Rating summary
Movie | | 5.0 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 2.0 |
Overall | | 4.5 |
Poirot: Series 13 Blu-ray Movie Review
"I played the game"
Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 4, 2014
When the final episode of Poirot was first shown in the U.K. in November 2013, it capped the
conclusion of nearly a quarter century for actor David Suchet's television portrayal of Agatha
Christie's most famous detective. As Suchet reveals in the interview included with this Blu-ray
set of the final series of Poirot, he had no ongoing contract and never knew from year to year
whether the show would continue to the point it has now reached, where, with a few minor
exceptions, all of Christie's Poirot stories have been filmed. But how could it have been
otherwise? Other actors had portrayed the eccentric Belgian sleuth both effectively and
memorably, but no one had given him a life beyond the screen as Suchet has. With each new
series, the distribution of Poirot had expanded. The show is now available in every territory with
a broadcaster. The appeal of Poirot transcends differences of language, culture, race and
ethnicity.
The feature-length episodes that comprise Poirot's swan song are notable for several things,
including their stylish photography, their elegant locations and the return (all too briefly in some
instances) of familiar faces from the show's early days. Of particular importance is Poirot's old
friend of limited insight but stout-hearted character, Captain Arthur Hastings (Hugh Fraser), who
plays a crucial role in the final episode entitled Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.
Although all five of the Series 13 episodes may eventually appear on PBS, at the moment the
only way to see the whole collection is either on disc or by subscribing to the Acorn TV web
service. As controlling owner of the Christie Estate, Acorn served as co-producer of these
episodes and is their principal distributor in North America.
Elephants Can Remember (disc 1) (first broadcast: June 9, 2013, U.K.)
Elephants Can Remember occupies an odd place in Agatha Christie's canon. It was the last
Poirot novel she wrote, although it was not the last to be published. Christie had planned Poirot's
exit long before, writing
Curtain: Poirot's Last Case during World War II and locking it in a
bank vault in case she did not survive.
Elephants, which was published in 1972, seems far from
such concerns, and detached form the world of
Curtain, in large part because it rests on Poirot's
relationship with the crime writer, Ariadne Oliver (Zoë Wanamaker), who did not become a
major figure in the Poirot stories until after the war.
As with nearly all of the plots in
Poirot, the story has been re-set in the thirties by screenwriter
Nick Dear (who also adapted
Dead Man's Folly for this series). In an opening flashback, we see
a young married couple, General and Lady Ravenscroft (Adrian Lukis and Annabel Mullion), die
of gunshot wounds on a cliff outside their house in Overcliffe. No one can decide whether it is a
double suicide or a murder/suicide. Their young daughter, Celia, is sent abroad to school.
Thirteen years later, Celia Ravenscroft (Vanessa Kirby) has returned to England and is engaged to
Desmond Burton-Cox (Ferdinand Kingsley), whose mother (Greta Scacchi) doesn't seem too
pleased by the match. Ariadne Oliver is Celia's godmother, although, by her own admission, she
hasn't done much for the girl except write her a check on her eighteenth birthday. But now Mrs.
Oliver has been asked to do something special for Celia, which is to find out exactly what
happened to her parents. Who killed whom, and most importantly, why?
Mrs. Oliver calls on her famous detective friend for help, but Poirot is immersed in a case
involving the murder of a retired psychiatrist whose son, another doctor named Willoughby (Iain
Glen), cannot understand why anyone would want to hurt a harmless elderly physician. So Poirot
advises Mrs. Oliver to investigate for herself. Go to Overcliffe, he says. Ask people who knew
the Ravenscrofts what they remember. Ariadne calls this a search for "elephants" because of the
animals' reputation for long memories.
Anyone familiar with Agatha Christie's plots will already suspect that Poirot's case and Mrs.
Oliver's inquiries will eventually reveal a connection. It turns out that the murdered psychiatrist
once treated a patient involved with the Ravenscroft family. When Poirot hears what Mrs. Oliver
has learned from her "elephants", he quickly discovers that nothing is what it seems where the
Ravenscrofts are concerned.
