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Poirot - The Mysterious Affair at Styles

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Fans of the London Weekend Television Poirot series may be surprised by this adaptation of the first of the novels. While ingredients familiar from the rest of the series are here, the feel is rather different, probably because the story is set in 1917. The Art Deco backgrounds that are a hallmark of the rest of the series are missing. We are treated instead to the dark, cluttered luxury of an English country estate, improbably well appointed for war time, as a familiar cast of suspects move in and out of the ample shadows.

The episode is a little unusual in the central role played by Hastings, and even more unusual in its concentration on character. Most of the LWT Poirot adaptations focus on the puzzle, garnish it with playful character touches, lush backgrounds, and superb cinematography. This segment, probably because it is establishing the relationship between Poirot, Hastings and Japp (in a relatively modest role), spends more time on the interaction between people. As a result, the pace of the segment is also slower than most, perhaps also in an attempt to convey the feel of a vanished way of life.

The episode is a particularly beautiful example from a series that specialized in gorgeous period evocations, with ample response to lush green landscapes, the creeping darkness of an early summer evening, or the harsh light slipping through the blinds of a shuttered room. The Moderne look of the thirties episodes here gives way to a slightly seedy Edwardianism, obviously past its prime, but still holding on to remembered glories. (One of the nicest touches is that the victim, an elderly matriarch, dresses in a manner more appropriate to some fifteen years earlier.) Even the graphic design of the credits has been changed, substituting a more traditional serif font for the curvilinear, Plaza type used in the other episodes.

In short, if you can imagine one of the better English "Heritage Films" of the past few years crossed with the forward movement of a Christie detective story, you have a good sense of what to expect from "The Mysterious Affair at Styles." Somewhat atypical for the series, it is also one of the most subtly atmospheric episodes.

Some actors play characters and some become them. Suchet is Poirot...or is Poirot Suchet? Missing is the greasiness that Albert Finney injected into the character in Murder on the Orient Express. Also missing is the familiarity that Ustinov brought--that feeling that Ustinov as Poirot was similar to Ustinov as anybody. Suchet is an original.

One warning before I say more: I've read only a couple of the books, and am no expert to say the least.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a good place to begin this series of DVDs, as it shows how Poirot and Hastings met. Especially memorable is the suggestion of a greater degree of depth of experience with Hastings than usually found in the shorter episodes. Don't worry though, you still get the enjoyable Hastings goofiness. Check out his marriage offer and the woman's response as an example.

The story itself isn't as memorable as some, though I think it does do an excellent job with redirection that sets it apart from most. Specifically, I think it does an excellent job of playing on the jaded assumptions we often make as we leap ahead with our guesses; I admit that I was more smug in the middle than accurate in the end. In addition, the settings, from buildings to countryside, are wonderful and the dialog is engaging.

However, I can only give the Acorn series 4 out of 5 stars. Why? Because until DVDs become the sole way people watch movies at home, expectations must be higher. I have no complaints about the audio or the picture, but where are the multimedia extras? The features that make owning (and paying more for) a DVD worthwhile. Except for some text-based items, this DVD is bereft of goodies. Shame on you, Acorn! How about a 10 minute interview with the actors? Behind the scenes footage? A brief documentary on Christie and where this episode fits in? Something? DVDs are not books. They are multimedia delivery devices.

OK. Rant over. Suffice it so say, if you love the character, and especially if you love the series, the feature length DVDs are worth it.

If you're at all familiar with the wonderful series of BBC adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, then you don't need me to tell you that David Suchet is the walking embodiment of the character. Though the case, Christie's first published mystery, isn't one of her most baffling (go to THE ABC MURDERS also available on DVD for that), it is certainly full of the author's well-known devices: a murder by poisoning (Christie was a poison expert having worked in a dispensery during World War I), a suitable cast of suspects who we inevitably learn all had reason enough for wanting the victim dead, and the studied investigation by our Belgian sleuth with the usual endearing incompetence of his friend Arthur Hastings.

These BBC adaptations are beautifully made, faithful in their period touches (though, of course, Hastings and Poirot don't look any younger here than in their later adventures which take place at least ten to fifteen years later), and the casting as always couldn't be better.

