The ABC Murders 

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

Director:

Andrew Grieve

Writer:

Clive Exton (dramatized by)

Stars:

David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
David Suchet	...	Hercule Poirot
Hugh Fraser	...	Captain Hastings
Philip Jackson	...	Chief Inspector Japp
Donald Sumpter	...	Cust
Donald Douglas	...	Franklin Clarke
Nicholas Farrell	...	Donald Fraser
Pippa Guard	...	Megan Barnard
Cathryn Bradshaw	...	Mary Drower
Nina Marc	...	Thora Grey
David McAlister	...	Inspector Glen
Vivienne Burgess	...	Lady Clarke
Ann Windsor	...	Miss Merrion
Michael Mellinger	...	Franz Ascher
Miranda Forbes	...	Mrs. Turton
Peter Penry-Jones	...	Superintendent Carter

Storyline

Hastings returns to Britain after a long absence to find Poirot anxious for a new case which will challenge his gray cells. Poirot quickly gets his wish in the form of taunting letters from a serial killer who has dubbed himself ABC and who leaves an ABC railroad schedule at the scene of each crime. The victims as well as the crime scenes appear to be chosen randomly, but maintain an obsessive adherence to alphabetical order. However, Poirot grows to believe that the killer is not the madman the authorities believe, but a methodical murderer with a very tangible motive.

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Plot Keywords:

letter | serial killer | hercule poirot | death | lighting a cigarette | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 January 1992 (UK)

Filming Locations:

39 Windsor Street Uxbridge, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Granada Media,L.T.V.,London Weekend Television (LWT)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min 100 min (14 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first of two episodes to feature Nicholas Farrell. Here he plays Donald Fraser, thirteen years later he played Knighton in Poirot: The Mystery of the Blue Train (2005).

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Goofs

As noted, the St Leger sequences contain intercut archive footage and modern shots. However, the archive footage is almost certainly from the early 1960s. Several male spectators are wearing no headgear, and those who do are wearing caps. There would be few hatless men in the 1930s, and most of the men would be wearing hats with brims (as they are in the 1990s recreation).

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Quotes

[first lines]
Announcer: Train now boarding.

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Connections

Features Footsteps in the Sand (1939)

User Reviews

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.