The Big Four (disc 1) (first broadcast: Oct. 23, 2013, U.K.)
The Big Four was published in 1927, forty-five years before
Elephants Can Remember, but no
one had tried to adapt it for
Poirot until now, because it was considered "an unfilmable mess", in
the words of writer Mark Gatiss, one of the creators of the BBC's
Sherlock. But Gatiss and his
partner, Ian Hallard, gamely hacked away at the text, trimming the list of characters, rearranging
the plot and streamlining events. The story's confusion worked to their advantage. You know
what you're seeing can't be right, but you still aren't sure what's going on.
The Big Four marks the Series 13 reunion of the original gang from the early years of
Poirot:
Chief Inspector—now Assistant Commissioner—Japp (Philip Jackson), Miss Lemon (Pauline
Moran) and reliable Captain Hastings, whose familiar exclamation of "Good Lord!" is a
welcome reminder of old times. Joining these stalwarts is Poirot's indispensable valet, George
(David Yelland), who has taken charge of the detective's daily affairs since Miss Lemon moved
on. They are reunited for the sad occasion of Hercule Poirot's funeral and—wait a minute!
This
isn't the episode entitled
Poirot's Last Case. What's going on?
Gatiss and Hallard have shifted
The Big Four forward in time to the eve of World War II, when
rumblings of hostilities abound throughout Europe. Opposing the drumbeat of violence, a Peace
Party has sprung up with the backing of an American millionaire, Abe Ryland (James Carroll
Jordan), a French scientist, Madame Olivier (Patricia Hodge) and a Chinese pacificist, Li Yang
Chen, who cannot leave Hong Kong. But the Peace Party has powerful enemies. At an exhibition
chess match intended to draw publicity and raise funds, the famous Russian grandmaster lured
out of retirement to play an exhibition game is murdered, drawing protests from the Soviet
government and endangering its support for the Allied cause. An ambitious Fleet Street
journalist, L.B. Tysoe (Tom Brooke), tells Poirot that the murder was committed by an
international criminal conspiracy called "The Big Four", which is rumored to want the Peace
Party to fail because The Big Four is heavily involved in the arms trade. Tysoe has a confidential
source, but he shortly becomes a victim of the Big Four. Meanwhile, organizers of the Peace
Party begin to disappear. Have they been kidnapped, murdered or gone into hiding?
News that the world's most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, is investigating the Big Four leads
to the explosive turn of events that brings Japp, Hastings, George and Miss Lemon to a graveside
where they watch a coffin with Poirot's name being lowered into the ground. But there is more to
come—so much more—before the final
Curtain.
Dead Man's Folly (disc 2) (first broadcast: Oct. 30, 2013, U.K.)
Poirot receives an urgent summons from Ariadne Oliver to join her at the Devonshire estate
known as Nasse House, where the new owner, the nouveau riche George Stubbs (Sean Pertwee),
is planning a summer fête for his neighbors. Mrs. Oliver has been asked to devise a "murder
game", complete with clues and a victim, and she suddenly suspects, though she can't say exactly
why, that the game is a ruse for the real thing.
Nasse House has a peculiar history. Built several generations ago by the Folliat family, it had to
be sold by the only surviving member, Mrs. Amy Folliat (Sinéad Cusack), after she lost both her
husband and her two sons and was desperate financially. George Stubbs allows Mrs. Folliat to
continue living in a guest house on the property, because she adopted and raised an orphan
named Hattie (Stephanie Leonidas), who is now married to George. Beautiful but delicate, Hattie
has a wayward disposition and a child's mind, although her husband's assistant, Mrs. Brewis
(Rebecca Front), thinks it's an act to gain sympathy and keep Hattie's husband at her beck and
call.
