David Suchet Movies
Known mostly for portraying Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot for more than a decade, the short and stocky character actor David Suchet has also enjoyed a lengthy career on stage, screen, and television. Born in London, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and eventually joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Throughout the 1970s, Suchet appeared in numerous stage productions and crime dramas on British television. His did his first film in 1980 with A Tale of Two Cities, but didn't play his first detective until the crime comedy Trenchcoat in 1983. For the rest of the '80s, the British actor played a Middle Eastern terrorist in The Little Drummer Girl, a Russian operative in The Falcon and the Snowman, and a French hunter in Harry and the Hendersons. He also occasionally portrayed real-life figures, including Sigmund Freud in the miniseries Freud, news reporter William L. Shirer in the HBO docudrama Murrow, and movie legend Louis B. Mayer in RKO 281. While the Poirot mysteries would dominate his career in the '90s, Suchet also played some other leading roles: double agent Verloc in miniseries The Secret Agent, based on the novel by Joseph Conrad; Aaron in the TNT television special Moses; and downsized New Yorker Oliver in the American independent film Sunday. Some standard Hollywood action thrillers followed with Executive Decision, Deadly Voyage, and A Perfect Murder being just a few. After 2000, he turned to costume dramas to play Napoleon in Sabotage!, Baron von Stockmar in Victoria & Albert, and upper-crust Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now. He resumed the role of Poirot (after a short break from 1998-1999) just as he started up another detective character, DI John Borne of NCS: Manhunt and NCS 2. In 2003, he played gangster Leo Gillette in the action thriller Foolproof. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 2008
Documentary filmmaker Kevin P. Miller (We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom) takes an illuminating look at the increasingly prolific use of mood-altering drugs among youth in this incendiary film that ponders both the long-term effects on the individual, as well as the troubling implications it may have on our society as a whole. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
Discover the true story behind author A.A. Milne's beloved children's character in this tale of the remarkable friendship between a Canadian soldier, and the cub that stood as a symbol of friendship and hope in a world plagued by war. It was during the early days of World War I that 34th Fort Garry Horse Division veterinarian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn (Michael Fassbinder) purchased a small bear cub and named her Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. Though Coleburn's fellow soldiers repeatedly warn the Lieutenant against taking Winnie with him to the gathering point in Valcartier, Quebec where Canadian soldiers are gathering to be shipped overseas, the presence of the young cub among the troops serves as a ray of hope to the soldiers faced with the prospect of war. After traveling with the soldiers to Salisbury Plain in England, Winnie is placed in the care of the London Zoo when Harry's regiment is shipped off to fight in France. As the specter of war looms heavy in the conscience of the citizens and children of London, Winnie becomes the star attraction at the zoo. When a man named A.A. Milne brings his young son to visit the zoo, the story of the bear and her friendship with a far away soldier inspires him to create one of the most beloved characters in the history of children's literature. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
David Suchet once again plays the part of Hercule Poirot in this adaptation of Death on the Nile. The detective must investigate the murder of Linnet Doyle, one of the wealthiest women in England. She is killed while on honeymoon with her new husband, who was once the fiancée of Doyle's best friend. The friend is just one of the many suspects who would gain from Doyle's untimely demise. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
A harmless game among friends escalates into a dangerous game of wits against a master criminal in writer/director William Phillips' taut sophomore thriller. For seven years, Kevin (Ryan Reynolds), Samantha (Kristin Booth), and Rob (Joris Jarsky) have mastered the homespun game Foolproof, in which they plan -- but never actually execute -- a series of elaborate, high-tech heists. When ruthless British gangster Leo arrives in town to case an upcoming diamond heist, his suspicions of the three harmless role-players soon lead him to believe he has some competition. Stealing their plans for the heist and pulling off the crime without a hitch, Leo subsequently threatens to implicate the trio with the crime lest they pull off an exceptionally tricky heist for him. As the three friends fall prey to the seasoned criminal and police soon begin to catch their scent, Kevin, Samantha, and Rob must use all of their resources to make it out of the daring heist alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan Reynolds, David Suchet, (more)
The life of one of Great Britain's most influential and feared monarchs is dramatized in this lavish production, originally produced for British television. King Henry VIII (Ray Winstone) is a shrewd but ruthless ruler who is determined to sire a male heir who will succeed him on the throne. However, his wife, Catherine of Aragon (Assumpta Serna), after numerous attempts, is only able to bear him a daughter, so the king takes a mistress, Anne Boleyn (Helena Bonham Carter), in hopes she will give him a son. Anne Boleyn cleverly insists that she must wed the king if they are to have a child, and when the Catholic Church forbids Henry's request for a divorce, the king responds by forming his own denomination, the Church of England, which he will oversee himself. One of the king's most trusted advisers, Cardinal Wolsey (David Suchet) attempts to convince Henry that this is folly; Henry sentences him to death, and sends him to the Tower of London to await his sentence. Despite these machinations, Anne Boleyn is unable to give Henry the son he wants, and the king decides she will pay with her life for this failing. As Henry becomes increasingly ruthless in his dealings with those close to him -- as well as other nations -- he leaves a bloody wake as he uses beheading as his favored means of dealing with troublesome wives and untrustworthy allies. The cast also includes Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Emilia Fox, and Emily Blunt; Henry VIII first aired in the United States as part of PBS's award-winning anthology series Masterpiece Theatre. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Winstone
