Air date: 12/04/2004
Published: 1937
A strong case can be made for claiming that Murder on the Orient Express is Agatha Christie's most famous Hercule Poirot novel. But if so, Death on the Nile is one of perhaps two or three stories that aren't far behind.
Christie produced a stage play version, which has probably helped cement this story of greed and money - set in the context of what seems to be a love triangle - in many people's consciousness. I've seen it in the theatre - and recall watching a delightful outdoor theatre production many years ago.
In 1978 it was the first story to be adapted during the Peter Ustinov years: a big screen version that boasted a strong cast, including the likes of David Niven, Mia Farrow, a veteran Bette Davis and Maggie Smith.
The story opens introducing us to Linnet Ridgeway, an incredibly wealthy young woman who generally gets her own way, and her friend Joanna Southwood (whose significance for one of the red herrings only becomes apparent later in the story). Then we meet Jackie de Bellefort, another friend, whose fiance Simon Doyle has recently lost his job. In a series of clever sticatto sections we are quickly introduced to the Allertons, Tim and his mother (who are related to Joanna); Miss Marie Van Schuyler from America, her nurse, Miss Bowers, and cousin Cornelia; Andrew Pennington, also in America; Mrs Otterbourne and her daughter Rosalie; and Jim Fanthorp, a lawyer in London. In the middle of all this we learn that Linnet has married Simon Doyle...
The action takes place in Egypt, where Hercule Poirot happens to be on vacation. The tension mounts as we discover Jackie 'stalking' Linnet and Doyle on their honeymoon, seemingly bitter that her former friend stole her fiance from her. We meet three more characters, Dr Bessner, Guido Richetti and Mr Ferguson, a somewhat strange cynic with apparent communist leanings (who turns out to be of landed gentry stock!).
The famous central scene takes place during the Nile cruise section of the vacation, and sees a drunken Jackie shoot Doyle in the leg in the ship's saloon. She is taken to a cabin by Fanthorp and Cornelia, before being attended to by Miss Bowers. Doyle is removed to Dr Bessner's cabin for treatment. The following morning Linnet is found dead, having been shot in the head while asleep. Her expensive pearls are also missing.The previous night's scene seems to put both Doyle and Jackie out of the picture.
Linnet's maid, Louise, is later found stabbed in her room, seemingly because she was trying to blackmail the murderer. Still later Mrs Otterbourne, an extravagant writer of sensual novels, is shot just as she is about to reveal Louise's killer.
Poirot is joined part way through by his old friend Colonel Race, who is investigating another matter, and they begin interviewing the suspects.
By my reckoning Death on the Nile is Christie's longest Poirot tale. There are a lot of characters, and a lot of red herrings. Poirot eventually unravels them all, of course. Tim Allerton is running a jewellery theft scam with the aforementioned Joanna, which involves stealing expensive jewels and replacing them with fakes. Richetti is the man Colonel Race was after. Pennington conveniently bumped into Linnet and Doyle on holiday because he needed her signature to some documents to cover up mismanagement of her money. Fanthorp was investigating Pennington. Mrs Otterbourne drinks (her novels are no longer selling) and the splash that some people heard on the fateful night was her daughter dumping her stash of booze in the river. Mrs Van Schuyler is a kleptomaniac who stole Linnet's pearls (except she didn't exactly: she stole the fake pearls after Allerton had done a swap).
As for the small matter of the murders: Jackie and Doyle set it all up. She didn't shoot him in the leg; he pretended she had done. When she dropped the gun he picked it up (while she was being led away) and ran and shot his wife. He then returned to the saloon and proceeded to shoot himself in the leg. The aim was to inherit Linnet's fortune. Perfect crime, perfect alibis for them both. Except it wasn't. Louise had seen him, and so had to be bumped off, by Jackie. Mrs Otterbourne saw Jackie go into Louise's cabin, so she had to go, too. In the finale, Jackie (who had two guns) shoots Doyle and herself. It seems Poirot had an idea she would.
Given all this detail the TV adaptation does an admirable job in adhering to most of the plotline. A few characters don't make the cut, of course. Ironically, two of them were involved in the story's central scene. Miss Bowers is left out (Cornelia does the night shift looking after Jackie) and so is Fanthorp (his involvement in the saloon scene being taken by Ferguson). Richetti is also omitted, which makes Colonel Race's decision to accompany Poirot on the boat trip less obvious.
For the second time in three episodes we suffered the gratutious interpolation of implied homosexuality. In Five Little Pigs Philip Blake is presented as being attracted to Amyas Crale, whereas in Christie's original he was attracted to Crale's wife Caroline. This actually put a totally different slant on the scene where Caroline had visited him in his room.
Now in Death on the Nile there is at least the suggestion that Allerton is a homosexual. In the original he and Rosalie Otterbourne become an item towards the end of the story. This resolves some of the side issues nicely, with Allerton returning the pearls, and Rosalie promised some happiness after enduring so much from her mother. Unfortunately, for TV she shows him some affection, to which he replies: "Barking up the wrong tree, I'm afraid." At that point his mother calls him from her cabin. I have heard the opinion that maybe he is having a relationship with the woman who may, or may not be his mother! This is a possible inference, but I think less likely. If we are meant to conclude he is homosexual - and this is the second such plot change in the same group of episodes - one might almost think someone on the production team had an 'agenda'...
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
51. Sad Cypress
Air date: 26/12/2003
Published: 1940
For the second consecutive episode of Agatha Chrisie's Poirot we meet an innocent woman arrested and tried for murder. However, while Caroline Crale had perished many years earlier, Hercule Poirot was in a position to save Elinor Carlisle. And that, in a nutshell, is what Sad Cypress is all about.
Both the original novel and the TV adaptation open in the middle of the court proceedings, with the accused almost in a dream, detached from all that is going on around her. We then jump back to the beginning of events that led to the murder of Mary Gerrard.
