Poirot (TV Series) The Underdog (1993) User Reviews

better off dead

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 26 October 2014]

Poirot and Hastings are invited to dinner by one Mr. Atwell, who owns a chemical company. Poirot is most excited to go because Atwell has a fabulous collection of Belgian miniatures. Poirot assumes -- wrongly -- that Mr. Atwell is a man of taste and refinement. Turns out he's crude, insulting, and gruff. He tells Poirot that he bought the miniatures at a knockout price.

And boy, the suspects. All over the place. The wife, her boyfriend, the maid, the son. Poirot solves it, and at one point, Miss Lemon uses hypnotism on one of the people who were in the house. (When the show starts, she's trying to hypnotize Poirot, to no avail.) This is a good episode, with everyone in fine form.

Enjoyable outing for Poirot.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 19 November 2015]

Poirot is invited to the home of businessman Mr Trefusis to look at his Collection of Belgian miniature bronzes, Trefusis is rude and unpleasant, and pretty good to everyone. A death comes as no surprise.

I consider Series 5 quite a high point, The Underdog may not be the best offering, but it's definitely of a high standard, it's just up against some quality episodes, Dead Man's mirror, The Chocolate box etc.

The Underdog is a beautifully stylish episode, the scenes inside Astwell's house look wonderful, lots of art deco to feast the eyes upon. The art deco painting of Lord Astwell is great and has popped up in several shows since.

There are a good few suspects, Astwell is such an unpleasant chap, you really believe that they'd all gladly see him out of the way, Dennis Lill so often cast as the good guy did a great job in making Sir Reuben so loathsome.

Overall The Underdog gets a hearty thumbs up, 8/10

Good whodunnit

[grantss · 8/10 · 23 August 2016]

Sir Reuben Astwell is the CEO of Astwell Chenicals and a rather unscrupulous and obnoxious man. Astwell Chemicals has just developed a synthetic substitute for rubber, an incredibly useful innovation and surely something that will be useful if Britain goes to war with Germany. However, Sir Reuben, despite seeing the possibility of a war with Germany, makes a deal with to sell the formula to a German company. That night he is found dead, murdered. Luckily Poirot is in the vicinity and he is soon on the case.

Quite intriguing, with the murderer not being obvious. Some good twists, turns and red herrings. Some good sub-plots too: Miss Lemon and her hypnosis, Hastings and his golf.

A good whodunnit.

Hooray for the murderer!

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 26 January 2008]

Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are invited for dinner at the house of Reuben Astwell, the owner of a big chemical company, who also has a collection of Belgian bronze miniatures. The same night after the dinner, Astwell is murdered in his study. Poirot investigates.

"The Underdog" is mainly notable for Agatha Christie creating one the most obnoxious, hateful murder victims of her career (he may be even worse than Mr. Ratchett of "Murder on the Orient Express"!). You only want to find out who his murderer is out of curiosity, not to see him / her punished (and indeed, what happens to the murderer at the end is left unclear). There is some interesting use of hypnosis in this episode (conducted by Miss Lemon, no less), but the guilty party is eventually revealed through the process of elimination. (**1/2)

The winds of war play in this enjoyable plot

[SimonJack · 9/10 · 14 February 2018]

World War II is in the wind in "The Underdog," and this episode of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries is entangled somewhat with the war. A British firm has developed synthetic rubber, and a sub-plot is whether or not it should sell its production to Germany.

This is a 1993 production in which Chief Inspector Japp is not present. But, Miss Lemon has more of a role, and Captain Hastings has a usual supporting role. Oh, yes, and golf again is part of the story - although it has nothing to do with the crime.

The cast of characters is quite large and there are no real red herrings in this plot. But the subplots alone make it a very interesting and entertaining episode. Miss Lemon's fad in this film is hypnotism, and she's quite good at it. But not so as to be able to entice the grey cells of the super sleuth.

Rather than humor in the dialog in this film, some Poirot philosophy and psychology is particularly pithy. Here a two examples.

Hercule Poirot, "Intuition, Hastings, often describes some fact that is so deeply buried in the subconscious, that the subject is not aware of its existence."

And, still, as he unravels the mystery, he tells those assembled, "I am a student of the psychology, and throughout this case I have been looking not for a man or a woman who has the bad temper, because the bad temper is in itself a safety valve."

The modern estate used for the filming has become very familiar in the Poirot mysteries. It's sameness is beginning to have the effect of detracting from the stories. But this is a very good Poirot mystery.

