Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Mystery of the Blue Train

July 13, 2022 12:06 PM - Season 10, Episode 1

Poirot investigates the brutal murder of an American heiress and the theft of a fabulous ruby on the Blue Train between Calais and Nice.
posted by Carillon (2 comments total)

If this feels familiar it's because it's essentially the same plot of The Plymouth Express. The Plymouth Express was written as a short story earlier then expanded out to a full-length novel, hence why it's here twice. I should go back and watch that back to back to see which is better tbh.

I also like the foreshadowing of Katherine asking Poirot at the end if he's taken the Orient Express.
posted by Carillon at 12:09 PM on July 13, 2022

This sort of misdirection probably works better in books than in film but Character X claiming to see Character Y at a specific time and place and we don't see it on screen means Guilty! but that both were guilty eluded me. Overall, I think there was too much plot for a 1.5 hour running time. In trying to give everyone a motive (Major: "We appreciate the democratic nature of the exercise. We all get a pasting"), too much time was spent setting up the characters at the beginning--the spoiled rich daughter, her odious husband, her blustering father, the money-strapped cousin, none of whom were actually that compelling (and in Elliot Gould's case, really bad acting) and not enough time was spent developing the red herrings. The woman who was revealed as the mistress at the end spent the whole episode hanging around for no good reason. Then there was something about a previous jewel robbery on the Riviera and the Major's not-so-bad leg? And wouldn't the sleeping car attendant recognise that it was not Ruth Kettering in the doorway? One thing that really bugged me was, there were so many tight closeups, especially of Poirot listening, eavesdropping, that it made him seem super creepy.

The dim but lovable Corky was my favorite. That ruby was just there at his feet!! So of course he picked it up and gave it to his wife for a present.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:03 PM on July 14, 2022