Elinor receives an anonymous letter, warning that someone is out to cheat her out of her aunt's estate. She and Roddy Welman - her fiance (and her cousin by marriage) - go to visit Aunt Laura, who has suffered a stroke and is bed bound. She is cared for by Nurse O'Brien and Nurse Hopkins. Mary Gerrard, daughter of the groundsman, is also in attendance. Aunt Laura likes her and has paid for expensive education. We quickly learn that Mary's aunt is, or was, a nurse in New Zealand and that there is something in Aunt Laura's past that is a bit of a mystery. Laura dies, apparently after a second stroke. As she died intestate Elinor receives everything. In the meantime Roddy has taken a shine to Mary and, as a consequence, Elinor calls the engagement off.
The central sequence of events occurs when Elinor is clearing her aunt's possessions. Nurse Hopkins is helping Mary clear stuff at the nearby lodge where her father - who has also recently died - lived. Elinor makes fish paste sandwiches for them all. Nurse Hopkins make tea for herself and Mary. While Elinor and the nurse are upstairs Mary dies - of what is later discovered to be morphone hydrochloride poisoning. Elinor is arrested; the assumption being that the sandwiches were poisoned, and the motive apparently being her jealousy and anger at Mary breaking up her engagement to Roddy.
At this point the local GP, Dr Peter Lord, calls in Poirot to save the day. It is apparent very quickly that he is fond of Elinor. In the middle part of the novel Poirot, in typical fashion, interviews all the key characters in turn. It emerges that Mary was, in fact, the illegitimate daughter of Laura, and had been adopted by old man Gerrard and his wife.
Interestingly, Poirot's deductions are played out not in the usual manner, confronting all the key characters, but in the court scene. Nurse Hopkins was, it turns out, Mary's aunt from New Zealand. She had pursuaded Mary to make a will leaving everything to her aunt. As the illegitimate daughter of Laura Mary, as the true next of kin, would have inherited everything, rather than Elinor. Nurse Hopkins, therefore, murdered her for the money. She did so by poisoning not the sandwiches but the tea. She then injected herself with apomorphine hydrochloride - a powerful emetic, which enabled her to vomit up the poison she had also drunk in the tea! Elinor had seen her in the kitchen with a scratch on her arm. The nurse had claimed this was from a rose thorn - but it emerges that the variety of rose growing outside the kitchen doesn't have thorns! She had also poisoned Laura, to ensure she died intestate. Two witnesses - one flown from New Zealand, no less - testify that Nurse Hopkins is, in fact, Mary Riley. We never find out what happens to her (she has abruptly left the court), but assume she is eventually arrested. In the aftermath of an acquittal Dr Lord is persuaded by Poirot that he would make a better match for Elinor than Roddy.
The TV adaptation made rather more changes to the plot than normal, although it stuck to the central facts of the case. Poirot is called in much earlier: after the arrival of the letter, rather than after the murder of Mary. He therefore meets Mary when visiting the scene.
The biggest change, however, concerns the finale. For TV we return to the court case and Elinor is found guilty. This makes for a more theatrical 'race against time' to find the true culprit before Elinor is hanged.
Poirot lays a trap for Nurse Hopkins who tries to pull the 'poison in the tea' trick (followed by the "I'll inject myself to vomit it up again" trick!), but Poirot has switched his teacup for one with a rose in it containing something else (water, perhaps, or one of his 'infusions'?). He fakes starting to suffer the effects of poison before 'recovering' and unmasking the murderer.
The original ending seemed rather rushed, particularly given the witnesses Poirot is able to produce from nowhere to testify in court to the true identity of Nurse Hopkins. Perhaps this accounts for the very different ending for TV.
Curiously at one point Poirot, back in London, buys a newspaper. The billboard headline announces the death of Gershwin. The newspaper is dated September 16th, 1937. Unfortunately, George Gershwin died on July 11th of that year. Surely news travelled quicker than that in the 1930s?
Published: 1940
For the second consecutive episode of Agatha Chrisie's Poirot we meet an innocent woman arrested and tried for murder. However, while Caroline Crale had perished many years earlier, Hercule Poirot was in a position to save Elinor Carlisle. And that, in a nutshell, is what Sad Cypress is all about.
Both the original novel and the TV adaptation open in the middle of the court proceedings, with the accused almost in a dream, detached from all that is going on around her. We then jump back to the beginning of events that led to the murder of Mary Gerrard.
Elinor receives an anonymous letter, warning that someone is out to cheat her out of her aunt's estate. She and Roddy Welman - her fiance (and her cousin by marriage) - go to visit Aunt Laura, who has suffered a stroke and is bed bound. She is cared for by Nurse O'Brien and Nurse Hopkins. Mary Gerrard, daughter of the groundsman, is also in attendance. Aunt Laura likes her and has paid for expensive education. We quickly learn that Mary's aunt is, or was, a nurse in New Zealand and that there is something in Aunt Laura's past that is a bit of a mystery. Laura dies, apparently after a second stroke. As she died intestate Elinor receives everything. In the meantime Roddy has taken a shine to Mary and, as a consequence, Elinor calls the engagement off.
The central sequence of events occurs when Elinor is clearing her aunt's possessions. Nurse Hopkins is helping Mary clear stuff at the nearby lodge where her father - who has also recently died - lived. Elinor makes fish paste sandwiches for them all. Nurse Hopkins make tea for herself and Mary. While Elinor and the nurse are upstairs Mary dies - of what is later discovered to be morphone hydrochloride poisoning. Elinor is arrested; the assumption being that the sandwiches were poisoned, and the motive apparently being her jealousy and anger at Mary breaking up her engagement to Roddy.
At this point the local GP, Dr Peter Lord, calls in Poirot to save the day. It is apparent very quickly that he is fond of Elinor. In the middle part of the novel Poirot, in typical fashion, interviews all the key characters in turn. It emerges that Mary was, in fact, the illegitimate daughter of Laura, and had been adopted by old man Gerrard and his wife.
