Air date: 17/01/1993
Published: Sixth story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)
The fifth series of Agatha Christie's Poirot returned to the format of one-hour adaptations of short stories.
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb is one of several Poirot stories that reflect the author's personal interest in archaeology.
In the original Hastings is narrating. He records how, following the opening of the tomb of King Men-her-Ra in the Egyptian desert, expedition leader Sir John Willard died of a heart attack. Two weeks later Mr Bleibner, from New York, died of blood poisoning. A few days later his nephew Rupert had shot himself in New York. Reference is made early on to superstitions surrounding the tomb. Other members of the party include Dr Tosswill from the British Museum, Mr Schneider from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Dr Ames, a medical doctor, also from the states, and a secretary Harper.
At that point Lady Willard, widow of Sir John, calls in Poirot, concerned for her son, who has taken over at the dig. Poirot cables New York to find some background on Rupert Bleibner before he and Hastings head for the desert. On arrival there is lovely description of Poirot waging an unceasing war on dust with a small clothes-brush. However, before their arrival Schneider has also died - of tetanus.
Poirot plays along with the whole superstition-curse idea, before faking his own poisoning to expose the murderer, Dr Ames. Years earlier Rupert Bleibner, "in a fit of drunken merriment" had written a will leaving everything to the doctor. Taking advantage of Sir John's natural death, he had infected Bleibner and had convinced young Bleibner (who stood to inherit his uncle's fortune) that a minor skin ailment was leprosy. Schneider had been killed just to perpetuate the curse myth.
The adaptation is very faithful to many of the details, although Lady Willard calls Poirot in much earlier (after the death of her husband). The other deaths all happen as the plot then unfolds. Hastings, who is returning to the UK from a trip to the US, is in New York when Rupert Bleibner takes his own life. In the original Ames - on being exposed - kills himself. For TV he attempts to escape before being caught by Sir John's faithful servant Hassan.
I have commented previously on the stylistic device of picking up a plot characteristic and making it a light-hearted background issue. Here, with all the fears of superstition hanging around, we see Miss Lemon back at the office foolishly dabbling in the occult.
Sunday, 27 September 2015
Interlude: "Poirot and Me"
In chapter nine of his book "Poirot and Me" Suchet again remarks on the precarious nature of being actor - particularly with a family to support.
With ITV again being rather slow to decide on the commissioning of another series of Agatha Christie's Poirot Suchet accepted the lead role in a BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. The role of the anarchist Alfred Verloc certainly being very different to Hercule Poirot!
When ITV did finally decide to go ahead with another series it was decided to make three feature-length adaptations of novels. All three, Suchet suggests, were strong stories, although he was slightly disappointed that Hastings and Miss Lemon only appeared in one episode.
Suchet comments on the hugely significant part producer Brian Eastman played over the years in bringing Poirot to the screen. He also refers to the pleasure one Clive Exton line in One, Two Buckle My Shoe gave him, when Poirot declares: "I am methodical, orderly and logical... and I do not like to distort facts to support a theory."
With ITV again being rather slow to decide on the commissioning of another series of Agatha Christie's Poirot Suchet accepted the lead role in a BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. The role of the anarchist Alfred Verloc certainly being very different to Hercule Poirot!
When ITV did finally decide to go ahead with another series it was decided to make three feature-length adaptations of novels. All three, Suchet suggests, were strong stories, although he was slightly disappointed that Hastings and Miss Lemon only appeared in one episode.
Suchet comments on the hugely significant part producer Brian Eastman played over the years in bringing Poirot to the screen. He also refers to the pleasure one Clive Exton line in One, Two Buckle My Shoe gave him, when Poirot declares: "I am methodical, orderly and logical... and I do not like to distort facts to support a theory."
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
33. One, Two Buckle My Shoe
Air date: 19/01/1992
Published: 1940
One, Two Buckle My Shoe, the last episode in the short fourth series, has never been one of my favourite Poirots - either in written form or in adaptation. I'm not exactly sure why: it might be the plot-line, or the characters - or a combination of both.