Though lacking much in the way of supplements (the information on Agatha Christie and David Suchet is repeated on each disc in the series), the clarity of the picture and clear sound (alas mono) make owning these DVDs a must for mystery lovers.

It was in 1920 that Hercule Poirot's egg-shaped head first appeared in print. He was a Belgian refugee living in a small English town near a manor house named Styles, at which there was a mysterious affair. Told from the point of view of Hastings, a recent participant in the Great War, the story tells of a poisoning through a cup of coffee that was never drunk, a cup of cocoa that contained no poison, and several possible wills. This and the usual "crowded murder scene" all add up to a superior murder mystery called <The Mysterious Affair at Styles>.

As soon as I finished viewing the DVD version released by Acorn Media, I reread the novel and marveled at how closely the script adheres to the original. Even the dialogue is, for the most part, drawn from the pages of the novel and the casting of the film seems just right, especially the despicable Mr. Inglethorpe (Michael Cronin). One prominent character in the book is gone from the film; and my rereading showed how dispensable he was originally.

As always, a few comic touches are added to the film, such as Poirot's trying to Anglicize a group of fellow "Belgies" who are more interested in the local pub than in British marching songs. Also, while Poirot's lust for neatness will be a running joke throughout his many novels and short stories, here it actually leads to the solution. Of course, there is that old routine of the Watson character (Hastings, played as always by the excellent Hugh Fraser) making a chance comment that provides the "missing link" needed to close the case; but we can forgive that cliché in an old mystery where it would be laughed out of court in a modern one. Also Hastings is given some depth by showing his nightmares of trench warfare--just possibly to contrast the ado caused by a single death in a tiny village as thousands were being slaughtered in continental Europe. (Or am I reading too much into it?)

David Suchet has the character of Poirot as part of himself , while Philip Jackson has little enough to do as Japp of Scotland Yard and does it very well. The young women are reasonably attractive and do not look like the fashion models who would be cast in many American productions. The rest of the cast ranges from very very good to excellent, all helped enormously by the World War I ambiance of soldiers lounging on wonderful stone bridges and doctors who make house calls.

A Must addition to your collection of Poirot and Wimsey productions available from Acorn Media, not to mention the Jane Marple and Avengers sets put out by A&E.

If you're an Agatha Christie-Poirot fan, you will probably enjoy this DVD in spite of the less than perfect quality of the recording. THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES is one of the longer Poirot tales (1 story, two 50 minute segments-merged), compared with the short stories (three stories, 50 minutes each) released in VHS format. Because the tapes are so vulnerable, I prefer the DVD mode even when the film is simply a "copy" of a tape (which seems to be the case for STYLES). STYLES--the DVD--is not of the caliber of the earlier ACORN DVDs-MUDER IN THE AIR, ABC MURDERS, etc., however, I would buy it again because I like the content.

THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES is one of the eariest Poirot tales, and like THE ABC MURDERS takes place in the English countryside Agatha Christie depicted so well from the 1920s to the 1950s. Styles is also the setting for FINAL CURTAIN, the last Poirot tale. Seems Ms Christie was as obsessive about balance, order, and loose ends as her little sleuth.

In STYLES, Poirot is a war refugee who has been evacuated from his beloved Belgium where he was a police inspector-one step ahead of the Kaiser's troops. He is part of a group of other Belgian men--all dressed in little black suits, white shirts and spats, and bowler hats--reminiscent of a flock of penguins or Charlie Chaplins--whom he quickly attempts to "order". Some very humorous scenes occur with Poirot and his little group of immigrants.

At STYLES, Poirot meets by chance Captain Hastings whom he had met earlier in Belgium on another muder case where Hastings was a suspect. Captain Hastings is recovering from war wounds he suffered at the Battle of the Somme in northern France near the Belgium border, and he has been invited by an old school chum to come to his home at STYLES to recover from his wounds.

As you might imagine, the film depicts the bucolic countryside of the upper crust--clay tennis courts, afternoon tea on the lawn, horseback riding on fine looking "farm" animals with neatly coiffed manes and tails, and vintage period hair, clothing, automobiles, etc. -- a feast for the eyes. The handsome and aristocratic David Rintoul plays Hastings friend (Darcy in the BBC production of PRIDE AND PREDJUDICE with Elizabeth Garvey--everyone who has seen this film 18 times raise your hand!!, and a suspect in the recently released FIVE RED HERRINGS a Dorothy Sayers mystery I recommend).