Despite George Stubbs's wealth, his taste is considered vulgar. The architect, Michael Weyman
(James Anderson), who has been hired to make improvements on the Nasse House estate, is
appalled at his patron's instructions, such as the direction to erect a small decorative building
where there should obviously be a garden. Such a useless structure is commonly called a "folly",
which gives the story's title its double meaning.
On the day of the fête, Mrs. Oliver's suspicions prove to be well-founded, as the festive
atmosphere is shattered by the discovery of a genuine corpse. But the murder may be only a
diversion. In the confusion, Hattie Stubbs disappears and cannot be found anywhere on the
property or in the nearby town. Her husband is beside himself with worry and anger at the local
police for their inability to find her or any indication of where she went. (Noted character actor
Nicholas Woodeson appears in what amounts to a cameo as a police sergeant.) Suspicion
immediately falls on Hattie's second cousin from abroad, Etienne De Souza (Elliot
Barnes-Worrell), who just arrived to visit her after a separation of many years and whose letter
announcing his arrival frightened the fragile creature, because, as she told her husband, De Souza
is a "killer".
As is so often the case, Poirot's best source turns out to be a local person whom no one else
thinks to interview, an elderly fisherman, John Merdell (Sam Kelly), who remembers the Folliats
from many years back. But the sleuth has to return to his London quarters at Whitehaven
Mansions and reflect on everything he has heard and observed, before the solution presents itself.
The Labours of Hercules (disc 2) (first broadcast: Nov. 6, 2013, U.K.)
The Labours of Hercules was originally a collection of twelve short stories by Agatha Christie, in
each of which Poirot solved a case corresponding to one of the legendary Greek hero's
mythological tasks. For purposes of the
Poirot TV series, elements from several of the stories
were inventively combined into a single case of robbery and murder by writer Guy Andrews,
who had written several previous installments of
Poirot, notably
The Mystery of the Blue Train.
(Andrews also penned the fifth installment of Helen Mirren's landmark series
Prime Suspect.) To
preserve a connection to the title, part of the stolen property is a valuable set of paintings
depicting "The Labours of Hercules".
The story begins with a sting operation at a public reception, which has been arranged by Poirot
to entrap a notorious thief of jewels and art known as Marrascaud, whom Poirot describes as a
fiend who kills for pleasure. Despite the best efforts of Poirot and Scotland Yard, both the
valuable necklace and the painting used as bait vanish from the affair, and Marrascaud leaves the
ravaged body of an innocent victim behind, as if to taunt Poirot.
Wracked with guilt, Poirot withdraws from public life and spends months brooding on his
mistakes. He is roused from his depression during a ride about London, when he realizes that the
chauffeur, Ted Williams (Tom Austen), is even more despondent than he is. Williams fell deeply
in love with the ladies' maid of a famous Russian ballerina, who left town with her mistress and
from whom the heartbroken driver has not heard since then. Poirot, whose doctor has been urging
him to take on a new case, abruptly resolves to find the chauffeur's lost love and bring her back
to London.
Poirot learns that the ballerina, Katrina Samoushenka (Fiona O'Shaughnessy), is in seclusion at
the Hotel Olympos in the Swiss Alps. Suffering from mysterious ailments of a psychological
nature, she is seen only by her physician, Dr. Lutz (Simon Callow). Upon arriving at the hotel by
funicular railway up the mountainside, Poirot discovers several remarkable coincidences. The
first is that he has inadvertently crossed paths with the Swiss police, whose Inspector Lementeuil
(Nicholas McGaughey) informs him that the Hotel Olympos is believed to be the home base
where the notorious Marrascaud hides his loot. They are staking out the hotel, hoping to catch
him.
A second coincidence is the surprise presence of a face from Poirot's past: Countess Vera
Rossakoff, the sultry jewel thief whom we last saw in
The Double Clue in
Series 3, where she
was played by Kika Markham. Now played by Orla Brady, after what is said to be the passage of
twenty years, the Countess has lost none of her charm or her affection for Poirot, but she has
acquired a daughter, Alice Cunningham (Eleanor Tomlinson), who is studying to be a
criminologist. Miss Cunningham—the name is her father's of whom the Countess says, simply,
"Forget him!