Interestingly, Poirot's deductions are played out not in the usual manner, confronting all the key characters, but in the court scene. Nurse Hopkins was, it turns out, Mary's aunt from New Zealand. She had pursuaded Mary to make a will leaving everything to her aunt. As the illegitimate daughter of Laura Mary, as the true next of kin, would have inherited everything, rather than Elinor. Nurse Hopkins, therefore, murdered her for the money. She did so by poisoning not the sandwiches but the tea. She then injected herself with apomorphine hydrochloride - a powerful emetic, which enabled her to vomit up the poison she had also drunk in the tea! Elinor had seen her in the kitchen with a scratch on her arm. The nurse had claimed this was from a rose thorn - but it emerges that the variety of rose growing outside the kitchen doesn't have thorns! She had also poisoned Laura, to ensure she died intestate. Two witnesses - one flown from New Zealand, no less - testify that Nurse Hopkins is, in fact, Mary Riley. We never find out what happens to her (she has abruptly left the court), but assume she is eventually arrested. In the aftermath of an acquittal Dr Lord is persuaded by Poirot that he would make a better match for Elinor than Roddy.
The TV adaptation made rather more changes to the plot than normal, although it stuck to the central facts of the case. Poirot is called in much earlier: after the arrival of the letter, rather than after the murder of Mary. He therefore meets Mary when visiting the scene.
The biggest change, however, concerns the finale. For TV we return to the court case and Elinor is found guilty. This makes for a more theatrical 'race against time' to find the true culprit before Elinor is hanged.
Poirot lays a trap for Nurse Hopkins who tries to pull the 'poison in the tea' trick (followed by the "I'll inject myself to vomit it up again" trick!), but Poirot has switched his teacup for one with a rose in it containing something else (water, perhaps, or one of his 'infusions'?). He fakes starting to suffer the effects of poison before 'recovering' and unmasking the murderer.
The original ending seemed rather rushed, particularly given the witnesses Poirot is able to produce from nowhere to testify in court to the true identity of Nurse Hopkins. Perhaps this accounts for the very different ending for TV.
Curiously at one point Poirot, back in London, buys a newspaper. The billboard headline announces the death of Gershwin. The newspaper is dated September 16th, 1937. Unfortunately, George Gershwin died on July 11th of that year. Surely news travelled quicker than that in the 1930s?
Thursday, 13 April 2017
50. Five Little Pigs
Air date: 14/12/2003
Published: 1942
On more than one occasion through this journey we have observed (particularly in some of the short stories) how Agatha Christie has someone recount all the events of a crime to Poirot, who then investigates. We have then seen how the TV producers adjusted this, to have Poirot on, or near the scene, when the crime happens. This is an understandable device, as live action is better than simple conversation on the small screen.
However, it was impossible to follow this procedure with Five Little Pigs (without making huge changes to the plot) - as the murder occurred sixteen years earlier!
Poirot is approached by Carla Lemarchant, a young woman who is engaged to be married, and who has been brought up by relatives in Canada. She has recently learned that her mother, Caroline Crale, was convicted of murdering her own husband (Carla's father), the painter Amyas Crale. At the time her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, but she died in prison the following year (although we are never told how). Caroline wrote a letter to her young daughter, which she has only recently seen, declaring her innocence.
Poirot is commissioned to discover the truth. This set-up makes for a story that is virtually all dialogue. The main body of evidence falls into three parts. First, Poirot interviews people who were involved in the trial - lawyers and the investigating police officer. This enables us, as readers, to hear the main storyline from 16 years ago. Crale was painting a young woman, Elsa Greer, and the two had apparently fallen in love. Although the flamboyant Crale had a notorious reputation for falling for women this time it seemed different - that he was really contemplating leaving his wife. The day before the murder the Crales and their house guests had visited the nearby home of Meredith Blake, a herbalist. The following morning Blake realised some coiinine (an extract of hemlock) had been stolen. Crale later dies of coiinine poisoning. Caroline admitted taking the poison, but said it was because she was contemplating suicide. Although it was argued that Amyas had committed suicide Caroline seemed to have put up little fight at the trial.
The second section sees Poirot interviewing the five people who were there at the time. Meredith and his brother Philip Blake, who was Amyas' best friend; Elsa (now Lady Dittisham), Miss Cecilia Williams, a tutor, and Angela Warren, Caroline's younger half-sister. We learn that Angela is blind in one eye: Caroline having thrown a paperweight at her in a fit of rage when they were children. In many ways this section is the most interesting, with Poirot employing different techniques with each character - as his real desire is for them each to write out an account of what they remember.
The third section comprises the said written accounts of the five individuals. Only Angela seems convinced that Caroline was innocent. Miss Williams reveals having seen Caroline clean a beer bottle (of fingerprints) and put it in the hand of her dead husband (presumably to reinforce the suggestion of suicide). Although Miss Williams hadn't revealed this at the original trial it appears to confirm the guilt of Caroline.
Poirot, however, deduces that it does, in fact, prove her innocence. The coiinine, as we are told earlier, was found in Amyas' glass, but not in the bottle of beer! Caroline couldn't have known this. Why did she try and create the impression that her husband had committed suicide? Because she thought that teenager Angela - who was always arguing with him - had spiked the beer! After years of trying to atone for the childhood incident that scarred Angela for life she now took the opportunity to take the blame - so she thought.
In fact, Poirot unravels, from the various testimonies of conversations overheard, that Amyas was not going to leave his wife. Rather, he agreed to send young Elsa packing. She had overheard this and, having observed Caroline take the coiinine, had taken it from her bedroom and spiked the first glass of beer Amyas had drunk on the fateful morning.
The TV adaptation follows all of this remarkably closely, although Carla is now Lucy, and the incident took place 14 years ago, for some reason. The written accounts are, not surprisingly, dropped, with Poirot getting all the information he needs from the interviews. The not uncommon technique of using grainy, hand-held photography to depict past events is used to intersperse his interviews with visual depictions of what happened in the past.
