Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

From my favorite movies..

An Exercise In Nonsense

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Hercule Poirot agrees to investigate a series of petty thefts from a London students hostel on behalf of his secretary's sister, Mrs Hubbard, who is employed as the housekeeper there. The culprit is quickly identified as the shy chemistry student Celia Austin who pretended to be a kleptomaniac in order to attract the attentions of psychology student Colin McNabb whom she fancies. Yet, while Miss Lemon and her sister are relieved that it is all over, Poirot fears that something far more sinister is about to unravel. And his fears are proven when Celia is murdered by someone who switched her sleeping draught for a lethal dose of morphine. Chief Inspector Japp arrests McNabb after a phial containing morphine is found in his room, but after two more murders occur, Poirot links the case to a diamond smuggling operation in which the hostel acts as a legitimate front and a well respected Labour politician, Sir Arthur Stanley, who recently died from ill health and, several years before, Japp suspected him of poisoning his wife. Are one of the students behind the smuggling ring and is he or she connected to Sir Arthur in some way that they felt the need to kill in order to keep that connection a secret?The film makers' decision to switch the setting of Agatha Christie's classic novel from the 1950's to the 30's is something of a disappointment, but apart from that this is yet another winner from ITV's celebrated series. It was by far the best ever adaptations of Christie's works to be put on the screen (it was a pity it never made it on to the big screen - it wasn't as if they were short of suitable material) and David Suchet made the part of the eccentric, but highly intelligent Belgian detective with the egg-shaped head Hercule Poirot his own. His performances were the highlights of each episode, but there were many others including first rate dramatization, rich period detail, excellent supporting casts and intriguing and absorbing storylines. Director Andrew Grieve succeeds in creating a spooky atmosphere in the murder scenes. For instance, there is a clever play on the old Hickory Dickory Dock nursery rhyme in which a mouse literally runs up the grandfather clock in the hall of the hostel as it strikes the midnight hour accompanied by a deathly sounding orchestra and choir chanting "Hickory Dickory". The said mouse also appears as a "dumb witness" in every murder scene too and it startles Poirot's audience of suspects as he presents the solution to the case enabling the killer to attempt a getaway. There is some amusing chemisty and light comedy here between Suchet's Poirot and Philip Jackson's Chief Inspector Japp in which the latter is home alone as a result of his wife being away on holiday. Poirot invites him to stay with him at his flat and, while the two men are very close friends, Japp cannot adapt to Poirot's lifestyle which is rather eccentric to say the least. Anthony Horowitz's dramatization is first class and his attention to period detail is brilliant. He relocates the story to the time of the Jarrow march (an important time in the labour movement's calendar), which adds both interest and a hint of realism to the story. Although I would liked to have seen Poirot in the fifties (check out the original novel for that), what the film makers do to justify their change of setting to the thirties makes that decision forgivable. All in all, and I repeatedly say this about most of the Poirot episodes - so, please forgive me if I sound a little repetitive - Hickory Dickory Dock is another top notch entry in the series and fans of high quality TV drama and rattlingly good whodunits should by no accounts miss it.

Hickory Dickory Dock suffers from some random ingredients thrown together and a plot was cooked up. Ironically as a subplot involves Inspector Japp staying with Poirot as his wife is away and he has to eat fancy food when he just prefers a fry up.Miss Lemon introduces her sister who is all at sea. The student boarding house she runs has been stricken with some minor thefts of some inconsequential items. A diamond ring, a shoe, a stethoscope, a rucksack that has been ripped up are some of the missing items. Poirot suspects there is something more sinister afoot and then one of the student is found dead.Although one of the guest in the house admits to being a kleptomaniac, she does state that a few of the items missing were nothing to do with her. Poirot finds that the boarding house is mixed with a diamond smuggling ring and in the background of the Jarrow march, a dying socialist MP is of interest to Inspector Japp.The director has gone for some arty shots of a mouse running about and the repeating riff of a nursery rhyme but it rather detracts from a plot that does not flow too well.

A series of random, seemingly insignificant thefts at her sister's boarding house has Miss Lemon quite agitated. A ring, light bulbs, a rucksack, a lighter, a stethoscope, a shoe – there seems to be no rhyme or reason to any of it. Miss Lemon asks her employer, the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, to look into the matter. But what Poirot sees is something far more sinister than Miss Lemon could have imagined. And Poirot's fears are confirmed when one of the students living in the boarding house if found murdered. It's up to Poirot to bring a killer to justice.Hickory Dickory Dock is a solid, but not spectacular, entry in the long running Poirot series. I appreciate how faithful the script is to Agatha Christie's original story. I realize that certain liberties had to be taken, but I appreciate the effort nonetheless. The major points of the mystery are all there – the petty thefts, the boarding house, the students, the ripped rucksack, and, of course, Poirot's ability to see something sinister going on before it actually happens. With a few exceptions, the cast of students is almost as I pictured them. Damian Lewis and Jessica Lloyd standout among the group. As mush as I always enjoy David Suchet's Poirot, I get a real kick out of the episodes with Phillip Jackson's Inspector Japp and Pauline Moran's Miss Lemon. This episode is a real treat as Miss Lemon gets more screen time than usual. Finally, I enjoyed the use of the ever present mouse as an observer of the activities in the hostel. It's a fun little play on the Hickory Dickory Dock title.I realized while re-watching Hickory Dickory Dock just what a tremendous influence Agatha Christie's work was on the highly stylized Italian mystery films, or Gialli, of the 60s and 70s. Take the murder of Mrs. Nicoletis as an example. If you were to bump up the graphic nature of the scene, you would have something straight out of an early 70s Giallo. In fact, the entire plot of Hickory Dickory Dock could have been used in a Giallo. It's just convoluted and interesting enough to have worked.

These Suchet-led adaptations of Poirot are frustratingly uneven because the producers brought in a different creative team for each one. Sometimes they understand the strength of the source material, and other times they go off on some unrelated direction that they graft onto the plot.They already start with a disadvantage. Suchet produces an entertaining character for sure. But the foibles of Christie's detective were all found to be assets in how he approached a problem. It was almost as if he were from some alien world where people thought differently and so could "see" things we could not.In this case, he's just a comic man who incidentally solves mysteries as if that were another eccentricity. So instead of the puzzle and his attempts to unwind it, we get:-- a bunch of buffoonery about Poirot's and Japp's eating habits-- some excessive cinematic nonsense about a mouse who appears through the story-- in an unrelated insertion, we have the chanting of a nursery rhyme every time something bad is happeningThis is the worst of a bad lot. Please avoid it.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.