I have"—is delighted to meet the famous detective whose name has so often been
the subject of stories told by her mother. Also, the Countess swears to Poirot that she is no longer
a jewel thief. Well, mostly.
Yet a third coincidence is the presence of a political figure named Harold Waring (Rupert
Evans), who was present at the reception the night Poirot failed to catch Marrascaud and has
since left England under a cloud of scandal. Waring is involved with a young wife, Elsie Clayton
(Morven Christie), whose abusive husband stays in his room drinking but whose violence can be
heard by all the guests and leaves evidence on Elsie's face. Elsie's mother, Mrs. Rice (Sandy
McDade), keeps close tabs on her.
Intrigues and mysteries abound among this odd assortment, and also among the hotel staff, which
has seen several changes since the previous season. Questions of who is what become all the
more pressing when snows block the funicular's tunnel and strand everyone at the hotel for an
indefinite period. But the isolation also gives Poirot an ideal opportunity to study everyone
closely, and a clear picture begins to emerge.
Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (disc 2) (first broadcast: Nov. 13, 2013, U.K.)
In a fitting arrangement for a novel that Agatha Christie wrote many years before its publication,
Curtain was the first episode of Series 13 to be filmed but the last to be broadcast. The
adaptation by Kevin Elyot, who previously adapted
Death on the Nile, is faithful to Christie's
presentation of Poirot's finale, with minor condensations for dramatic purposes. The direction by
Hettie Macdonald, who previously helmed the stylish
The Mystery of the Blue Train is notably
different from prior episodes. The tone is autumnal but not sad. A devout Catholic to the end,
Poirot does not believe that death is the end. His greatest fear is leaving important work
unfinished.
The year is 1949, and Captain Hastings, having recently lost his wife to illness, is summoned to
the house at Styles where he and Poirot began their partnership thirty years earlier (
The
Mysterious Affair at Styles). He is shocked to find a withered and ailing Poirot, confined to a
wheelchair by arthritis and a failing heart and attended by a new valet, Curtis (Adam Hastings),
because George has been called away on family business. The great detective is clearly dying, a
fact confirmed by a doctor's examination midway through the episode, but he is desperate to
conclude a case that now occupies all his waking thoughts. He needs Hastings to go where Poirot
no longer can, to be his eyes and ears and report back everything. Poirot's frustration with his
failing body is palpable. There are moments in
Curtain when it boils over into angry tirades at his
old friend. In happier times, the courtly Belgian gentleman would never have allowed such words
to pass his lips.
Since the war, Styles Court has been operated as a hotel by the domineering Daisy Luttrell (Anne
Reid) and her meek husband, Colonel Toby Luttrell (John Standing). Poirot tells Hastings that a
murderer is currently there but will not say who it is, because Hastings' face is an open book. A
prologue to the episode shows a court case in which a young woman is hanged for murder, with
the suggestion that she was wrongly convicted. As Hastings observes the people around him, he
finds a collection of personalities of the sort that, once upon a time, Poirot would have assembled
in some drawing room where he would unveil the killer with a dramatic flourish.
In addition to the Luttrells themselves, Styles Court is host to the melancholy Elizabeth Cole
(Helen Baxendale), who turns out to be the sister of the woman hanged in the prologue, allegedly
for poisoning their father; Elizabeth insists her sister was innocent. Sir William Boyd-Carrington
(Philip Glenister,
Life on Mars) is staying with the Luttrells while his
own home is being
renovated, and he has invited the Franklins, a doctor (Shaun Dingwall) and his wife, Barbara
(Anna Madeley), to join him. Barbara travels with a nurse named Craven (Claire Keelan) to care
for her supposedly fragile health. Dr. Franklin is accompanied by the assistant in his research into
extracts of the Calobar bean, who just happens to be Hastings' estranged daughter, Judith (Alice
Orr-Ewing), an independent-minded woman with whom Barbara Franklin suspects her husband
may be having an affair.
