THE TRAGEDY AT MARSDON MANOR
UK, 1991, 50 minutes, Colour.
David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson, Ian Mc Culloch, Geraldine Alexandre, Alastair Duncan, Anita Carey, Desmond Barritt, Robert Watson, Edward Jewesbury.
Directed by Renny Rye.
There is no London setting for this murder mystery. Hence, no Miss Lemon an invitation to Chief Inspector Japp to come to the countryside. Poirot is invited to the country town (and his disdain for the local colour, animal smells, for accommodation…) Under false pretences, a landlord who is actually a crime writer unable to solve his own mystery invites Poirot to solve it (which he does, initially grudgingly). The landlord is very genial, has a lot of information, and is crucial to a device that Poirot uses to unmask the murderer.
The setting is a beautiful manor in the countryside, a wealthy man suffering from an ulcer, married to a young wife who is devoted to him, but he is found dead. There are comparatively few suspects, mainly a young British captain on leave from Nairobi who is infatuated with the wife. There is also the rather severe accountant at the manor.
The local police invite Poirot to help with the investigation, he looks for the various clues, listens attentively to the details of behaviour of all those involved, suspects murder. The direction of the shadows in a painting are a clue to destroy an alibi. While the wife is eager to welcome him, she has a background in superstitions about ghosts, she is unmasked at the dinner table.
Audiences will very much enjoyed the ending, the Wax Museum in the town, Hastings eagerness to visit, Poirot’s hesitance, finding a statue of himself – and, the ending, leading Hastings and Japp to view his statue, their detailed comments only to find that they have gone to the statue of Charlie Chaplin!
1. The popularity of Agatha Christie mysteries, the television series, Poirot as Suchet?
2. The setting not in London, English country town, Poirot’s disdain, smells, poor accommodation…? His invitation by the landlord, writing his mysteries, asking Poirot to help find the solution – and his doing so? Poirot put out, wanting to return to London with Hastings?
3. Marsdon Manor? The grounds, the woods, the trees, the birds and hunting, the atmosphere? The interiors? John Maltravers, age, illness, difficult business issues, life-insurance? His ulcer? The attentions of his wife, her being younger? The ghost stories of the past, the tree, the gravestone, the wife and her superstitions, blood on the mirror, apparitions? Her being a painter?
4. At the inn, the captain from Nairobi? His gift, the murder story on the wrapping? His visit to the manor, his attraction to the wife, giving the gift, her reaction? His disappearance? The return, under suspicion? Admitting his love for the wife, the motive for his return?
5. The household, the accountant, her severity? Driving into the town? Danvers and his work in the garden? Maltravers, sitting on the garden seat, his death, lying on the ground, blood from his mouth? The doctor, the assumption that he had died from his ulcer?
6. The police, encountering Poirot, his going to the house, the investigation, lying on the ground, looking for evidence, the birds eggs? His inviting chief Inspector capture to investigate?
7. The doctor, the interview, announcing that a man was suffering from Hercule Poirot! The missing chloroform? The only defence meeting, the gas masks, the wife’s collapse?
8. The information about the life-insurance? The financial background of Maltravers?
9. The wife, her being upset, inviting Poirot to the house?
10. The solution, from the painting and the shadows in the painting, the alibi for the wife, the brutality of her killing her husband, malevolent? Her fabrication of fear of ghosts, her putting the blood on the mirror? Poirot, the wife’s anxiety, the red paint on her hands, blood?
11. Audiences enjoying the ending, discovering the Wax Museum, Hastings and his delight, the masks (and the device of getting the landlord to wear the mask as an apparition of her husband to frighten the wife?)? The statue of Poirot, his vanity, inviting Hastings and Japp, the response – and their going immediately to the statue of Charlie Chaplin!
