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After Peter Ustinov completed his last feature film outing as Agatha Christie’s foremost sleuth Hercule Poirot with 1988’s Appointment with Death, ITV in Britain began its own series of Poirot adventures in 1989 beginning with adaptations of thirty-six of Mrs. Christie’s short stories featuring the fastidious Belgian detective and starring character actor David Suchet. It’s a role he’s been playing for the last twenty-three years and one he has honed to a great work of art. These initial ten hour-long Poirot outings make up the contents of Acorn’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot – Series 1, remasterings of the first season of adventures, and for those who are familiar only with the most recent of the movie-length mysteries, these first ten episodes make for very entertaining viewing.
Agatha Christie’s Poirot – Series 1 (Blu-ray)
Directed by Edward Bennett and Renny Rye
Studio: Acorn
Year: 1989
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 519 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English
Subtitles: SDH
Region: no designation
MSRP: $ 49.99
Release Date: January 31, 2012
Review Date: January 12, 2012
The Series
4.5/5
Things get off to an unusual start with “The Adventure of the Clapham Cook,” a somewhat unusual assignment for Poirot who usually finds himself deep in the throes of the aristocracy or heads of state and involved with thefts of military secrets or precious jewels. Here, he’s looking for a missing domestic, a cook serving a decidedly lower middle class family who’s only willing to pay him one guinea for his trouble. Times are slow, however, so Poirot takes the case which, as it turns out, is much more than a simple case of a missing person. Murder and espionage rear their ugly heads before all is said and done with a tale that gets the first series off to a rousing start.
Among the other nine cases in this set, four are among the best of the entire thirty-six Poirot short mysteries which were filmed. “The Third Floor Flat,” the most outstanding of the entire lot, finds Poirot investigating a murder that takes place two floors below him in Whitehaven Mansions where he resides. “Triangle at Rhodes” allows Mrs. Christie to take a trial run at a love triangle using a classic case of misdirection in a story which must have been on her mind when years later she wrote Evil Under the Sun. “Problem at Sea” finds Poirot searching for a murderer while on a cruise ship. “The Incredible Theft,” a rewritten extension of her earlier story “The Submarine Plans,” finds the upcoming second war with Germany to be subtext for Poirot’s investigation of strangely missing blueprints for a warplane during a weekend house party. In fact, with all of the stories set during the 1930s, the production design for the series, from its art deco title design to the clothes and cars of the period, is superb, one of the most exciting aspects of all of the elaborate Poirot productions produced over the past two decades.
It’s fascinating to see David Suchet’s early take on the role of Hercule Poirot. Later series find him experimenting with a slightly higher pitch to his voice, a more affected style of walking, and, of course, a slightly thinner and wider set of moustaches, but it’s no matter. The keys to his Poirot: the careful calm of his thought processes, his fastidiousness about his grooming, the wry handling of those whose brains can’t compete with his own (that is to say, everybody) are all here from the beginning. Hugh Fraser is the jovial though slightly dim-witted Captain Hastings, Philip Jackson adds to the continual befuddlement as Chief Inspector Japp, and Pauline Moran is the ever-efficient, no-nonsense secretary Miss Lemon.
Christie scholars have never placed the quality of her short mysteries on the same plane with her novels, and they’re right that the short story form was not Mrs. Christie’s real forte. Without the pages to write her puzzling mysteries in great depth with labyrinthine subplots and lots of suspects, her short stories most often turn on a single trick or a twist with only the most cursory characterizations for her cast of players. And once one knows the few tricks she has up her sleeve for her brief stories, solving some of the puzzles becomes quite easy. She uses the same basic twist here for “The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly” and ”The Incredible Theft,” and the basic parlor trick used for both “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” and “The Dream” isn’t difficult to see coming either. Still, for easygoing mysteries of less than an hour, these are among the best available.
Here are the ten selections in this two disc Blu-ray set:
1 – The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
2 – Murder in the Mews
3 – The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
4 – Four and Twenty Blackbirds
5 – The Third Floor Flat
6 – Triangle at Rhodes
7 – Problem at Sea
8 – The Incredible Theft
9 – The King of Clubs
10 – The Dream
Video Quality
4/5
The episodes have been framed at their broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and are presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. The original DVD issues of these episodes were taken from videotape masters and were often quite poor. These remastered transfers constitute a great improvement in sharpness, color saturation, contrast, and detail from the original VHS and DVD releases. However, in remastering the old films, some DNR seems to have been applied as some of the facial textures occasionally seem a trifle waxen and unreal. There appears to be no noticeable grain in the images either, another sure sign that some DNR has been applied. However smooth and bright the images now are, however, the DNR has not completely taken out detail in faces or in the handsome deco surroundings of this exquisitely appointed series. Sharpness is very good, and while flesh tones are often a bit too rosily pink, color overall is beautifully controlled throughout. There remains none of the aliasing and moiré from the previous DVD releases, so even with the mediocre black levels, the images retain a fine, crisp look with only an occasional soft shot (often in long shot). Each episode has been divided into 5 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is decoded by Dolby Prologic into the center channel. The mono sound is quite clear and well delivered, but one laments that a lossless soundtrack wasn’t utilized for this Blu-ray release. The wonderful theme music and background score by Christopher Gunning might have been a bit more resonant with a lossless encode, and the sound effects of the impressive vintage cars and other period effects might have gained a smidgen with a higher bit rate.
Special Features
0/5
There are no bonus features at all with this release, not even a porting over of the text screen of biographical information about Agatha Christie and David Suchet that were featured on the original DVD releases of these episodes.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
Agatha Christie’s Poirot – Series 1 is a welcome high definition release of the first ten episodes featuring the definitive Hercule Poirot of actor David Suchet. While some may be bothered with the smoothed, video-like transfers and the lack of lossless sound, most will be happy with the undeniable upgrade in quality as these early Poirot films begin to show up on Blu-ray. Recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
