Cinema: Case Dismissed

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The Alphabet Murders. A funny thing happens to Tony Randall on his way out of a police station: he meets Margaret Rutherford on her way in. And Miss Rutherford's gag guest appearance as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple is the only thing that is funny about this arch and clumsy attempt to launch Randall as another celebrated Christie character, the Belgian snooper-sleuth Hercule Poirot.

A caustic second banana in sophisticated Hollywood comedies, Randall seems to be trying to corner the Sellers market by donning the masks of the ham-with-a-thousand-faces. Wearing a bald pate and false nose, he pops his eyes, shrugs, affects a stiff little walk and a careful continental accent that slips unexpectedly into stage British—but the mannerisms never add up to the man Poirot. Anita Ekberg as a bosomy psychopath and Robert Morley as a bungling secret service man offer no noticeable help as they spout reams of witless dialogue set to tuba music. By the time the corpse count reaches the letter D, moviegoers hooked on murder-for-fun will find themselves wishing that the blobby Miss Marple had stayed on the case a bit longer.