Poirot - Hercule Poirot's Christmas

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This feature-length edition of the TV series popularized on PBS and A&E is the British equivalent of "a very special episode." The incomparable David Suchet stars as Agatha Christie's impeccable Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, whose simple Christmas "repast" is disturbed by an invitation to visit the home of Simeon Lee, a repellent curmudgeon who makes Mr. Potter look like George Bailey. "My life is in danger," he states. Events snowball as Simeon is indeed killed, and a fortune in uncut diamonds stolen. As Poirot observes, a case can be made against any of the family members Simeon gleefully tormented. It is "all very clever, no doubt," even though Barney Fife could probably figure out who's behind this "intricate web of deception." Still, keep your eyes and ears open, as Simeon compels Poirot. "Putting two and two together" is all the confounding fun in this mystery for all seasons. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews:

Poirot at Christmas.......2007-07-12

I am an avid fan of David Suchet's Poirot and I have all the DVD releases. This is one I enjoyed very much. As in the book, no Captain Hastings in this one, but the loyal Inspector Japp is rescued from his Christmas vacation at the in-laws to head the case. It's one of Christie's better stories with a great ending. While not as detailed and engrossing as the book, it's still an intertaining view.

Great Job.......2007-02-02

They did a fantastic job on this one when adapting it from the book. By eliminating a few of the characters from the book, I think they actually made the story easier to follow with better flow. Though my favorites of the film series are Sad Cypress and Death on the Nile, this comes in third. I don't think they took anything away from Agatha Christie's work by changing it slightly and eliminating a handful of characters. Of course, they had a great story to work with. This is one of her most interesting books with great history worked into the motive and plot. Great job on this film. Recommended to watch over and over again.

Best Poirot episode I've seen.......2005-12-06

I like the excellent Poirot series, usually because it is a calm, mildly amusing, predictable show set in the 1930s, with vintage Art Deco pieces and British aristocrats. Poirot himself is an amusing, somewhat eccentric oddball, a rational, skeptical, quite reserved and proper gentleman.

It is true, and can be construed as a criticism, though I find it a strength, that every Poirot episode is cut of the same cloth, very similar. Poirot never changes and is always the same. But this is part of the charm. Poirot grows on one.

This particular episode ranks as the best Poirot I have yet seen. Highly recommended.

Delightful, Subtly Humorous; Poirot is charming .......2005-08-07

Adapted by Clive Exton, this 1994 production of Christie's novel, Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938), provides viewers with another fine mystery with the pitch perfect David Suchet playing the famous Belgian detective. Exton manages to capture well the professional yet affectionate relationship between Chief Inspector James Japp (Philip Jackson) and Poirot. In one scene, executed with subtle humor, Poirot opens his Christmas gift (from Japp) and Poirot's reaction is priceless. The reference to the same gift at the end of the program is also amusing, if only to emphasize Poirot's gracious acceptance of an unwanted item which Japp knowingly recognizes.

It is this easy humor which makes this particular mystery entertaining given the dark backdrop in which the events take place. The focus rests on an aged patriarch, Simeon Lee (Vernon Dobtcheff), a greedy and sadistic man, whose intention to alter his will during the Christmas season leads to his violent death. Scattered throughout Gorston Hall remain his extended family and servants, all possible suspects in another example of a locked room mystery.

Mr. Exton's adaptation wisely omits several characters thereby lessening the confusion slightly. While this choice makes possible the coherence of a plot which must unfold in under two hours, I was slightly disappointed that Exton excised the clue of the `excess blood' which was significant to the novel. Although this removal does not ruin the story itself, it lessens Christie's intention, which was for her, an unusual choice.

Christie wrote Hercule Poirot's Christmas and dedicated the novel to her brother-in-law, James, with the promise of writing a tale with greater violence (and blood) given his criticism of her previous novels possessing an "antiseptic" flavor to them. By emphasizing the blood which poured forth from the hapless Simeon Lee, we readers feel a bit vindicated that a disreputable man has met with his just desserts. Recommended viewing for a cold, wintry night.

Christmas in Shropshire........2004-12-26

It is supposed to be a quiet holiday, Hercule Poirot's Christmas, with a simple repast and a box of exquisite Belgian chocolates. And he's been looking forward to it - unlike Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson), for whom a visit to his wife's Welsh relatives is forecast. "If they start singing again ..." he groans wistfully after the pre-Christmas lunch with Poirot which he expects to be his last decent meal until the beginning of the new year.