For TV Caroline is (or, rather, was) hanged which, in a way, makes more sense to the story. In one flashback incident Caroline was seen leaving the bedroom of Philip Blake. In Christie's original Blake is attracted to Caroline who maintains her commitment to her husband and leaves. For TV, quite gratuitously and regrettably, this scene is subtly changed to strongly imply that Blake had some sort of homosexual attraction for Amyas.
The finale is played out more or less along the lines of the book, with the added drama of Carla/Lucy pulling a gun on Elsa, the latter having declared to Poirot that by killing Amyas she in fact 'died' all those years ago. Poirot persuades Lucy not to shoot.
Not one of the better novels, I have to say, and not a particularly enjoyable adaptation.
Published: 1942
On more than one occasion through this journey we have observed (particularly in some of the short stories) how Agatha Christie has someone recount all the events of a crime to Poirot, who then investigates. We have then seen how the TV producers adjusted this, to have Poirot on, or near the scene, when the crime happens. This is an understandable device, as live action is better than simple conversation on the small screen.
However, it was impossible to follow this procedure with Five Little Pigs (without making huge changes to the plot) - as the murder occurred sixteen years earlier!
Poirot is approached by Carla Lemarchant, a young woman who is engaged to be married, and who has been brought up by relatives in Canada. She has recently learned that her mother, Caroline Crale, was convicted of murdering her own husband (Carla's father), the painter Amyas Crale. At the time her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, but she died in prison the following year (although we are never told how). Caroline wrote a letter to her young daughter, which she has only recently seen, declaring her innocence.
Poirot is commissioned to discover the truth. This set-up makes for a story that is virtually all dialogue. The main body of evidence falls into three parts. First, Poirot interviews people who were involved in the trial - lawyers and the investigating police officer. This enables us, as readers, to hear the main storyline from 16 years ago. Crale was painting a young woman, Elsa Greer, and the two had apparently fallen in love. Although the flamboyant Crale had a notorious reputation for falling for women this time it seemed different - that he was really contemplating leaving his wife. The day before the murder the Crales and their house guests had visited the nearby home of Meredith Blake, a herbalist. The following morning Blake realised some coiinine (an extract of hemlock) had been stolen. Crale later dies of coiinine poisoning. Caroline admitted taking the poison, but said it was because she was contemplating suicide. Although it was argued that Amyas had committed suicide Caroline seemed to have put up little fight at the trial.
The second section sees Poirot interviewing the five people who were there at the time. Meredith and his brother Philip Blake, who was Amyas' best friend; Elsa (now Lady Dittisham), Miss Cecilia Williams, a tutor, and Angela Warren, Caroline's younger half-sister. We learn that Angela is blind in one eye: Caroline having thrown a paperweight at her in a fit of rage when they were children. In many ways this section is the most interesting, with Poirot employing different techniques with each character - as his real desire is for them each to write out an account of what they remember.
The third section comprises the said written accounts of the five individuals. Only Angela seems convinced that Caroline was innocent. Miss Williams reveals having seen Caroline clean a beer bottle (of fingerprints) and put it in the hand of her dead husband (presumably to reinforce the suggestion of suicide). Although Miss Williams hadn't revealed this at the original trial it appears to confirm the guilt of Caroline.
Poirot, however, deduces that it does, in fact, prove her innocence. The coiinine, as we are told earlier, was found in Amyas' glass, but not in the bottle of beer! Caroline couldn't have known this. Why did she try and create the impression that her husband had committed suicide? Because she thought that teenager Angela - who was always arguing with him - had spiked the beer! After years of trying to atone for the childhood incident that scarred Angela for life she now took the opportunity to take the blame - so she thought.
In fact, Poirot unravels, from the various testimonies of conversations overheard, that Amyas was not going to leave his wife. Rather, he agreed to send young Elsa packing. She had overheard this and, having observed Caroline take the coiinine, had taken it from her bedroom and spiked the first glass of beer Amyas had drunk on the fateful morning.
The TV adaptation follows all of this remarkably closely, although Carla is now Lucy, and the incident took place 14 years ago, for some reason. The written accounts are, not surprisingly, dropped, with Poirot getting all the information he needs from the interviews. The not uncommon technique of using grainy, hand-held photography to depict past events is used to intersperse his interviews with visual depictions of what happened in the past.
For TV Caroline is (or, rather, was) hanged which, in a way, makes more sense to the story. In one flashback incident Caroline was seen leaving the bedroom of Philip Blake. In Christie's original Blake is attracted to Caroline who maintains her commitment to her husband and leaves. For TV, quite gratuitously and regrettably, this scene is subtly changed to strongly imply that Blake had some sort of homosexual attraction for Amyas.
The finale is played out more or less along the lines of the book, with the added drama of Carla/Lucy pulling a gun on Elsa, the latter having declared to Poirot that by killing Amyas she in fact 'died' all those years ago. Poirot persuades Lucy not to shoot.
Not one of the better novels, I have to say, and not a particularly enjoyable adaptation.
Sunday, 9 April 2017
Interlude: "Poirot and Me"
David Suchet had been playing the jealous Salieri in a theatre production of Amadeus when he was approached by producer Brian Eastman to make two more feature length Poirot stories.
Filming began on the first of these, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in the summer of 1999. Suchet comments on how it felt climbing back into the role after five years, and his concern to be consistent with the character.
He also describes how, around this time, his aspiration to film all of the Poirot stories began to grow. He also 'went public' on this, while being interviewed on a trip to Japan (where the programmes were very popular).
The second episode to be made that summer was Lord Edgware Dies. Suchet comments on how the scripwriters set up the notion of Poirot coming out of retirement (following the ending of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd).