Agatha Christie's Belgian detective solves another case in the A&E mystery Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia. Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) takes a trip to the Middle East to visit his old friend, Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser). While he is vacationing, Poirot is asked to investigate when an archeologist is suspected of killing his wife. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
First filmed as a theatrical feature in 1982, Agatha Christie's 1940 mystery novel Evil Under the Sun was remade as a two-hour episode of the off-and-on British TV series Poirot. David Suchet is back as the infuriatingly brilliant and fussy Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who after suffering a fainting spell at a posh restaurant is whisked off to a fancy health resort along the Devon Coast. As he recuperates, Poirot is able to relax, secure in the belief that he can give his sleuthing a bit of a well-deserved result. Alas, this is not to be. Another guest at the resort, a world-famous actress, is murdered -- and virtually everyone else in the vicinity had both motive and opportunity to do the dirty deed. First telecast in the U.K. in 2001. Evil Under the Sun made its America bow on July 13, 2003, courtesy of the A&E cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, (more)
As America geared itself for another possible armed conflict in Iraq, the HBO cable service offered a dramatization of events surrounding the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Originally telecast on December 8, 2002, Live From Baghdad recounted the efforts by the CNN network to be first on the scene when hostilities broke out in the Gulf in late 1990. Inaugurating round-the-clock coverage of the warfare with the invasion of Kuwait, dauntless CNN producers Robert Wiener (Michael Keaton) and Ingrid Formanek (Helena Bonham Carter), aided and abetted by on-the-scene reporters Bernard Shaw (Robert Wisdom), Peter Arnett (Bruce McGill), and John Holliman (John Carroll Lynch), among many others, represented the only American news service on the scene during the first night of bombing on January 16, 1991. Not only does Live From Baghdad celebrate the heroism (and meticulous fairness) of the CNN crew, but it also vividly demonstrates how a tiny but tenacious basic cable channel managed to out-scoop the Big Three networks, thereby becoming one of the most powerful and influential journalistic forces in the world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, (more)
The six-part British miniseries The Way We Live Now was adapted from the satirical 1875 novel by Anthony Trollope. The central character was Augustus Melmotte (David Suchet), a mysterious international financier of questionable parentage. Invading the uppermost circles of Victorian society, Melmotte inveigled a considerable number of prominent Londoners in a spectacular get-rich-quick scheme. Among those involved were the Carburys, an aristocratic but cash-poor family anxious to recoup their fortunes by whatever means necessary. Details essential to the plot include the somewhat one-sided romance between Melmotte's rebellious daughter Marie (Shirley Henderson) and caddish Sir Felix Cadbury (Matthew MacFadyen), the exploits of an American adventuress (Miranda Otto) with a predilection for shooting her lovers, and a high-born author of trashy romance novels. Though written in the late 19th century, the story line had a queasily contemporary significance to those burned by such financial peccadillos as the Enron scandal in the early 21st century. Originally telecast by the BBC beginning November 11, 2001, The Way We Live Now was shown in America (as a four-parter) on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre starting April 1, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet, Matthew MacFadyen, (more)
- 2001
- Add Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles to QueueAdd Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles to top of Queue
Agatha Christie introduced one of her most famous characters, idiosyncratic Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, in her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and David Suchet, who has played Poirot in a number of films produced for British television, takes the character back to his beginnings in this screen adaptation. Poirot, newly arrived in England, is introduced to John Cavendish (David Rintoul), a close friend of Poirot's old comrade-in-arms, Arthur Hastings (Hugh Fraser). There's been recent controversy in the Cavendish household; John's widowed mother has recently remarried, and her new husband has made more than a few enemies among her family and friends. When Mrs. Cavendish is found murdered, police inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) is brought in to investigate, and the gifted Poirot is soon lending his much-needed skills in ferreting out the identity of the killer. Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles first aired in the United States as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery! ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 2000
French history gets turned upside down in this lavishly mounted comedy with an international cast. As Napoleon (David Suchet) prepares for the Battle of Waterloo, he's nearly killed by an assassin. The attempted murder is foiled by Corporal Armani (Dominique Pinon), and a grateful Napoleon promotes the soldier to Field Marshal, not realizing that the rescue was a happy accident rather than an act of heroism, or that Armani's ineptitude will cost him dearly later on. Meanwhile, Napoleon is looking for inside information on the Duke of Wellington (Stephen Fry); accordingly, he is happy to make the acquaintance of Lady Edwina (Alexandra Vandernoot), who claims to be a French spy with some major dirt on the British command. Napoleon is smitten with the comely intelligence agent and soon they're enjoying a fling, but what he doesn't know is that she's actually working with the British to uncover information on the diminutive French ruler. When Edwina beats a hasty retreat, Napoleon thinks foul play is afoot, and he decides to follow her, disguising himself as a peasant woman to avoid suspicion. Though set in France and directed by Spanish filmmakers, Sabotage! was shot in English with an eye toward the American market. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Fry, David Suchet, (more)
