Doesn't look like this ever got answered, however I am running into the same issue.

debug does throw up a flag:
MISC:DOS:0x37:Call for not supported switchchar

I've had this same issue as well, but with the installer. The DOS install, similar to the issue with the game listed by Joeyxp2, just goes to a black screen. I ended up having to find a rip online to be able to play. The game itself, at least in the rip version I found, played fine.

The install program exits (can tell from DOSBox's title bar) leaving the screen blank, but you can run the CLS command (typed blindly) to see the prompt again.

The installer tries to determine a default language through the active code page by redirecting output of CHCP to a file. CHCP is a Windows console program, and the redirection file can't be created on a read-only cdrom. I'm not sure how it was supposed to work. CHCP doesn't have to exist, but creating the redirection file must succeed or the installer bails out.

Simple workaround: create a folder on the emulated C: drive other than the intended install target (which defaults to C:\POPPLE), copy all of the files from the root dir of the cdrom into this folder, then run the installer from there. This allows the redirection file to be created, which satisfies the installer, although it will prompt you for the language because it couldn't be determined automatically. The install source folder can be deleted when installation is complete.

BTW, it seems that if you want sound in the movies then you have to let the installer copy the "visual" elements to HD, which consumes more disk space. I think this is because the game can't stream video from the disc and play cdaudio at the same time.

wasn't CHCP an internal DOS command going back to the first version that supported code pages? (3.3 and above, google says).

CHCP is indeed an internal command in MS-DOS, but was made external in Windows "DOS". Calling INT 21/6601 would be a far easier way to get the active code page; and unlike trying to create a redirection file on a cdrom disc it would actually work...

On further inspection it seems the installer basically just copies files for the DOS version of the game, so you can manually copy the disc root dir to C:\POPPLE and rename files with .EX_ extensions to .EXE extensions. Some of the files are for Windows only, but it's not hard to figure out which.

Does renaming them work, or would you need to use the expand command?

Using the install procedure I described first removes any guesswork; but if you decide to manually copy files for some reason then the .EX_ files should be renamed to .EXE just as I wrote, they are not compressed.