Suchet returned to Amadeus for a run in America, before Murder in Mesopotamia and Evil Under the Sun were filmed, in the summer of 2000. Interestingly, he writes, he felt that both stories had a sense of "marking time"; that Poirot's character was not being developed in any way, and that both stories lacked "a sense of excitement and imagination".
Filming began on the first of these, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in the summer of 1999. Suchet comments on how it felt climbing back into the role after five years, and his concern to be consistent with the character.
He also describes how, around this time, his aspiration to film all of the Poirot stories began to grow. He also 'went public' on this, while being interviewed on a trip to Japan (where the programmes were very popular).
The second episode to be made that summer was Lord Edgware Dies. Suchet comments on how the scripwriters set up the notion of Poirot coming out of retirement (following the ending of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd).
Suchet returned to Amadeus for a run in America, before Murder in Mesopotamia and Evil Under the Sun were filmed, in the summer of 2000. Interestingly, he writes, he felt that both stories had a sense of "marking time"; that Poirot's character was not being developed in any way, and that both stories lacked "a sense of excitement and imagination".
Saturday, 8 April 2017
49. Murder in Mesopotamia
Air date: 02/06/2002
Published: 1936
Between 1934 and 1938 no fewer than ten Hercule Poirot novels were published. Four of these had our Belgian detective sleuthing in exotic climes. This reflected some of the interests in Agatha Christie's life at that time (her second husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist, and she accompanied him on some of his travels).
Although set against the backdrop of an archaeological dig in Iraq, the principal scene of Murder in Mesopotamia is really the confined space of the middle-eastern quad type accommodation that the dig team are housed in. Individual rooms surround a courtyard, which has a single, arched-gate entrance. All the rooms have doors and windows into the courtyard. Only the rooms on the south side have windows facing out into the countryside (a big clue!).
A distinctive of the novel is that it is narrated by nurse Amy Leatheran. She has been employed by dig leader, Dr Eric Leidner, to look after his wife Louise, who appears to suffer badly with her nerves. The nurse later learns that Louise's first husband, Frederick Bosner, was a soldier who was killed in the First World War... except he wasn't: he was shot as a German spy (and she dobbed him in)... except he wasn't: a train he was on crashed and he was killed.
In the years that followed Louise received threatening letters - purportedly from her late husband - warning her off any romantic entanglements with other men. However, she eventually met and married Dr Leidner. Now the letters have resumed, threatening to kill her.
The dig team includes Richard Carey, longtime colleague of Dr Leidner; Miss Anne Johnson, Dr Leidner's faithful, doting PA (sort of); Joseph Mercado, who has been part of the team for a couple of years, and his wife Marie; David Emmott, a quiet young American; Carl Reiter, dig photographer; Bill Coleman, a young man on his first dig; and Father Lavigny, a French monk and recent replacement as the team's epigraphist. Also part of the mix are Dr Giles Reilly and his outspoken daughter Sheila, who live in nearby Hassanieh.
On the fateful day everyone's movements are accounted for (of course). Dr Leidner has been working on the flat roof of the building - where pottery and querns (that's millstones) are stored. He comes down to speak to his wife in her room, only to discover her dead - having suffered a massive blow to the head. The nurse confirms she has been dead for about an hour. The local British police chief is soon out of his depth but - by amazing coincidence - Hercule Poirot happens to be visiting Baghdad, and is invited to help solve the crime. Were the letters truly written by Frederick Bosner, or by his obsessive, revengeful younger brother William, or did Louise write them herself? More importantly, how could anyone have entered her room without being seen to walk across the courtyard? Is either Frederick or William one of the dig team?
Miss Johnson begins to have suspicions and shortly afterwards is killed (hydrochloric acid having been substituted for her bedside glass of water). In her death throes she manages to say "The window" to the nurse.
Poirot eventually deduces that Dr Leidner is Frederick Bosner. He killed his wife by luring her to her window and dropping a quern on her (tied to a cord which enabled him to pull it back up and hide it among other querns on the roof!). She had, therefore, already been dead some time when he came down from the roof to supposedly talk to her. He killed her because she had fallen in love with his close friend Carey. The easy-going manner of the Dr Leidner persona hid the rather more passionate, ruthless character of Bosner.
Two sub-plots concern Mercado being a drug addict and Father Lavigny being a con artist who is working with a mysterious local (seen peering in windows) to steal some of the artifacts from the site.
The TV adaptation begins with the murder of a local drug supplier, and then cuts to Poirot and Hastings being driven to the dig by Coleman - who is Hastings' nephew! The main components of the plot are followed faithfully, and the set designers certainly did a great job of bringing the team's base to the screen. Emmott and Reiter are omitted, as is Dr Reilly (the character of Sheila is now the daughter of the police chief, Maitland). With two men cut out the complexities of Louise Leidner's character are less developed. Interestingly, although Poirot speculates on whether one of the team is William Bosner, it is not until his customary summing up that the thought of Frederick Bosner having survived the train crash is broached. Mercado commits suicide in a Hassanieh hotel, smitten with guilt for killing a man for drugs. Intriguingly, Poirot's presence in the region is attributed to answering a plea for help from Countess Vera Rossakoff. She never appears, much to Poirot's disappointment.
Traditional whodunnits will sometimes have plots bordering on the fantastic, and at times this is what can make them so endearing, but I would suggest this one stretches credulity to breaking point. Dr Leidner's giant yo-yo trick with a stone quern being both ambitious and improbable in the extreme.
Published: 1936
Between 1934 and 1938 no fewer than ten Hercule Poirot novels were published. Four of these had our Belgian detective sleuthing in exotic climes. This reflected some of the interests in Agatha Christie's life at that time (her second husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist, and she accompanied him on some of his travels).
Although set against the backdrop of an archaeological dig in Iraq, the principal scene of Murder in Mesopotamia is really the confined space of the middle-eastern quad type accommodation that the dig team are housed in. Individual rooms surround a courtyard, which has a single, arched-gate entrance. All the rooms have doors and windows into the courtyard. Only the rooms on the south side have windows facing out into the countryside (a big clue!).