It concerns, principally, the death of a dentist. Two other deaths (which are obviously connected) follow.
The original opens by introducing several characters (including Poirot) who are preparing to go and see their dentist, Mr Morley. Morley is later found dead in his surgery, a pistol in his hand. Japp, interestingly (rather than Poirot), questions the obvious conclusion: suicide. However, when one of the dentist's patients, a Mr Amberiotis, dies later that day of an adrenaline and novocaine overdose Japp switches to the conclusion that Morley - realising he had inadvertently given a patient a lethal overdose, had commited suicide out of remorse. The inquest buys this.
Another patient, the mousy actress-turned missionary Miss Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, then goes missing. A woman's body is found in a trunk in a flat, with the face beaten to the point of being unrecognisable. Dental records later appear to suggest that it is not the missing Miss Sainsbury-Seale, but a Mrs Chapman, whose flat she had been visiting.
Various other characters (mostly patients), drift in and out of the story, including the prominent banker and staunch defender of all things decent and traditional, Mr Alistair Blunt.
Poirot eventually deduces that Blunt is the culprit. While in India he had met and married Gerda, an actress friend of Miss Sainsbury-Seale. However, some years later he has bigamously married into a wealthy family (apparently with his first wife's approval). This rich woman had subsequently died of an illness.
When Miss Sainsbury-Seale turned up in the UK and wanted to catch up with Blunt's (first) wife, it obviously threatened his career. She had blabbed in her hotel about knowing Blunt and his wife to Mr Amberiotis, who, it seems, instantly realised she was talking about a different wife and had proceeded to try and blackmail Blunt. Blunt had killed Morley in order to kill Amberiotis (dressed as a dentist). And had also killed Sainsbury-Seale - who was, in fact, the body in the trunk (Blunt had swapped dental records). Confused? The plot is a bit like that. Oh, and apart from her initial appearance, Miss Sainsbury-Seale wasn't Miss Sainsbury-Seale: she was Gerda dressed up to impersonate her (presumably after Sainsbury-Seale had been bumped off and deposited in the trunk).
The adaptation opens with a lengthy prelude set years earlier (1925) in India, with Sainsbury-Seale and Gerda acting. Gerda and Blunt announce their engagement. Several characters are omitted (not surprisingly, given how convoluted the plot is), including Morley's partner Reilly, Mr Barnes, a retired home office man, and Howard Raikes, who is something of a revolutionary. Interestingly one character, Frank Carter, the rather dubious fiance of Morley's secretary, takes on some of Raikes' traits for the TV adaptation.
In the original Poirot's lengthy closing explanation is given to Blunt alone (police officers appear afterwards to arrest him). In the adaptation Poirot gathers most of the leading characters before summing up and unmasking the culprit.
Published: 1940
One, Two Buckle My Shoe, the last episode in the short fourth series, has never been one of my favourite Poirots - either in written form or in adaptation. I'm not exactly sure why: it might be the plot-line, or the characters - or a combination of both.
It concerns, principally, the death of a dentist. Two other deaths (which are obviously connected) follow.
The original opens by introducing several characters (including Poirot) who are preparing to go and see their dentist, Mr Morley. Morley is later found dead in his surgery, a pistol in his hand. Japp, interestingly (rather than Poirot), questions the obvious conclusion: suicide. However, when one of the dentist's patients, a Mr Amberiotis, dies later that day of an adrenaline and novocaine overdose Japp switches to the conclusion that Morley - realising he had inadvertently given a patient a lethal overdose, had commited suicide out of remorse. The inquest buys this.
Another patient, the mousy actress-turned missionary Miss Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, then goes missing. A woman's body is found in a trunk in a flat, with the face beaten to the point of being unrecognisable. Dental records later appear to suggest that it is not the missing Miss Sainsbury-Seale, but a Mrs Chapman, whose flat she had been visiting.
Various other characters (mostly patients), drift in and out of the story, including the prominent banker and staunch defender of all things decent and traditional, Mr Alistair Blunt.