Polymerization, The Added Touch.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 1 June 2014]

I can't imagine where they dig up these streamline moderne buildings that serve as 1930s locations. There is hardly a right angle in sight. They're all waves of glass and rounded edges; no eaves; flat white paneling. Okay, Poirot's "Whitehaven Mansions" or whatever it is was built in 1936 as Florin Court. And there it stands today, ready for occupants from 1935. But in this episode, the factory in which the chemical intrigues take place is phenomenally moreso. It's the 1935-1938 D6 building in Beeston, part of Boots industries, whose buildings are far more impressive than their tooth paste.

Even the landscaping is perfect. Not a stray blade of grass. Sweeping curves with retaining walls. Most front yards look like mine, utterly normal, with naked box springs, cars on cement blocks, and two dogs, one cat, a hamster, and two bodies buried under the weeds.

The CEO of this chemical company is Reuben Astwell, and a meaner scoundrel you'll never hope to meet. He has no sense of humor. He intends to sell his new artificial rubber to the Germans, who will undoubtedly put it to military use in the coming war. "Damned good for business," growls Reuben Astwell.

Poirot is visiting to view Astwell's collection of Belgian miniatures. "Got them at a knockout price," proclaims Philistine Astwell, who doesn't care if they melt them down into bronze bars. He's of a sulfurous disposition. He chews everyone out. He fires his maid, which is a big mistake because even if she couldn't serve a soft-boiled egg she's played by Adie Allen, another of those irresistible blonds that the producers seem so fond of.

It's no surprise, then, when he's found with his head coshed on his office floor. There is a surfeit of suspects. Everybody seems to have had a noisy row with old Astwell the night of his death. Poirot has little difficulty figuring out what happened, although when he collects the suspects and explains everything, much of it was news to me. I suppose holding back clues is no worse than industrial espionage.

Pretty enjoyable.

Another well made, entertaining Poirot

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 17 April 2012]

I have been a fan of Agatha Christie and of the Poirot series for several years now. The Underdog is not one of my favourites, but it still has plenty that I love about the series on display. It is very well made, with some scenes having a nice autumnal feel to them, and the scenery, costumes and photography are splendid, complete with an evocative atmosphere. Right from the iconic theme tune to the haunting under-scoring, the music adds much to the mood of the episode without being over-bearing. The script still has its perfect blend of humour, thoughtfulness and tension, and the story is always interesting with the hypnosis parts a nice touch and the final solution satisfying if not entirely unexpected. The victim himself is such an obnoxious bully, perhaps the most unpleasant and most deserving victim of the series, that you are actually glad when he is done in and you feel sympathy for the murderer. The acting is its usual reliable itself, with the four leads outstanding especially David Suchet, who as far as I'm concerned hasn't given a single bad performance in this role. All in all, well made, entertaining and well acted. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Not among the best of the Poirot shows...but it's STILL Poirot!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 13 April 2017]

"The Underdog" is a mediocre installment of "Poirot"...but considering how good they usually are, this is still pretty good. It begins with a very typical sort of setup. There is a rich industrialist who's invited a variety of folks to his manor home. However, it soon becomes apparent that the industrialist is a real scum-bag and has spend much of his life screwing over everyone in order to become rich. And, everyone has plenty of reason to hate him...so it's absolutely no surprise whatsoever when he ends up dead. Poirot just happens to be among the houseguests and he is able to rather quickly figure out what happened and makes things right.

No surprises here, just a typical sort of story and David Suchet's fine interpretation of the Poirot character. Worth seeing but there are better and more inspired stories out there.

Even this rather pedestrian episode still entertains

[Paularoc · 7/10 · 2 September 2012]

Even an average Poirot show is better than most of what's on television today thanks to the production values, the wonderful portrayal of Suchet as Poirot and the strong supporting cast. The mystery element in this one is not particularly interesting and the victim, as a number of reviewers have observed, is so odious that the viewer dearly hopes that the murderer gets away with it. Which, of course, he doesn't but he certainly did make life happier for Sir Reuben Astwell's business associates and family members by killing this boorish, arrogant, and generally nasty human being. He is also the highly successful owner of a major chemical plant that has made a break-through in the production of artificial rubber. Astwell is the owner of a large collection of Belgian miniature bronzes and while Hastings is participating in a golf tournament, Poirot is able to visit Astwell and see the bronzes which Poirot says are magnificent. Astwell doesn't care for he bought the bronzes at a good price and wants to sell them at a big profit telling Poirot that the new owner"can melt them down for scrap." What a philistine, eh? The side story of Miss Lemon's dabbling in hypnotism is less engaging than most subplots in the series and is a bit hokey. Still highly watchable but not one of the best in the series.

