Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Agatha Christie's Poirot and Other Detective Fiction Discussion (Novels, Stories, Film, TV & Radio)
Dragonpol
https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
As we already have a thread on Sherlock Holmes and one on Columbo I thought it was high time that we also had a thread on one of the most enduring detectives in fiction, the famous Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, created by The Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie. It seems there is no thread on this community specifically on Poirot, so this lacuna must be filled. :)
This then is the thread in which to discuss all of the adventures and cases of Poirot across all mediums; the novels, the play, the short stories and the radio, TV and film adaptations featuring various actors in the lead role.
EDIT: I've now expanded the thread title to include other detective characters created by Agatha Christie such as Miss Marple or even Mr Harley Quin.
This then is the thread in which to discuss all of the adventures and cases of Poirot across all mediums; the novels, the play, the short stories and the radio, TV and film adaptations featuring various actors in the lead role.
EDIT: I've now expanded the thread title to include other detective characters created by Agatha Christie such as Miss Marple or even Mr Harley Quin.
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
So, are there any Poirot/Agatha Christie fans out there at all? :)
I have watched all the Suchet episodes and any other adaption I have come across. I am looking forward to John Malkovich in The Abc Murders.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/abc-murders-john-malkovich
My mother and father were readers of Christie and Doyle amongst other authors in the genre, so I had access to all the books growing up.
The 1945 version of And then there were none is one of my favourite films it's very atmospheric, agreed the story is a pre cursor to the Slasher movies.
I tend to be gravitated to the clever Christie story's, some of the surrounding elements to say Poirot for example needs a suspension of disbelief, if I recall correctly Poirot would have been 125 years old in Curtain.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned yet the many Bond connections.
Not if we consider that the story takes place immediately after WW II, and not at the time of publication (1975, according to Wikipedia).
Anybody else thinks Poirot is far more French than Belgium?
Except that these stories are not set in the 60s and 70s, that's all. Yes, it takes a bit of retconning, but my best guess would be that Dame Agatha wanted to keep her stories current, and put in topical references from the time she wrote them. But, from a "Watsonian" viewpoint, those stories happened in the 20s and 30s.
And no, I don't think that poirot is more french than belgian. He simply comes from the frenhc-speaking part of Belgium, that's all.
As for my ranking of various Poirots I've seen, here it is :
1) David Suchet. Nobody does it better
2) Albert Finney. Close to what Dame Agatha wrote.
3) Peter Ustinov. Not close at all, but entertaining nonetheless.
4) Tony randall. He did for Poirot what Dame Margaret Rutherford did for Miss Marple, and that's not a compliment. Still, Anita Ekberg isn't bad looking.
BTW, speaking of Peter Ustinov (and David Niven) ever heard about Operation : Copperhead ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Copperhead
It has even been the subject of a graphic novel in France :
Christie makes no mention of any particular traits of Belgium culture when it comes to her detective. She was far more familiar with French one and only made Poirot coming from Belgium because of the Belgium refugees in the war.
Is the Tony Randall film a movie you would recommend? Read a little bit about it not long ago.
That's the sort of spoof one (The Alphabet Murders, based on The ABC Murders novel) as far as I know, so probably not the best place to look for fidelity to Agatha Christie. I saw a bit of it once (it was B/W I seem to recall) and all I can remember was Poirot saying near the start of the film that he was "the famous Belgian sleuth", which I quote from in the OP!
Yep, that's the one! Read it had some spy-ish elements to it (don't know if there was much of it, though), and had to check if anyone had opinions about it, as I might buy a copy of it soon. Would definitely buy it for the entertainment factor more than the accuracy of the portrayal of Poirot!
Yeah, seen it a couple of times, quite enjoyed it.
Her writing is concise, but it can be a bit of work to read through some of the novels. Many of her solutions were ingenious or imaginative, but thankfully always fair. Unfortunately, her later works were noticeably less impressive.
Some of her works that I most enjoyed, in no particular order:
The Moving Finger
Hercule Poirot's Christmas
And Then There Were None
Murder on the Orient Express
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
Endless Night
Death on the Nile
Cards on the Table
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Body in the Library
Death in the Clouds
Murder in Mesopotamia
Even her lesser works, which came about during her later years, still had an occasional clever ploy. E.g. Dead Man's Folly, where even
I've seen a few of the Suchet adaptations. Rarely have I been impressed. The adaptation for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is outright sacrilege, replacing Christie's famous twist ending with a frustratingly pointless gun battle. Yawn.
1) Joan Hickson. On TV, she's the one I'm most familiar with (haven't seen much of Geraldine McEwan or Julia McKenzie to form an opinion, unfortunately). So It's Joan for me, all the way. And I love the main theme.
2) Angela Lansbury. The Mirror Crack'd was a good adaptation, which I saw before reading the novel. I was not the only one, because in the teater, the revelation of the motive behind the murder elicited a big "Oh My God !" from a member of the audience).
3) Dame Margaret Rutherford. Now, don't get me wrong, Dame Margaret was a fantastic comic actress. But Miss Marple she wasn't, sorry. Still, her movies are really funny. And the main theme is quite catchy (Ron Goodwin at his finest) :
To be honest Agatha Christie was not a very good writer: her characters are often stereotypical, her prose pretty journalistic and the plots contrived. But her flaws were the ones of her fellow writers and she was better than most of them. And she had a few moments of greatness : ATTWN, Crooked House (maybe her best?), although then she's great not as a crime fiction writer but because the stories go into proto slasher or family dramas.
It stars John Malkovich as the famous Belgian sleuth. Will anyone here be watching?
Wonder if this one will be aired on TV here at some point. There's an Agatha Christie's series airing tonight though – Ordeal by Innocence. As we have an "Easter crime" tradition in Norway, it won't surprise me if they'll show The ABC Murders then.
Been watching it. Very different from the novel in tone and slightly different plot. Malkovich is excellent as a frail, worned out Poirot. But not certain if I like it or not.
I have seen the whole episode and can see why. They have been... Let's say creative.
One thing that struck me is that of all Poirot actors I've seen David Suchet is the only one sounding like a native French speaker when speaking French. Albeit he sounds from France and not Belgium.
Yes, John Malkovich has been a controversial choice to play Poirot. He's breaking with tradition by not doing the requisite Belgian accent. I've not seen it yet as I had a very early start at work today.
Yes, you're most likely right. Of course many people incorrectly think that Poirot is French anyway, so I suppose not many viewers notice anything amiss with the accent. I agree that David Suchet is hard to beat as Poirot.
Watching episode 2. So much has been changed they might as well call it The BBC Murders.
Yes, I do. I mixed the two brothers up there. Silly me!