Poirot eventually deduces that Blunt is the culprit. While in India he had met and married Gerda, an actress friend of Miss Sainsbury-Seale. However, some years later he has bigamously married into a wealthy family (apparently with his first wife's approval). This rich woman had subsequently died of an illness.
When Miss Sainsbury-Seale turned up in the UK and wanted to catch up with Blunt's (first) wife, it obviously threatened his career. She had blabbed in her hotel about knowing Blunt and his wife to Mr Amberiotis, who, it seems, instantly realised she was talking about a different wife and had proceeded to try and blackmail Blunt. Blunt had killed Morley in order to kill Amberiotis (dressed as a dentist). And had also killed Sainsbury-Seale - who was, in fact, the body in the trunk (Blunt had swapped dental records). Confused? The plot is a bit like that. Oh, and apart from her initial appearance, Miss Sainsbury-Seale wasn't Miss Sainsbury-Seale: she was Gerda dressed up to impersonate her (presumably after Sainsbury-Seale had been bumped off and deposited in the trunk).
The adaptation opens with a lengthy prelude set years earlier (1925) in India, with Sainsbury-Seale and Gerda acting. Gerda and Blunt announce their engagement. Several characters are omitted (not surprisingly, given how convoluted the plot is), including Morley's partner Reilly, Mr Barnes, a retired home office man, and Howard Raikes, who is something of a revolutionary. Interestingly one character, Frank Carter, the rather dubious fiance of Morley's secretary, takes on some of Raikes' traits for the TV adaptation.
In the original Poirot's lengthy closing explanation is given to Blunt alone (police officers appear afterwards to arrest him). In the adaptation Poirot gathers most of the leading characters before summing up and unmasking the culprit.
Monday, 7 September 2015
32. Death in the Clouds
Air date: 12/01/1992
Published: 1935
There are some 'whodunit?' plots that develop with a bewildering array of suspects, all with means and motive. A less common, alternative approach is the type of storyline where it appears nobody could have done it. The latest story to be adapted in Agatha Christie's Poirot falls in the latter category.
Death in the Clouds concerns the murder of Madame Giselle, a French moneylender, on board a plane from Paris to London. Poirot is one of the passengers. She is found dead in her seat, shortly before the plane is due to land, with a puncture mark on her neck. An initial suggestion of an allergic reaction to a wasp sting (a wasp is seen buzzing around the cabin) gives way to murder when Poirot finds a small dart on the floor. The subsequent discovery of a blowpipe (lodged where Poirot had been sitting!) leads to the assumption that this is how she was killed. But who could have stood up and used a blowpipe without the other passengers seeing?
Poirot eventually deduces that one passenger, Norman Gale, a dentist, had donned his dentist's coat in the lavatory and walked down the aisle as if he were a steward (on the basis that nobody notices a steward) and had pushed the dart into Madame Giselle's neck. Motive? Money. He had recently married Giselle's abandoned daughter, who stood to inherit a fortune. Gale had utilised both the wasp and the blowpipe to confuse the authorities.
The adaptation adheres closely to the central facts of the story, but not without significant changes of detail. Some of these changes do affect the pace and emphases in the story.
The original opens with the plane about to take off. One passenger, Jane Grey, is the focus of attention (the 'protagonist', to use a writer's term). Madame Giselle is dead by the end of the first chapter.
By contrast, the adaptation features quite a prelude to the fatal flight, and is developed around the French Tennis Championships in Paris (won by England's Fred Perry). Poirot sees another passenger, Lady Horbury, arguing with Madame Giselle at a party.
No fewer than four characters are cut for the adaptation: archaeologist Armand Dupont (his son Jean survives the cull for TV), businessman James Ryder (whose financial woes make him an obvious 'red herring' to be under the thumb of the moneylender), Doctor Bryant (whose medical background might equip him with a knowledge of the snake poison on the dart, and the means of acquiring it), and a junior steward, Davis (for TV Miss Grey - a hairdresser in the original - becomes the colleague of the senior steward, Mitchell).
