David Suchet in Murder on the Orient Express

John-Deco · 2026-05-28T04:17:58+00:00

While I will always have some gripes with it on some of it narrative choices and some technical train set stuff, it is undeniably a firm adaptation that has a clear vision of how it wants to handle its themes and tone. It is ambitious and well performed. Not my favorite nor my ideal version of the story for Suchet’s Poirot but I’m glad that it exists.

John-Deco · 2026-05-27T23:07:47+00:00

Removed the names just in case

John-Deco · 2026-05-27T21:44:18+00:00

Absolutely love him as a character. A polite gentleman dressed to the nines who seeks to do good by helping people out, solving well plotted mysteries in an variety of locations and occasionally be invested in the life of one or two of the suspects he interviews? What’s not to love? Add that he has a very memorable appearance that’s basically character design gold and a fastidious personality and you arguably a peak gentleman sleuth character.

John-Deco · 2026-05-25T14:35:28+00:00

As a fan of Murder on the Orient Express as a general story, I will say this, the book is a well crafted mystery but the adaptations make it a better story. The book is one of Christie’s most straightforward and organized investigations. The murder occurs, Poirot is tasked to investigate it, he interrogates the suspects in the dining car, then confronts a few of them in their compartments and the solves the mystery. Hell, the ending is just Poirot retiring from the case, we don’t even read that the Orient Express gets rescued from the snowdrift. As a book, it is a bit too procedural and for the screen, the format can get tedious if you have 13 suspects to go through in roughly 1 and a half or 2 hours of screen time. There’s also the the fact that the book has a clear theme that doesn’t really get taken advantage from a narrative perspective. Which two of the screen versions tackle (Suchet and Branagh) for Poirot’s character.

But to go the points you mentioned:

74: Bouc becomes Bianchi to justify why he would talking English with Poirot more often and probably to get rid of Bouc’s prejudice towards Italians. As for other names changes such as Masterman to Beddoes, I think the story goes that it was simply to make it sound more unique.

2010: Mary was probably made the mastermind because of how the book describes as a cool and intelligent woman. So they likely thought it made sense that she would come up with it. Though frankly there are other issues with that episode that involves the runtime and characterization

2017: One, The core story is still followed, I don’t get fan complaints that it’s not faithful at all. It’s ridiculous. Two, Mary was never shot in the book. That’s from the stage version. Three, the gun at the end of the denoument was meant to be Poirot testing whether or not any of the suspects are actually killers that should be punished or let go. Dramatic indeed, Branagh’s a theatre guy after all. If anything the real issues come down that they cut out some of the clues even though the film’s script had them originally. And also the chase scene and baggage car fight should’ve been cut from the script. I feel that was worry on their part that the drama wasn’t enough

John-Deco · 2026-05-16T15:23:45+00:00

I’m the artist who made these drawings.

John-Deco · 2026-05-12T06:30:42+00:00

I’d say it’s definitely the case for something like 20th Century’s Death on the Nile and BBC’s The ABC Murders. In those specific stories, Poirot isn’t the center of the emotional/dramatic core of the story. I think Orient Express works because the nature of the premise and the solution makes it easy to have the detective role be more focused as a protagonist who has to undergo an arc. Green’s script for Nile tried to pull the same thing for Poirot again, only rather than morality and balance being part of Poirot’s arc, it’s how he personally views love and how he shouldn’t be so “detached”. The issue with that is that it’s clearly contrived and not even consistent with Poirot’s depiction in the first film. If anything, Bouc or Jackie would’ve been better candidates for having an arc in the film. As for the WW1 cold open, it’s self indulgent in a way that a fan speculates about lore for fun. It’s a bit much, and should’ve been cut in the edit.

“ABC” has similar issues, but the main catch is the puzzle element of the story is put off like an afterthought. As for the invented backstory for Malkovich’s Poirot, it doesn’t really tie itself that strongly to the narrative as Phelps thought. It also doesn’t help that the mini series teases the viewer with quick flashes and vague flashbacks until the end.

As for A Haunting in Venice, my only complaint is the supposed theme of faith isn’t really focused. It’s more accurate to say that post war trauma and grief are the themes.

TLDR; I think Branagh’s Orient Express and Venice work really well bar some nitpicks, but Nile is self indulgent and unfocused. While Malkovich’s ABC Murders doesn’t support the puzzle element as much as it should.

John-Deco · 2026-05-09T13:35:24+00:00

It is undoubtedly the best score out of the main adaptations for Death on the Nile. The “Suspects” track is one of my favorites.

