It's always interesting to see how a long and successful television series begins and compare the earlier with the later episodes.
The differences in this case aren't striking. Poirot's accent and general demeanor are the same. The mustache is more modest than that baroque thing under his nose in some later stories. But, all in all, he minces along and complains about a grease spot on his suit, just as he always will. Hastings is appreciably younger but firmly Hastings. Miss Lemon is as voluptuous as ever, and Inspector Japp is burdened with the same lugubrious features.
The story itself reminded me a little of some of Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, at least some elements of it. The duping of a naif by a person is disguise turned up once in a while in the Holmes stories. There were echoes of "The Red Headed League." And all of these fictional detectives display an intuition that would stagger a fortune teller, not just Holmes and Poirot but, equally, Columbo.
Example: A murderer goes to great lengths to obtain a particular battered old trunk. He intends to hide a dead body in it. But what does he want an ordinary and weathered trunk? Because it's less likely to be opened by customs inspectors when he ships the body-containing trunk to Venezuela. He's going to take it with him to Caracas because he doesn't want to be bothered disposing of the body in England. Got that? Poirot got it. He figured it all out in no time.
Complete fun.
The differences in this case aren't striking. Poirot's accent and general demeanor are the same. The mustache is more modest than that baroque thing under his nose in some later stories. But, all in all, he minces along and complains about a grease spot on his suit, just as he always will. Hastings is appreciably younger but firmly Hastings. Miss Lemon is as voluptuous as ever, and Inspector Japp is burdened with the same lugubrious features.
The story itself reminded me a little of some of Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, at least some elements of it. The duping of a naif by a person is disguise turned up once in a while in the Holmes stories. There were echoes of "The Red Headed League." And all of these fictional detectives display an intuition that would stagger a fortune teller, not just Holmes and Poirot but, equally, Columbo.
Example: A murderer goes to great lengths to obtain a particular battered old trunk. He intends to hide a dead body in it. But what does he want an ordinary and weathered trunk? Because it's less likely to be opened by customs inspectors when he ships the body-containing trunk to Venezuela. He's going to take it with him to Caracas because he doesn't want to be bothered disposing of the body in England. Got that? Poirot got it. He figured it all out in no time.
Complete fun.