When it arrives at its destination, the nature of the story is left ambiguous: is it about supernatural "possession"? A strong personality dominating a weak one? A girl with excellent acting abilities that has been fooling everyone? This is yet another Agatha Christie tale which shows how ahead of her time she was in many ways, like her questioning and challenging of the "established" authorities in both the religious and the scientific fields. Exceptionally well-cast, unusual and haunting episode. *** out of 4.