- 2000
After Inspector Japp is called upon to investigate the strange disappearance of a wealthy banker, Poirot (David Suchet) makes a five-quid wager with Japp that he can solve the mystery without even leaving his flat. After Hastings is dispatched on a number of bizarre errands, Poirot figures out the solution to the case. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 2000
During a Monopoly match with Hastings, Poirot is interrupted by an aristocratic banker to investigate the disappearance of a client. The client, who was supposed to sell the bank a map to a lucrative silver mine, is found murdered, and a young stockbroker is implicated in the crime. Poirot works his way through a convoluted web of clues to confront the killer at an opium den. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 2000
Poirot is reluctantly persuaded by an Australian mining magnate to investigate a French count who happens to be the latest suitor of the magnate's daughter. Together with Hastings, Poirot observes the count at tea with the young woman, and watches as the count shows her some bearer bonds he claims to be carrying for the Bank of Paris, his new employer. Following a fateful train trip, the case takes on the status of murder mystery, with the count as its prime suspect. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 2000
At a garden party he is attending with Hastings and Japp, Poirot (David Suchet) meets a young writer who happens to be the son of an old friend. The young man introduces Poirot to his fiancée. While jokingly reading the tea leaves in the young woman's cup, the sleuth sees something disturbing. Central to the trouble he foresees is a large wasps' nest in the young writer's garden. Together with Hastings and Japp, Poirot works to unravel the mystery before him. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 2000
When an arrogant FBI agent who has come to London to investigate the case of a nightclub singer-turned-spy dismisses Poirot (David Suchet) as a "gumshoe," Poirot is rather unimpressed. He finds himself getting involved in the case after meeting a couple who seem to have gotten a too-good-to-be-true deal on a primo apartment, and soon finds himself dodging the bullets of Mafia assassins who are also after the spy. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 2000
Poirot (David Suchet) is called in to investigate a bank manager's close call with a hit-and-run driver. The manager, it turns out, has been chosen by the bank to carry a $1 million in Liberty bonds to New York on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary. Someone is obviously out to stop him, and it's up to Poirot to brave his own sea sickness and find out who. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 1997
Writer-director Jonathan Nossiter's first feature film is a moody exploration of assaults upon, and shifts in, personal identity. The movie's action all takes place on a Sunday in a poor section of the New York City borough of Queens. Oliver (David Suchet) is a newly homeless middle-aged man who was downsized out of his job as a mid-level functionary at a computer corporation and lost his wife and family because of his employment troubles. Out walking in the borough, Oliver collides with Madeleine Vesey (Lisa Harrow), an out-of-work British actress who is in the process of breaking up with her American husband, Ben (Larry Pine). Madeleine mistakes Oliver for Matthew Delacorta, a famous film director, and Oliver goes along with the mistake, hoping that it will help him to escape his misery. Madeleine hopes that she can make an impression that will land her a film role, so she invites her new friend up to her apartment. When Oliver tells her his life story, she mistakes it for an invented movie plot because Madeleine lives her life in a fantasy world, pretending reality is a film. After the two lost souls have sex without emotion, Ben shows up. He tells Oliver that his recent open-heart surgery wounds were caused by a knife attack from Madeleine. Oliver leaves as the estranged couple argues, but he returns to retrieve his precious winter coat, and he becomes further entangled in the fantasy of a new identity. Sunday won the Grand Jury prize at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet, Lisa Harrow, (more)
Previously adapted for British television in 1976, Edith Nesbit's 1904 children's novel The Phoenix and the Carpet was again brought to the small screen by the BBC beginning November 16, 1997. The plot remained the same, with five Victorian-era children coming into possession of an enchanted carpet and a magical egg, which hatched into a garrulous Phoenix. David Suchet of Poirot fame was heard as the Phoenix's voice this time out. Dramatized by Helen Creswell, this version of The Phoenix and the Carpet ran for six 30-minute episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Fox, Ivan Berry, (more)
The life of the reluctant Old Testament prophet is told in this made-for-television biblical drama. When the Pharaoh Ramses calls for the death of all Hebrew children, a mother puts her son Moses in a basket and sends him down the Nile to save his life. The baby is found by a princess and raised as the heir to the family throne. Called upon by God, the hesitant Moses (Ben Kingsley) accepts the challenge to lead his enslaved people out of Egypt for what becomes a 40-year journey into the promised land. This extravagant production was nominated for the "Outstanding Mini-Series" Emmy. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
David Suchet stars as the fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in this made-for-TV adaptation of the classic mystery by Agatha Christie. A killer is on the loose who is toying with the great sleuth by sending him a series of letters in which he announces when and where his next crime will occur. Can Poirot discover who is the criminal and determine his motive before he kills again? Poirot: The ABC Murders was originally aired in the U.S. on the PBS series Mystery! The supporting cast includes Philip Jackson as Inspector Japp and Hugh Frasier as Capt. Hastings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Suchet, Hugh Frasier, (more)
