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Checkout FunnyFact.com | SuperHeroBooks - Poirot - Hercule Poirot's Christmas
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List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $8.95
Your Save: $ 11.04 ( 55% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
Starring: David Suchet, Philip Jackson, Vernon Dobtcheff, Simon Roberts, Catherine Rabett
Directed By: Edward Bennett
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781569384886
Format: Color
ISBN: 1569384886
Label: Acorn Media
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Acorn Media
Release Date: 2001-09-25
Running Time: 100
Studio: Acorn Media
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: We wish you a bloody Christmas
Comment: When most families get together for Christmas, they can end up wanting to kill each other. Most don't actually do it.
But when a family patriarch is a malevolent old lecher like Simeon Lee, and you have Hercule Poirot as a houseguest, it's no surprise when somebody ends up dead. The adaptationof "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" is a decidedly unsentimental little Yuletide murder mystery, full of snow-covered manorhouses, gruesome noises and the occasional Welsh carol choir.
Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) is all set to celebrate Christmas at home... until his heating dies. Coincidentally, creepy old diamond mogul Simeon Lee calls, asking him to come over for Christmas.
Lee is also gathering his adult children at his house -- a stuffy MP and his slinky wife, a downtrodden son and his increasingly fed-up wife, a globe-trotting "black sheep" and a beautiful Spanish granddaughter Pilar (Sasha Behar). Unfortunately after Lee reveals the intention of changing his will and antagonizes his sons, the house is roused by a gruesome howl -- and he's found with his throat cut in a locked room.
So Poirot lassos Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) from his in-laws' chorale to help local cop Sugden (Mark Tandy) -- especially since Lee has not only been killed, but his uncut diamonds have been stolen. Secrets and lies begin to come out of the woodwork, as the impossible crime's workings become more evident to Poirot's little grey cells. Now he must solve it before another Yuletide murder happens.
In theory "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" has everything a Christmas movie should have -- gifts, mistletoe, a snow-drifted English countryside, a big old house.. Of course, the outer trappings are where the Christmas spirit stops, and the murderous stuff begins -- although it's only moderately hard to figure out the murderer's identity.
There's plenty of suspense and odd little clues strewn through the plot, along with a plethora of suspects who would have liked to see Simeon cold'n'dead, but who couldn't possibly have gotten inside. And while the investigation is pretty straightforward, it's strewn with some surprising revelations about a couple of the family members. Not to mention a strange old lady who comes into town and seems VERY happy about Simeon's demise.
To give it a festive air, Poirot and Japp have some holiday struggles. The Belgian sleuth has to find a present for his Scotland Yard buddy, while Japp is being tortured by his Welsh in-laws' constant caroling ("I have come to rescue you, mon ami"). And the scripting is full of clever little prods ("You two should get on, being foreign," Harry Lee says to the Spanish Pilar and Belgian Poirot).
As always, David Suchet is superb as Poirot -- dapper, precise, with a mind that neatly coils around all the clues and sees where they fit, and a subtle brand of wit ("My family hate me, you know." "It is not hard to see why, Monsieur"). The actors playing the assorted spawn (and in-laws) of Simeon all do a thoroughly solid job, from Andrée Bernard doll-like Magdalena to Brian Gwaspari's weatherbeaten Harry. Behar is never quite convincing as Pilar, though.
"Hercule Poirot's Christmas" is thankfully devoid of sentimental reason-for-the-season dribbling -- it's all about dysfunctional families, gruesome murder and too-big gloves.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Poirot at Christmas
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Job
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Poirot episode I've seen
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Delightful, Subtly Humorous; Poirot is charming
Comment: 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.
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Editorial Reviews:
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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
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