A distinctive of the novel is that it is narrated by nurse Amy Leatheran. She has been employed by dig leader, Dr Eric Leidner, to look after his wife Louise, who appears to suffer badly with her nerves. The nurse later learns that Louise's first husband, Frederick Bosner, was a soldier who was killed in the First World War... except he wasn't: he was shot as a German spy (and she dobbed him in)... except he wasn't: a train he was on crashed and he was killed.
In the years that followed Louise received threatening letters - purportedly from her late husband - warning her off any romantic entanglements with other men. However, she eventually met and married Dr Leidner. Now the letters have resumed, threatening to kill her.
The dig team includes Richard Carey, longtime colleague of Dr Leidner; Miss Anne Johnson, Dr Leidner's faithful, doting PA (sort of); Joseph Mercado, who has been part of the team for a couple of years, and his wife Marie; David Emmott, a quiet young American; Carl Reiter, dig photographer; Bill Coleman, a young man on his first dig; and Father Lavigny, a French monk and recent replacement as the team's epigraphist. Also part of the mix are Dr Giles Reilly and his outspoken daughter Sheila, who live in nearby Hassanieh.
On the fateful day everyone's movements are accounted for (of course). Dr Leidner has been working on the flat roof of the building - where pottery and querns (that's millstones) are stored. He comes down to speak to his wife in her room, only to discover her dead - having suffered a massive blow to the head. The nurse confirms she has been dead for about an hour. The local British police chief is soon out of his depth but - by amazing coincidence - Hercule Poirot happens to be visiting Baghdad, and is invited to help solve the crime. Were the letters truly written by Frederick Bosner, or by his obsessive, revengeful younger brother William, or did Louise write them herself? More importantly, how could anyone have entered her room without being seen to walk across the courtyard? Is either Frederick or William one of the dig team?
Miss Johnson begins to have suspicions and shortly afterwards is killed (hydrochloric acid having been substituted for her bedside glass of water). In her death throes she manages to say "The window" to the nurse.
Poirot eventually deduces that Dr Leidner is Frederick Bosner. He killed his wife by luring her to her window and dropping a quern on her (tied to a cord which enabled him to pull it back up and hide it among other querns on the roof!). She had, therefore, already been dead some time when he came down from the roof to supposedly talk to her. He killed her because she had fallen in love with his close friend Carey. The easy-going manner of the Dr Leidner persona hid the rather more passionate, ruthless character of Bosner.
Two sub-plots concern Mercado being a drug addict and Father Lavigny being a con artist who is working with a mysterious local (seen peering in windows) to steal some of the artifacts from the site.
The TV adaptation begins with the murder of a local drug supplier, and then cuts to Poirot and Hastings being driven to the dig by Coleman - who is Hastings' nephew! The main components of the plot are followed faithfully, and the set designers certainly did a great job of bringing the team's base to the screen. Emmott and Reiter are omitted, as is Dr Reilly (the character of Sheila is now the daughter of the police chief, Maitland). With two men cut out the complexities of Louise Leidner's character are less developed. Interestingly, although Poirot speculates on whether one of the team is William Bosner, it is not until his customary summing up that the thought of Frederick Bosner having survived the train crash is broached. Mercado commits suicide in a Hassanieh hotel, smitten with guilt for killing a man for drugs. Intriguingly, Poirot's presence in the region is attributed to answering a plea for help from Countess Vera Rossakoff. She never appears, much to Poirot's disappointment.
Traditional whodunnits will sometimes have plots bordering on the fantastic, and at times this is what can make them so endearing, but I would suggest this one stretches credulity to breaking point. Dr Leidner's giant yo-yo trick with a stone quern being both ambitious and improbable in the extreme.
* * *
The broadcasting of Murder in Mesopotamia marked what would be the second major turning point in the long story of Agatha Christie's Poirot. The first, as I commented on earlier, occurred at the end of Season Five, with the last of the 50-minute short-story adaptations. The nine years that had elapsed since then had yielded just eight feature-length episodes: the least fruitful period in the entire run (albeit that it included that four year hiatus).
But those eight episodes were very much in the style that had been established from the beginning. The same look, the same pace, the same flat at Whitehaven Mansions. Above all, the same interaction between Poirot and the various members of his 'team', as I have called them. All that was about to change.
Leaving aside the slightly sentimental reunion in the final season (a season which, at one time, looked as though it would never happen), Evil Under the Sun saw what would prove to be the final appearances of Chief Inspector Japp and Miss Lemon. Now Murder in Mesopotamia would do the same for the dearest friend of them all, Captain Arthur Hastings.
Hastings doesn't even appear in the original and, as we have already noted, all three have a bigger profile on TV than in Agatha Christie's original stories. Nevertheless, the chemistry that the production team had created from the outset was integral to the feel of the programme.
New production and filming styles (I'll comment more on those as we go on), and the absence of any of the 'team' would characterise the episodes that appeared over the next decade.
Monday, 3 April 2017
48. Evil Under The Sun
Air date: 20/04/2001
Published: 1941
One of the classic plot devices used in whodunnits is the confusion of time. Time is, of course, a vital ingredient in all whodunnits: it makes or breaks alibis. That's why, particularly in more contemporary stories, clever pathologists are wheeled-on for their five minutes of action, to determine parameters of time during which the dastardly deed could have been committed.
The confusion of time involves the culprit attempting to do just that: to confuse those trying to piece together the sequence of events. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd various props are deployed to make it appear the victim was still alive when, in fact, he was already dead. That's how it is usually done.
In Evil Under The Sun Agatha Christie cleverly turns that technique on its head: the victim is made to appear dead - when, in point of fact, she is still alive!