But when Poirot is about to sit down for dinner that night, he registers a faint chill in his apartment - first his wine is a tad too cold, then he is even compelled to put on a blazer - and to his horror, he discovers that his radiator has gone cold. What is worse, his landlord informs him that it won't be fixed until after Christmas. And so, when he receives a phone call from cantankerous, wheelchair-bound old Simeon Lee (Vernon Bobtcheff), asking him to spend the holidays at his Shropshire estate Gorston Hall because his life may be in danger, Poirot has only one material question: "Tell to me, if you please, Monsieur Lee: Does your house have the central heating?"

Yet, even after his arrival in Shropshire, Poirot isn't quite sure what is expected of him; and unfortunately Mr. Lee, who made his fortune prospecting diamonds in South Africa, doesn't greatly elaborate - only that he (Lee) intends to make an announcement which will give his family, who already hate and fear him, even greater cause for hatred; and that Poirot is to keep his eyes and ears open. "Bien, what am I looking for? What am I listening for?" the detective inquires. "You'll know when it happens," is Lee's terse response. But later that night, after old Simeon has informed his family that he is about to make a new will to accommodate his just-returned third son Harry (Brian Gwaspari) and his Spanish granddaughter Pilar (Sasha Behar) - which inter alia means scrapping the allowance of Harry's brother George (Eric Carte), a Member of Parliament - and after he has then sent them off again, not without putting them down as "a set of mamby pamby weaklings," a loud crash and a scream reminiscent of the squeal of a slaughtered pig emanates from Simeon's room, and when the door (locked from inside) is finally broken open, they find him lying there with his throat slashed, the room in total disorder and looking like a battlefield - and the diamonds that Simeon had recently ordered to be sent from his company's museum in Pretoria are gone from his safe.

Now, of course, Poirot's task begins in earnest; and since Wales is just across the border, he quickly resolves to save Japp from his over-exuberant, carol-loving in-laws and invite him to join the investigation. Together with Shropshire Police Superintendent Sugden (Mark Tandy) they set out to find a murderer who may equally likely have tried to prevent the alteration of old Mr. Lee's will, steal his diamonds, or have had a different motive altogether - for as Simeon himself had boasted to both Pilar and Poirot, he had been "a very wicked man" and didn't regret it; in fact, he had "enjoyed every moment:" killing, stealing, lying, and producing a legion of sons born "on the wrong side of the blanket" in the process. As Poirot quickly discovers, almost every member of the household has not only a motive for murder but also a flimsy alibi at best: not only George who, like his young wife Magdalena (Andree Bernard) is deeply in debt, but even George and Harry's brother Alfred, who stands to inherit the lion's share of the fortune after having stayed at home and taken care of his father together with his wife Lydia (Catherine Rabett), enduring humiliation upon humiliation over the years. Then there is Pilar who, it turns out, has a few secrets of her own; Harry's reconciliation with his father is only a recent one (and who says it was honestly felt anyway?); valet Horbury (Ayub Khan Din) has yet other reasons to fear the police - and there is also an elderly lady (Olga Lowe) staying at a nearby inn, who likewise shows a peculiar interest in the goings-on at Gorston Hall.

While plot-wise relatively standard Christie fare - complete with locked room, country estate, belligerent patriarch, shockingly young wives, a prodigal son returning home after a promise of "fatted calf" (to the displeasure of his demure "stay at home, stick in the mud" brother(s)), sudden testamentary changes and other motives galore - and although Christie's imagination may have gone a bit overboard, as I am not sure the solution would have worked in reality quite the way it is described here, this adaptation of "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" is a delightful entry in the canon featuring David Suchet, as always the perfect embodiment of the little Belgian with the many "little grey cells" and perfectly waxed moustache, whom a speck of dust would cause greater pain than even a bullet, and who cannot eat his breakfast eggs unless they're exactly the same size. Faithful to Dame Agatha's novel in setting and atmosphere, like a number of other installments this episode cleverly varies the series's distinctive title melody in tune and instrumentation so as to underline its specific seasonal backdrop and Shropshire locale; which to my mind even makes it reminiscent of the title melody of the "Cadfael" adaptations, likewise set in Shropshire and originally broadcast by ITV. Fans of Poirot's sidekick Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser) may be a bit disappointed to find him missing - but this is still a fine Christmas gift from Dame Agatha, David Suchet and company, and as always there is plenty of banter between Poirot and Japp as well ... and an amusing little subplot involving their mutual Christmas presents.

"Ah, Chief Inspector, you have been thinking again - I have warned you of this before ..." (Poirot to Japp, after listening to his theory on the murder.)

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