Japp is prominent in the original, although the French inspector, Fournier, is given more of a role than in the adaptation, frequently expressing sympathy with Poirot's methods.
With the murder occurring so early in the original much of the book is spent with Poirot (along with his two police colleagues) trekking back and forth between suspects, trying to work out who did it - and how. In the adaptation suspicion falls much more heavily - and more quickly - upon Lady Horbury, an inveterate gambler, who owed Madame Giselle lots of money.
In the original Gale and Grey fall for each other, but, by the end, Poirot engineers for the latter to go on an archaeological dig with the Duponts (young Jean also has a soft spot for her). In the adaptation Poirot is left consoling a tearful Grey.
In the original when Gale is unearthed he turns on Poirot and declares, "You damned interfering little mountebank!" For TV there is a more subdued, almost touching, scene where Grey asks him why he did it. "For the money, Jane, for a great deal of money", is his rueful reply.
Published: 1935
There are some 'whodunit?' plots that develop with a bewildering array of suspects, all with means and motive. A less common, alternative approach is the type of storyline where it appears nobody could have done it. The latest story to be adapted in Agatha Christie's Poirot falls in the latter category.
Death in the Clouds concerns the murder of Madame Giselle, a French moneylender, on board a plane from Paris to London. Poirot is one of the passengers. She is found dead in her seat, shortly before the plane is due to land, with a puncture mark on her neck. An initial suggestion of an allergic reaction to a wasp sting (a wasp is seen buzzing around the cabin) gives way to murder when Poirot finds a small dart on the floor. The subsequent discovery of a blowpipe (lodged where Poirot had been sitting!) leads to the assumption that this is how she was killed. But who could have stood up and used a blowpipe without the other passengers seeing?
Poirot eventually deduces that one passenger, Norman Gale, a dentist, had donned his dentist's coat in the lavatory and walked down the aisle as if he were a steward (on the basis that nobody notices a steward) and had pushed the dart into Madame Giselle's neck. Motive? Money. He had recently married Giselle's abandoned daughter, who stood to inherit a fortune. Gale had utilised both the wasp and the blowpipe to confuse the authorities.
The adaptation adheres closely to the central facts of the story, but not without significant changes of detail. Some of these changes do affect the pace and emphases in the story.
The original opens with the plane about to take off. One passenger, Jane Grey, is the focus of attention (the 'protagonist', to use a writer's term). Madame Giselle is dead by the end of the first chapter.
By contrast, the adaptation features quite a prelude to the fatal flight, and is developed around the French Tennis Championships in Paris (won by England's Fred Perry). Poirot sees another passenger, Lady Horbury, arguing with Madame Giselle at a party.
No fewer than four characters are cut for the adaptation: archaeologist Armand Dupont (his son Jean survives the cull for TV), businessman James Ryder (whose financial woes make him an obvious 'red herring' to be under the thumb of the moneylender), Doctor Bryant (whose medical background might equip him with a knowledge of the snake poison on the dart, and the means of acquiring it), and a junior steward, Davis (for TV Miss Grey - a hairdresser in the original - becomes the colleague of the senior steward, Mitchell).
Japp is prominent in the original, although the French inspector, Fournier, is given more of a role than in the adaptation, frequently expressing sympathy with Poirot's methods.
With the murder occurring so early in the original much of the book is spent with Poirot (along with his two police colleagues) trekking back and forth between suspects, trying to work out who did it - and how. In the adaptation suspicion falls much more heavily - and more quickly - upon Lady Horbury, an inveterate gambler, who owed Madame Giselle lots of money.
In the original Gale and Grey fall for each other, but, by the end, Poirot engineers for the latter to go on an archaeological dig with the Duponts (young Jean also has a soft spot for her). In the adaptation Poirot is left consoling a tearful Grey.
In the original when Gale is unearthed he turns on Poirot and declares, "You damned interfering little mountebank!" For TV there is a more subdued, almost touching, scene where Grey asks him why he did it. "For the money, Jane, for a great deal of money", is his rueful reply.
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