The group is rounded out by Major Allerton (Matthew McNulty), a handsome womanizer from
London, who, to Hastings' consternation, seems to have set his sights on his daughter Judith, and
Stephen Norton (Aidan McArdle), a stuttering bird watcher, who knows Allerton and clearly
envies his prowess with the opposite sex.
As Poirot remains confined to his bed and wheelchair, laboring with ever greater effort to
communicate with Hastings as even breathing become more difficult, several murders do indeed
occur on the premises, just as the great detective predicted when Hastings arrived. But Poirot
does not provide the solution in a drawing room or before a gathering of suspects, and justice is
not delivered by the hangman. The resolution of
Curtain is unlike any other in all of
Poirot, and
as befits the final collaboration of a singular partnership, it occurs in a private moment between
the two dearest of friends.
Poirot: Series 13 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Poirot continued to be shot on film even after many British television shows had switched to
digital capture, but the episodes in Series 13 were acquired digitally (unless I have misjudged the
make of the cameras pictured in the photo gallery included in this Blu-ray set). The image on
Acorn Media's three 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays for Series 13 are consistent with those of
Series 12 and indeed superior, which no doubt reflects
advances in technology at every step of
the chain, from initial capture to mastering and replication. Some degree of diffusion, whether
applied in camera or in post-production, has frequently been an element of Poirot's style, and
Series 13 is no exception, especially in the valedictory episode, Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.
Even with diffusion, however, there is no mistaking the deep blacks, rich colors and copious
detail that allow the viewer to appreciate the ideally chosen locations and careful period
recreations by the Poirot design team.
Christie's most famous creation inhabited a bygone world of well-appointed drawing rooms,
formal attire and gracious living, and one of Poirot's many eccentricities was to carry that world
with him, and recreate it as much as possible, wherever he went. (Note how he always spreads a
spotless linen handkerchief on an outdoor bench before sitting down.) As Poirot grew more
successful, greater resources were devoted to the period recreations and impressive sets. The
settings in these last five episodes are some of the most elaborate yet, and the Blu-ray image
shows them to best advantage.
Poirot: Series 13 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
To the last, Poirot continued to have a basic stereo soundtrack that emphasized the literate
dialogue and essential sound effects. The track is encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 and
sounds flawless. Christian Henson, who so effectively scored Series 12, returned for the final
episodes, with a score that is by turns lively, foreboding and emotional. It also invokes
Christopher Gunning's original Poirot theme at all the right moments.
Poirot: Series 13 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Interview with David Suchet (1080p; 1.78:1; 18:45): Interviewed at Agatha Christie's
former home at Greenway during the filming of Dead Man's Folly, Suchet answers a
wide array of questions about twenty-four years of playing Hercule Poirot. This interview
appears to be an excerpt from the 50-minute BBC special, Being Poirot, which aired in
the U.K. on the same night as Curtain.
- Photo Gallery (1080p; various; 1:54): A slide show composed of both production stills
and behind-the-scenes photos.
- Additional Trailers: At startup, disc 1 players trailers for Acorn Media, Les Petits
Meurtres d'Agatha Christie and David
Suchet: In the Footsteps of St. Paul, which can be
skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc
loads.
Poirot: Series 13 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Concurrently with the release of Series 13, Acorn Media is also releasing Poirot: The Final
Cases Collection, which includes Series 7 through 13 and completes the set for those who
already own Poirot: The Early Cases
Collection. Acorn is also releasing Poirot: The Complete
Cases Collection for those who are starting from scratch. However one chooses to acquire
Poirot, it represents a unique achievement in the history of film and television: a nearly 25-year
effort to realize the entire career of a single author's beloved creation in dramatic form with the
same actor playing the part continuously. No one will ever attempt this again with Hercule
Poirot. No one may ever attempt anything like this again, full stop. As for Series 13, highest
recommendation.