Since this TV movie was made every story Christie ever wrote has been reworked into a Marple story, with only the plot, characters, and setting altered. What this Seven Dials Mystery has going for it is that it sticks quite closely to the original novel. Alas, that is about all that can be said in its favour. The old quip, "less than the sum of its parts" sums up the effect of a good cast, excellent locations, some really classic 30's cars, feeble script, evident lack of rehearsal, "don't follow me I'm lost" direction, and clumsy editing aimed more at fitting in the commercial breaks than generating a sense of drama.John Gielgud gives us a splendidly vague yet canny Marquis of Caterhan, while the acclaimed Cheryl Campbell does her best to interpret Lady Eileen 'Bundle' Brent, with little help from the script and presumably none from the director, as the character never really emerges. Stalwarts Harry Andrews, Leslie Sands, and Terence Alexander have easy two dimensional characters to work with and need no direction to be convincing. James Warwick's Jimmy Thesiger bears a disturbing resemblance to a Michael Palin Monty Python character.The standout for me was Lucy Gutteridge, who made Lorraine Wade the only character who I cared about.Checking out the future careers of the actors was far more fun than watching the film itself. Some of the names you only see on the Full Cast and Crew page, such as Roger Sloman, ended up with bigger careers than some of the principals.

"The Seven Dials Mystery" is yet another great mind game from Agatha Christie, which starts out as a rather lighthearted romp, then turns into a fairly simple spy story, but as it approaches the end it takes several 180-degree plot turns that make you re-examine everything you THOUGHT you knew or had taken for granted. These turns also reveal that James Warwick's somewhat exaggerated "jolly-good-British-fellow" performance is actually well-thought-out. As a film, "The Seven Dials Mystery" is flat, paceless, chatter-y and stagy, and although the production is handsome, the fact that it was shot on video makes it look cheaper than it would otherwise. But the strength of Christie's story carries it through - if you're patient. **1/2 out of 4.

The movie gets off to a great start but later the depictions of the secret societies are remarkably silly and cheesy so it lost steam for me. However, the plot twists and surprises are aplenty... the novel was well written! It also is refreshing to see a Christie that isn't Poirot or Miss Marple.Even so, I thought the James Warwick was better suited for his role in "Why didn't they ask Evans" which I gave a 10/10. If you watch only one of the two, I'd choose the latter.Also, I wish Ronny stuck around for longer... I really liked his character!

Personally, I rather enjoyed the whole film put together. The beginning was relatively confusing to people who are not familiar with the British style of doing things, as well as the numerous characters which popped up without proper introductions... There were also several misleading moments whereby the character's portrayal of themselves caused you to wonder if this character is important to the whole plot, yet the character disappears after a while. I rather liked Bundle Brent... She added much mischief and fun to the mystery, which seemed distinctive of an Agatha Christie mystery - the element of witty characters added into the story. The ending is really surprising though. All in all a good mystery, though i do agree that the film is not very well directed.