David Suchet portrayed Poirot, and because I had read quite a few Poirot stories by then, I realized that I enjoyed Suchet’s performance much better than Ustinov’s because Suchet came much closer physically and in personality to the Poirot I came to know in the books. In the late 1980s, PBS began airing a British television series based on the Poirot stories. The first Christie novel I wrote a book report on for school was The Seven Dials Mystery, which became one of my favorite non-Poirot novels. Later, I learned to appreciate Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, and Inspector Battle, who even appeared in one or two Poirot novels. I began reading Agatha Christie novels, and quickly figured out which were the Poirot novels. By that time I was twelve and understood more. I remember asking my mother, “So, who did it?” Four years later, I saw Death on the Nile, with Peter Ustinov as Poirot. In fact, my eight year old mind was unable to grasp what had happened at the end of the film during the big reveal. I had never heard of Agatha Christie, the famous detective novelist, nor did I know anything about her classic golden-age detective Hercule Poirot, portrayed in the film by Albert Finney. In 1974, when I was eight years old, I went to the movies with my family to see Murder on the Orient Express, staring Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |