Agatha Christie's Poirot

I am impressed by David Suchet/Det. Hercule Poirot and his wardrobe. He's alway well dressed and never a hair out of place. I'm also quite amazed at how Detective Poirot goes about doing his duties and solving crimes with his faithful partner Mr. Hastings. Hugh Frazier is a much more "intelligent" partner than Peter Houstonoff's



I began watching Det. Hercule Poirot when it was on PBS Mysteries. As I stated before "Cards On the Table" was one of my favorite episodes mainly because of Mr. Alexander Siddig. It was great to see him on the show. It was most unfortunate that he had to die inorder to expose a murderer.



Gathering all the suspects in the room and relating the crime "step-by-step" has always fascinated me. Sometimes, I can guess who the criminal is before Poirot does!

I like the story of Cards on the Table. The premise of only four people being in the position to kill, whilst they are playing a game of Bridge is terrific.



I listened to the audio adaptation of this and was very impressed. It's very difficult with such a small number of possible killers to keep the reader/listener/watcher on his or her toes, and originally Christie did this very well. Just when you think you've worked it out, another spanner is thrown into the works.



Unfortunately, this episode isn't true to the story and it suffers because of it.



And I personally didn't think Zoe Wanamaker was right for Ariadne Oliver. She's a terrific actress, but I think she missed something of the fussy, absent-mindedness of this brilliant character. Stephanie Cole has played her to great effect on audio, and even Hugh Fraser who narrates some of the unabridged stories does a fabulous Ariadne. There's something about this character that needs a little oomph and I don't believe ZW completely got it right.



The episode has a lot of potential, but why reinvent the wheel when there's enough good stuff to make a much better episode anyway?

Cards on the Table is one of my favorite Agatha Christie books and I was looking forward to a great adaptation. When I started to watch this one, I felt lucky that the adaptation was so true to the book. Yes, Colonel Race is replaced with Colonel Hughes and Battle's name is changed to Wheeler, but these are minimal changes. Little did I know that the ending would nearly ruin the film.



For the most part, Cards on the Table is an excellent film with actors that seemed to jump out of the pages of the book. I was particularly impressed with Zoe Wanamaker's vibrant, enthusiastic performance of Mrs. Olvier. No one could have done the job better, in my opinion. There were also wonderful production values. But beginning with the scene in the boat, everything goes horribly wrong. I can count no fewer than six ridiculous changes that added nothing to the plot. It truly pains me to write this, as everything that came before the ending was just perfect! Why, oh why, did they have to mess it all up in the end?



Altogether, though, Cards on the Table is an entertaining mystery that keeps your attention, so if you are a Poirot fan it is definitely worth checking out.