When a family member dies under mysterious circumstances that point to murder by poison, Hastings suggests to his friend they recruit the services of Poirot. Enter Inspector Japp, and in no time Hastings friend is in the dock and accused of murder. Is he the perpetrator of the crime? Hercule will discover the truth and all shall be known.

This is simply a stumper of a who-dunit that is an absolutely charming period piece. I am amazed at how true to the novel the story remains. Poirot and hastings are outstanding together. If you have never seen anything of the productions involving David Suchet, please start with this(it was also Christie's 1st novel). If you have seen any of Mr. Suchet and company's work count yourself blessed. Television has rarely if ever been this good.

I revel in the joy of spending a long weekend at home while having a good set of movies to fall back on. "The mysterious affair at Styles" proved to be not only entertaining but delicious to watch in that it was a feast for the eyes. I won't really summarize the plot here since I have already done so in my review of the actual novel. But I can honestly say that if there ever was to be a production that came as close to the mental picture the reader forms in her head of the characters in the novel this would be it. The depiction of the English countryside of Essex during World War I is excellent. The small, fictional town of Styles St. Mary, with a Manor House like Styles Court, sets the ambience for one of the most famous first crimes by a novelist in history: that of Emily Agnes Inglethorp by strychnine poisoning. Coincidentally, Gillian Barge, the actress who portrays Emily, is my favorite of all the actors (after David Suchet as Poirot, of course). She brings unique class and distinction to the screen as best as a mature woman can do. She is a true British country old lady, who makes me think very much of the present Queen Elizabeth: someone soft, but with a powerful grip on everybody close to her. She is also stylish and exquisite in her manners, even when she is upset, hence the true mark of "good breeding".

As per Poirot and Hastings, they are in one of their best combinations, working in unison to bring the murderer to justice, and with Hugh Fraser achieving the portrayal of the unenlightened Hastings as good as ever. David Suchet's French accent is superb.

The only thing I felt disappointed about was the extra features of the DVD, all in all not much at all to justify the purchase of the disc: a static, simple biography of Agatha Christie that most everybody who knows something about her would know, a condensed list of the main actors' careers and resources that are outdated. I'd prefer seeing interviews with the actors and/ or director, producer, etc. An interactive map of the house or the village wouldn't hurt (after all, there is something of this in the actual novel), and maybe better online resources. I'd recommend buying the VHS version, at least for this particular movie, and especially if you're not too keen on watching it very often.

"Another example of the English bucolic beliefs," Hercule Poirot pontificates to a group of puzzled fellow Belgians. "Anagallis arvensis. In English: the scarlet pimpernel. It is believed that when this flower is opened, it is a sign of a prolonged spell of the fine weather. It is seldom seen open in this country ..."

What we first see of the little detective with his unmistakeable egg-shaped head, stiff, upward-twisted moustache and many little grey cells, as he utters these words, is a pair of patent leather shoes, gingerly traipsing right through a military exercise preparing the local village population for war on the "home front." Recently arrived from a Belgium made "temporarily uninhabitable" by the Germans, Poirot and his compatriots have found refuge in Styles St. Mary, a quintessential English village, where the detective insists that they must speak English even among themselves, to quicker learn the language and thereby "gain the confidence of the natives," and is much chagrined by his countrymen's preferred method of acclimatization: visits to the local pub; a place he just can't get himself to enter. ("All those bottles of a different size, all in the wrong order ... Ech.")

But Poirot's mood considerably lightens when he unexpectedly meets a pre-war acquaintance, Lieutenant (Captain-to-be) Hastings (Hugh Fraser), temporarily returned from the front to nurse an injured leg and currently visiting his friend John Cavendish's (David Rintoul's) family in nearby Styles Court. As coincidence has it, Hastings has already boasted about his knowledge of the Belgian to John's family - not knowing that Poirot in fact lives very close by now - and admitted "a secret hankering" to become a detective after the war himself, working on a system "based" on Poirot's. Neither of them knows how quickly they will find themselves working together. For not long thereafter, John Cavendish's mother Emily Inglethorpe (Gillian Barge) is poisoned, and Hastings obtains John's permission to call in Poirot. ("[You] have given to me faithfully the facts," the detective subsequently comments on Hastings's report of the crime. "But of the order in which you present them I say nothing. Truly, it is deplorable. But I make allowances - you are upset. Later, when you are calmer, we will arrange the facts neatly; each in his proper place. Those of importance we will place on one side ... and those of no importance ..." - he blows a speck of dust off his jacket - "we will blow them away.")