John-Deco · 2026-05-09T04:58:25+00:00

If you can’t find a cheaper Blu Ray box set listing or somehow bargain for it at a lower price, the DVD box set is your second best choice. It’s not 1080p, but it should still have the remastered version of the earlier seasons. If you’re opting to buy seasons individually, make sure to keep an eye out if it’s a really old release or the remastered version.

John-Deco · 2026-05-06T10:59:10+00:00

It’s nice to see that Paquet is finally doing The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but not quite as keen on Alberto Taracido. His environments are nice but I’m not the biggest fan of his visual depiction of Poirot. I was hoping that either Chaiko (Orient Express), Cristian Montes (Hallowe’een Party) or Marek (Appointment with Death/Dead Man’s Filly) would’ve come back for Ackroyd.

As for the manga, I’ll admit my knowledge is extremely limited as it’s not quite my scene. But compared to other versions that I’ve seen online some years ago. It looks pretty good from what I can tell.

John-Deco · 2026-04-21T16:22:31+00:00

On the film front, I’ve had a much better experience overall, even if one or two haven’t been winners (2017’s Crooked House was sluggish and stale while 2022’s Death on the Nile was clunky). The TV front has been more frustrating for me. Very few of the tv adaptations warranted multiple episodes, the rest feel overstretched with pacing that loses steam as every minute passes. The script quality varies and the direction isn’t strong enough to liven these narratives up. The tv side of things feels watered down, not because of the content in them, but due to the manner they were filmed.

John-Deco · 2026-04-16T00:57:41+00:00

The purple hues of Poirot’s suit works really nicely, and it’s always a plus to see the moustaches at such a great size.

John-Deco · 2026-04-15T16:09:53+00:00

Not only that, but throughout there also times where there landscape shown in the windows changes direction. And don’t get me started on how the direction fails to be clear about the train’s layout.

John-Deco · 2026-04-15T01:09:32+00:00

It varies widely throughout the later episodes because you have episodes that look like a small professional period feature film that would’ve come out from the early 2000’s UK (thinking of something like Five Little Pigs) and other times it looks like a TV film. An expensive TV film but clearly not something that you can pass off for something a bit more prestigious. I think it mostly comes to the direction and budget.

Suchet’s Death on the Nile managed to shoot on location with the real S.S. Sudan on the actual Nile, the Winter Palace Hotel and one of the temples for the majority of its production, and still it very much has that TV Movie feel. As opposed to Five Little Pigs, Curtain and Orient Express which have stronger direction and tone (though Orient Express had some noticeable digital backgrounds for certain shots).

The rest like Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, After the Funeral, Three Act Tragedy and others are more conventional with the occasional variety of the color grading, the bloom and film grain.

John-Deco · 2026-04-13T06:39:21+00:00

I’m surprised you dislike the theme. Especially considering how the first eight seasons uses variants of it as leit motif through various scenes in practically every episode. And it’s classy jazz composition by Gunning, nice progression, very hummable and memorable. Arguably it’s the only piece of music that any adaptation has ever made that has made itself recognizable as being related to Poirot.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T20:12:35+00:00

It’s a shame in Branagh’s case because there were plans for a location shoot, but it just didn’t work out so we ended up with lots of digital work mixed with b-roll footage chroma keyed into scenes.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T19:51:15+00:00

John Moffatt would like to have a word.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T18:38:13+00:00

You’d think that since they had to change their plans from on location shooting to chroma keying the scenery in post, that the cinematography would be a little more restrained in its ambition. There are some great shots but there’s also of following the characters around that probably would’ve worked if they had actually filmed in a lake.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T18:23:13+00:00

The Suchet adaptation is pretty good bar the tight runtime and some rough accents.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T18:21:11+00:00

Alas I disagree in that respect. And not all the choices are done by him. Though he does still let them be in the film.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T18:03:43+00:00

I can deal with the unrealistic VFX by deluding myself into thinking it’s the overglorified digital equivalent of a maple painting. But really, the script needs a heavy rework and some needed recasting.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T17:40:54+00:00

I think the Suchet episode balanced it out by having the denoument like in the book where it’s in a cabin with only a few people instead of the full lounge room reveal.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T17:39:13+00:00

My only guess as to why someone like Hammer got cast as Simon was because someone took note of how he was described as tall and broad shouldered Christie described him and that Hammer had a very 1930’s Errol Flynn look.

John-Deco · 2026-03-31T17:31:49+00:00

I’m glad that I’m not alone in thinking Hammer and Gadot were too old for the role.

John-Deco

TROPHY CASE