The story begins with Poirot holidaying at the Jolly Roger Hotel, on a small island somewhere off the coast of southern England. The island is accessed by a walkway at low tide; otherwise by rowing boat. We are quickly introduced to Mrs Gardener, a talkative American, and her husband Odell (whose main role in life seems to be to respond "Yes, darling" at appropriate moments); the athletic Miss Emily Brewster; boring army in India veteran Major Barry; the Revd. Stephen Lane, and the seemingly frail Christine Redfern (married to Patrick), who has no head for heights and no appetite for the sun. A grand entrance is then made by actress Arlene Stuart, who appears to flirt somewhat brazenly with Patrick. Later we meet Arlene's retiring husband Kenneth Marshall, his 16-year-old daughter (by a previous marriage) Linda, and dress designer Rosamund Darnley, an old friend of Marshall's. Sailor Horace Blatt makes up the list of suspects.
The tension mounts with the Redferns at loggerheads over Arlene Stuart. The central sequence of events involves Arlene taking a boat round the island to Pixy Cove. Redfern later takes Miss Brewster rowing and they find the actress, apparently strangled. Redfern stays with the body while Miss Brewster rows away to get help. At the time, Christine Redfern was sketching on the other side of the island with Linda; the Gardeners were with Poirot; the vicar was on the mainland; and Kenneth Marshall was typing business letters in his room. A red herring sub-plot involves a cave at Pixy Cove being used to smuggle drugs into the country (was Arlene 'silenced' by drug runners when she stumbled upon their activities?).
Poirot eventually unravels an incredibly elaborate plan. Christine had altered Linda's wristwatch while the latter was swimming, to enable her to leave for tennis earlier than it seemed. She had skitted across to Pixy Cove, causing Arlene to hide in the narrow, obscured cave, and had then pretended to be Arlene - face down and dead on the beach - in time for Redfern and Miss Brewster to find her (masked by her large, Chinese hat). Once Miss Brewster was out of sight, Christine headed off for the hotel, and Redfern had attacked and killed Arlene.
In the finale Poirot seems to focus on Linda and her father as likely culprits, before suddenly confronting Redfern. There is then (post arrest of the Redferns) an extended conclusion, with Poirot explaining it all to some of the guests - along with the fact that the Redferns had pulled the 'confusion of time' scam in the past. Motive? Money. While throughout the story Arlene Stuart appears to everyone as a voracious man-eater, Poirot, rather touchingly, sees it the other way round: she is someone who is apt to fall for the kind of men who prey on rich women for their money (this aspect comes out in the TV production finale, too).
Evil Under the Sun is perhaps one of Agatha Christie's better known stories. I confess that I watched the Peter Ustinov film version (1982) before I had ever read the book, and so, inevitably, find myself making a three-way comparison at this point. The film version removed the setting to a more exotic island in the Adriatic. Major Barry and the Revd. Stephen Lane are omitted, as is Rosamund Darnley - her past link with Kenneth Marshall now being transferred to hotel owner Mrs Castle (who has a more prominent role). Emily Brewster has become acerbic writer Rex Brewster. As a result, it is Mrs Gardener who accompanies Redfern on the carefully planned rowing trip when Arlene is found on the beach. Two other families, the Cowans and the Mastersons, are omitted from both film and TV production. However, they don't really feature in Agatha Christie's original; they are simply referred to, presumably to create the (justifiable) impression that the hotel has more guests than our main suspects! Linda appears younger and has less of a role - although at one point she does try to implicate Brewster, who she clearly doesn't like.
Agatha Christie's Poirot is more faithful to the character line-up, with two exceptions. Linda Marshall becomes, inexplicably, 17-year-old Lional Marshall, with an interest in poisons. Also, the Gardeners are omitted, which is a shame, because they provide the story with some light-hearted moments, and, to my mind, the TV version is a little flat.
As I have commented on previously, the short stories - which are sometimes very short - need embellishing to fill out 50 minutes of TV time. With the novels, however, it tends to be the other way round: detail has to be condensed (not many of us can read a novel in less than 100 minutes). Therefore, I found it odd that the TV production begins with a lengthy, and rather unnecessary piece about Poirot dining at a new Argentinian restaurant, which has been funded by none other than Captain Hastings! When Poirot faints during the evening he is diagnosed as obese and in need of exercise: paving the way for him being packed off by Miss Lemon to Sandy Cove Hotel (as it is now called) for some rest and exercise. Hastings, naturally, joins him. The production is set at the real Burgh Island, off the coast of Devon, with the real sea tractor ferry (which is used at high tide) being deployed. The low-tide walk-way is not really mentioned. The restaurant opening leads to one of those light-hearted closing scenes so often seen in the short story productions. It turns out that Poirot was suffering from food poisoning - and Hastings' restaurant has been closed down in his absence!
Chief Inspector Japp replaces both Chief Constable Col. Weston and Insp. Colgate from the original story, which meant the full 'team' were together (for the final time, as it would turn out, prior to the brief reunion in the last series).
The opening scenes also feature the inquest of Alice Corrigan (the Redferns' previous victim). This is attended by the Revd. Stephen Lane, whose character and obsession with evil are made considerably more intense for TV.
The drug-running sub-plot - omitted altogether in the film - becomes, if anything, more prominent for TV. Two characters who pick up the drugs (referred to very briefly as restaurant diners in the book) are now bird watchers. One pulls a gun on Japp and Hastings, who are saved in the nick of time by Major Barry - now revealed to be a Home Office man seconded to Scotland Yard, who has been tracking the drug-running for some months. Horace Blatt is arrested as the importer of the drugs.
Published: 1941
One of the classic plot devices used in whodunnits is the confusion of time. Time is, of course, a vital ingredient in all whodunnits: it makes or breaks alibis. That's why, particularly in more contemporary stories, clever pathologists are wheeled-on for their five minutes of action, to determine parameters of time during which the dastardly deed could have been committed.
