Agatha Christie's Poirot: Dumb Witness

April 27, 2022 9:28 PM - Season 6, Episode 4

An elderly woman confides to Poirot that she fears one of her relatives is trying to kill her for her money. He persuades her to disinherit her heirs, but she is murdered anyway.
posted by Carillon (3 comments total)

Poirot is always great when interacting with dogs that he finds cute. He gets so dignified with them! Definitely some strogn parts with this and nice of her to show off her poison knowledge. Also one that is pretty interesting/confusing given English inheritance laws. Sometimes they can change it, sometimes they can't, but it always says a lot how many of these plots require inherited money to be at stake. Shows a lot about the class concerns. The doctor plot is interesting, both a mix of foreign prejudice, but the show has him be pretty scary at times, and it's not clear if the kids are in danger with him.
posted by Carillon at 9:32 PM on April 27, 2022

Grrr. Hastings, way to explain the schoolboy joke that I got the first time as would 99% of UK viewers. Okay, I figured out this one…it’s always the monogram in the mirror…and I guessed Bella’s first name would be Arabella but it would’ve been nice to see her initials on a suitcase or maybe a discreet brooch. The phosphorus bit annoyed me. First of all, when Emily died, NONE of the witnesses thought to mention to the police that she was glowing green? Even as a remark about the supernatural to Poirot? Does one exhale green fumes after ingesting phosphorus?? And finally, Emily taking the tonic and the pills needed to be set up better. It’s been a long time since I’ve read AC but she was scrupulous about clues and yes, she did everything to obscure them with red herrings but there needed to be a suggestion, a kind of “belt and suspenders” allusion that she was likely to take both.

And the group was too polite to mention it but, looks like the chop for Bella. Two murders and England still had the death penalty.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:26 PM on April 28, 2022

Does one exhale green fumes after ingesting phosphorus?

I searched for medical case reports of phosphorus poisoning and found one in which "at one time phosphorescent eructations could be seen emanating from the mouth and nose" of the patient (Rubitsky & Myerson, "Acute Phosphorus Poisoning", Archives of Internal Medicine (Chicago) 1949;83(2):164-178). So bizarre as it sounds, the phenomenon described by Christie seems to be realistic. In the novel the seance took place in the dark, so even a very faint glow would have been visible.
posted by cyanistes at 3:24 PM on March 22, 2023