"Agatha Christie: Poirot" The ABC Murders (1992)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Andrew Grieve

Writers:

Clive Exton (dramatisation) and
Agatha Christie (novel)

TV Series:

"Agatha Christie: Poirot" (1989)

Original Air Date:

5 January 1992 (Season 4, Episode 1)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Crime | Thriller

Plot:

Poirot receives clues and taunting letters from a serial killer who appears to choose his random victims and crime scenes alphabetically.

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Murder | Letter | Hercule Poirot | Movie Theater

Cast

David Suchet	...	Hercule Poirot
Hugh Fraser	...	Captain Arthur Hastings
Philip Jackson	...	Chief Inspector James Japp
Donald Sumpter	...	Alexander Bonaparte Cust
Donald Douglas	...	Franklin Clarke
Nicholas Farrell	...	Donald Fraser
Pippa Guard	...	Megan Barnard
Cathryn Bradshaw	...	Mary Drower
Nina Marc	...	Thora Grey
David McAllister	...	Inspector Glen (as David McAlister)
Vivienne Burgess	...	Lady Clarke
Ann Windsor	...	Miss Merrion
Michael Mellinger	...	Franz Ascher
Miranda Forbes	...	Mrs. Turton
Peter Penry-Jones	...	Superintendent Carter

Runtime:

103 min | UK:120 min | 102 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

Granada Media

Trivia:

The action music from the contemporary film showing at the cinema in Doncaster is also featured in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), for the scene where Sir Robin encounters the three-headed knight. The piece is 'Desperate Moment' by Kenneth Essex.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The programme features a number of excerpts from a supposedly contemporary "film" from 1936. The effect is strikingly well-done, except at the end of the film we can see the acting and technical credits - in a genuine 1936 film, these credits would have been shown at the beginning.

Quotes:

Captain Hastings: So how have you been these last six months? Busy?
Hercule Poirot: No, the little grey cells, I fear, they grow the rust.

Movie Connections:

Features Black Limelight (1939)

A Faithful Television Movie Version of The Christie novel

David Suchet succeeded where Charles Laughton and Tony Randall failed. Like Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov, Suchet became the definitively correct "Hercule Poirot" in a series of television versions of the Agatha Christie stories. Playing the role seriously, but brightening the role with flashes of humor, Suchet makes the eccentric former Belgian Police Chief seem real and not a caricature.

He is well supported in his series with Philip Jackson as his friend and rival Superintendent Jopp of Scotland Yard, and Hugh Fraser as Captain Hastings (Poirot's "Watson"). But it is the care of the casting director and the screen writers who have kept the series going so very well all this time.

I have chosen THE ABC MURDERS to symbolize the best work in the series in maintaining what Dame Agatha sought - an honest attempt to tell her mysteries straight and with full entertainment value. You have to compare this version with the funny but spoof version with Tony Randall called THE ALPHABET MURDERS to understand.

SPOILER COMING UP The way THE ALPHABET MURDERS was developed it is supposed (by Scotland Yard and even a confused Poirot/Randall) that the murders are committed by a woman (Anita Eckbert) with psychiatric problems. The key to the psychiatric problem seems to be that Eckbert's character is killing people off who have first and second names with the same letter, so that the murders are A.A., B.B., C.C., D.D., etc.

Now part of this is actually in the original novel. The victims of the mysterious killer do have names that follow the alphabetical pattern. But in the original there is no lovely looking "Anita Eckbert" character. There is a gentleman named "Alexander Bonaparte Cuff" (Donald Sumpter) whom pieces of evidence from the police suggest is that homicidal killer. He is a quiet, respectable type - a lover of chess. And when Poirot meets him he realizes that Cuff could not be the killer. So he reviews the killings, and finds the flaw the killer overlooked.

But it is a close case. And it involves one of the most unattractive killers in Christie's works. He is an ambitious killer, who sees a chance to make millions at everyone's expense (especially the murder victims). He also is (in the novel more than this version, unfortunately), quite a belligerent bigot - constantly referring to Poirot as a "frog" (Poirot is Belgian, not French). In the novel, when he is finally revealed by Poirot, and thwarted in a last suicide attempt, he snarls another "Dirty Frog" comment - and is told off by Poirot that given the underhanded, sneaky, and cowardly manner he used to commit his crimes he really did not live up to British standards. Figuratively, Poirot leaves some spit in the face of the killer - a rare action of retaliation by the detective. That (as I said) is not in this version, but the fact that the original story was used raises this as the best version of THE ABC MURDERS that was done.