The confusion of time involves the culprit attempting to do just that: to confuse those trying to piece together the sequence of events. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd various props are deployed to make it appear the victim was still alive when, in fact, he was already dead. That's how it is usually done.
In Evil Under The Sun Agatha Christie cleverly turns that technique on its head: the victim is made to appear dead - when, in point of fact, she is still alive!
The story begins with Poirot holidaying at the Jolly Roger Hotel, on a small island somewhere off the coast of southern England. The island is accessed by a walkway at low tide; otherwise by rowing boat. We are quickly introduced to Mrs Gardener, a talkative American, and her husband Odell (whose main role in life seems to be to respond "Yes, darling" at appropriate moments); the athletic Miss Emily Brewster; boring army in India veteran Major Barry; the Revd. Stephen Lane, and the seemingly frail Christine Redfern (married to Patrick), who has no head for heights and no appetite for the sun. A grand entrance is then made by actress Arlene Stuart, who appears to flirt somewhat brazenly with Patrick. Later we meet Arlene's retiring husband Kenneth Marshall, his 16-year-old daughter (by a previous marriage) Linda, and dress designer Rosamund Darnley, an old friend of Marshall's. Sailor Horace Blatt makes up the list of suspects.
The tension mounts with the Redferns at loggerheads over Arlene Stuart. The central sequence of events involves Arlene taking a boat round the island to Pixy Cove. Redfern later takes Miss Brewster rowing and they find the actress, apparently strangled. Redfern stays with the body while Miss Brewster rows away to get help. At the time, Christine Redfern was sketching on the other side of the island with Linda; the Gardeners were with Poirot; the vicar was on the mainland; and Kenneth Marshall was typing business letters in his room. A red herring sub-plot involves a cave at Pixy Cove being used to smuggle drugs into the country (was Arlene 'silenced' by drug runners when she stumbled upon their activities?).
Poirot eventually unravels an incredibly elaborate plan. Christine had altered Linda's wristwatch while the latter was swimming, to enable her to leave for tennis earlier than it seemed. She had skitted across to Pixy Cove, causing Arlene to hide in the narrow, obscured cave, and had then pretended to be Arlene - face down and dead on the beach - in time for Redfern and Miss Brewster to find her (masked by her large, Chinese hat). Once Miss Brewster was out of sight, Christine headed off for the hotel, and Redfern had attacked and killed Arlene.
In the finale Poirot seems to focus on Linda and her father as likely culprits, before suddenly confronting Redfern. There is then (post arrest of the Redferns) an extended conclusion, with Poirot explaining it all to some of the guests - along with the fact that the Redferns had pulled the 'confusion of time' scam in the past. Motive? Money. While throughout the story Arlene Stuart appears to everyone as a voracious man-eater, Poirot, rather touchingly, sees it the other way round: she is someone who is apt to fall for the kind of men who prey on rich women for their money (this aspect comes out in the TV production finale, too).
Evil Under the Sun is perhaps one of Agatha Christie's better known stories. I confess that I watched the Peter Ustinov film version (1982) before I had ever read the book, and so, inevitably, find myself making a three-way comparison at this point. The film version removed the setting to a more exotic island in the Adriatic. Major Barry and the Revd. Stephen Lane are omitted, as is Rosamund Darnley - her past link with Kenneth Marshall now being transferred to hotel owner Mrs Castle (who has a more prominent role). Emily Brewster has become acerbic writer Rex Brewster. As a result, it is Mrs Gardener who accompanies Redfern on the carefully planned rowing trip when Arlene is found on the beach. Two other families, the Cowans and the Mastersons, are omitted from both film and TV production. However, they don't really feature in Agatha Christie's original; they are simply referred to, presumably to create the (justifiable) impression that the hotel has more guests than our main suspects! Linda appears younger and has less of a role - although at one point she does try to implicate Brewster, who she clearly doesn't like.
Agatha Christie's Poirot is more faithful to the character line-up, with two exceptions. Linda Marshall becomes, inexplicably, 17-year-old Lional Marshall, with an interest in poisons. Also, the Gardeners are omitted, which is a shame, because they provide the story with some light-hearted moments, and, to my mind, the TV version is a little flat.
As I have commented on previously, the short stories - which are sometimes very short - need embellishing to fill out 50 minutes of TV time. With the novels, however, it tends to be the other way round: detail has to be condensed (not many of us can read a novel in less than 100 minutes). Therefore, I found it odd that the TV production begins with a lengthy, and rather unnecessary piece about Poirot dining at a new Argentinian restaurant, which has been funded by none other than Captain Hastings! When Poirot faints during the evening he is diagnosed as obese and in need of exercise: paving the way for him being packed off by Miss Lemon to Sandy Cove Hotel (as it is now called) for some rest and exercise. Hastings, naturally, joins him. The production is set at the real Burgh Island, off the coast of Devon, with the real sea tractor ferry (which is used at high tide) being deployed. The low-tide walk-way is not really mentioned. The restaurant opening leads to one of those light-hearted closing scenes so often seen in the short story productions. It turns out that Poirot was suffering from food poisoning - and Hastings' restaurant has been closed down in his absence!
Chief Inspector Japp replaces both Chief Constable Col. Weston and Insp. Colgate from the original story, which meant the full 'team' were together (for the final time, as it would turn out, prior to the brief reunion in the last series).
The opening scenes also feature the inquest of Alice Corrigan (the Redferns' previous victim). This is attended by the Revd. Stephen Lane, whose character and obsession with evil are made considerably more intense for TV.
The drug-running sub-plot - omitted altogether in the film - becomes, if anything, more prominent for TV. Two characters who pick up the drugs (referred to very briefly as restaurant diners in the book) are now bird watchers. One pulls a gun on Japp and Hastings, who are saved in the nick of time by Major Barry - now revealed to be a Home Office man seconded to Scotland Yard, who has been tracking the drug-running for some months. Horace Blatt is arrested as the importer of the drugs.
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