The Underdog

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 18 March 2020]

Poirot accompanies Hastings to a local golf tournament. Industrialist Sir Reuben Astwell has a magnificent collection of Belgian miniature bronzes that Poirot wishes to view.

Sir Reuben Astwell is the head of Astwell Chemicals where his brother is a junior partner. The company has developed a synthetic substitute for rubber.

However Poirot discovers that Sir Reuben is a philistine. A nasty man who cares about profit, he plans to sell the formula to a German company even though they may yet go to war with Britain.

When Sir Reuben is found dead, his nephew is the main suspect. He was heard arguing with his uncle on the night Sir Reuben died.

A fast moving episode, the art direction was wonderful. There was a lot of money spent in the sets and designs.

Miss Lemon has a prominent part to play as she is dabbling in hypnotism.

Sibling rivalry, stolen formulas, jealousy and greed. The episode has it all, the denouement was weak. I am not convinced the evidence against the culprit was that strong.

Everywhere I look, I see plot holes

[bensonmum2 · 5/10 · 12 August 2015]

Sir Reuben Astwill couldn't be nastier if he was shown kicking puppies and clubbing baby seals. So when he turns up dead, no one seems overly upset. Some even seem happy. With no shortage of suspects who had something against Sir Reuben, Poirot has his work cut out for him.

The Underdog is a well made episode with fine acting, excellent camera-work, nice period details, an interesting subplot involving synthetic rubber, terrific locations, and everything else you might expect in a Poirot episode. But, as my rating indicates, there are things about The Underdog that bother me. The plot holes are so big, I can't get past them to fully enjoy the episode.

HUGE SPOILER ALERT - First, I didn't care for the whole hypnosis bit. It seems more like something from a Charlie Chan film than an episode of Poirot. And to make it worse, Lady Astwell's recollection of events while under hypnosis is ridiculous. She remembers seeing a figure behind the curtain. And yes, when we see the curtain, there's definitely someone behind it. But the way their leaning into it, I half expected them to come tumbling into the room at any minute. Wouldn't this mysterious figure taken a step or two back to better hide themselves? It's preposterous.

Second (and more importantly), this has to be one of the worst final reveals I've seen in a Poirot episode. After it was over, i just sat there dumbfounded. Poirot proved nothing. I don't know if it was Christie or the screenwriter (I can't remember the short story), but Poirot's summation is full of holes. The piece of paper Poirot produces to show that Mr. Trefusis' contract would have been worthless had the process been sold to the Germans was not evidence he committed a crime. It's motive and nothing more. And how does Poirot know that Mr. Trefusis was hiding behind the curtain? He doesn't. In fact, there might not have been anyone hiding behind the curtain. We only have Lady Astwell's word for it. For all Poirot knows, Lady Astwell and her true love, Victor, could have committed the crime together. The rest of the events would have still fit. Or, how does Poirot know that Lily wasn't behind the curtain? She could have been the one to come out and kill Sir Reuben and the rest of the events would have still fit. Or, how does Poirot know that Charles didn't kill his uncle while quarreling with him? Because he said he didn't? He could have killed Sir Reuben and the rest of the events would have still fit. I've named at least four other possible murderers (and I could list more) that Poirot could have named. He has no evidence to support naming anyone the murderer. Like I said, way too many plot holes for me.

Poor

[donlessnau-591-637730 · 4/10 · 10 July 2021]

Not a very faithful adaptation. It's a pretty good short story in the Christie collection and would have made a great TV episode IF they hadn't gone so "Hollywood."

Not vintage wine,indeed!

[igorlongo · 5/10 · 21 May 2012]

One of the worst short episodes of a great and excellent series:the plot is awfully changed,transforming a classic whodunit with a good surprise ending in a half-baked espionage story with a randomly chosen culprit (the least interesting and developed character,by the way):the Lemon-as-an hypnotist gag is childish and frankly quite embarrassing and even great character actor Denis Lill as a tyrannical tycoon is badly used,being his part absolutely one-dimensional and stereotypical.The result is a mix among an old Mister Moto flick and a new Perry Mason TV movie:substitute the Astoprene rubber with a new cosmetic face-cream,Bill Wallis with David Warner and Denis Lill with....Morgan Fairchild,and,changing the ingredients,the resulting formula will be the same!!!!For Poirot completists only ; if you search the best try instead with COOK or THEFT or BOND or DAVENHEIM or MANOR,not with this undistinguished entry of an usually reliable and highly interesting series(well,MISSING WILL is even worse,alas!!!)