Suspicion quickly falls on Mrs. Inglethorpe's twenty-year younger husband Alfred (Michael Cronin), but Poirot insists to Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson), arriving from London, that arresting Mr. Inglethorpe will bring him "no kudos." So who then *is* responsible for the murder: John Cavendish? His brother Lawrence (Anthony Calf)? John's wife Mary (Beatie Edney)? Mrs. Inglethorpe's protege Cynthia (Allie Byrne)? Or her factotum Evie Howard (Joanna Cronin)? While several members of the family would have had the opportunity to come by the poison, hardly any of them seems to have a motive to kill their strict but benevolent matriarch. (Or do they?) Only at the last minute, a chance remark by Hastings, coupled with Poirot's pedantic neatness, leads to the killer's discovery.

Given Hercule Poirot's prominence in the annals of mystery writing, it seems strange that except for his portrayal by Albert Finney in the star-studded movie version of "Murder on the Orient Express," for a long time there didn't seem to be any actor who could convincingly bring to life Agatha Christie's clever, dignified little Belgian. But the perfect Poirot was finally found in David Suchet, who after having had the dubious honor of playing a rather dumbly arrogant version of Chief Inspector Japp in some of the 1980s' movies starring Peter Ustinov now moved center stage. And the match is spot-on, not only physically but also in terms of personality, because Suchet shares Poirot's inclination towards pedantry: "I like things to be symmetrical ... If I put two things on the mantelpiece, they have to be exactly evenly spaced," he once said, adding however that unlike his on-screen alter ego, "I don't need the same sized eggs for breakfast!"

Published in 1920 but set three years earlier, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" was Agatha Christie's first-ever book and thus, established not only Poirot's and Hastings's characters but also their relationship. Unfortunately, Hastings comes across as a bit more vacuous here (and in the series in general) than in the novels narrated from his point of view; and this although the same station, ITV, did so well in debumblifying Sherlock Holmes's friend and chronicler Dr. Watson. That, however, is my only quibble. As always, Philip Jackson is a wonderfully down-to-earth Japp, the supporting cast is uniformly first-rate, and the movie maintains the tone and atmosphere set by Christie's novel in a marvelous fashion, in everything from cinematography and costume design to its soundtrack (which repeatedly and cleverly transforms the title melody into an apparently completely different piece of background music reflecting a given scene's mood), and the use of real WWI footage to underscore Hastings's wartime experience, which even causes him nightmares. To today's viewers, the mystery's solution may seem a bit contrived; but that certainly wouldn't have been noted in 1920 - and in fact the killer's disguise is so clever that Christie used similar methods again and to equally great effect in later novels, for example in Miss Marple's debut mystery "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930).
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Poirot to Hastings, during a walk in the woods: "Have you ever been to New York? ... It is a beautiful city. Beautiful. There each street is at right angles to each avenue, and each avenue is numbered nicely: first, second, third, fourth. Man is in command there. But here? How does one live with the fact that, au fond, nature is untidy - uncontrolled - anarchic - inefficient?"
Hastings: "But that's what I like about it."
(Poirot sighs, foregoing further comment.)

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Also recommended:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Hercule Poirot's First Case
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Agatha Christie Collection)
Agatha Christie: Five Complete Hercule Poirot Novels - Murder on the Orient Express / Thirteen at Dinner / The ABC Murders / Cards on the Table / Death on the Nile
Poirot in the Orient (Hercule Poirot)
Hercule Poirot's Casebook
Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Classic Collection
Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Classic Collection, Vol. 2
Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express
Death on the Nile

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is based on Agatha Christie's first novel, published in 1920, and takes us back to Hercule Poirot's first case in England in 1917. During World War I, Poirot and 7 fellow Belgian refugees are staying in an English village house kindly provided for them by Mrs. Emily Inglethorp (Gillian Barge). Lt. Arthur Hastings (Hugh Fraser) has been injured fighting in France and has been invited by his old friend, Mrs. Inglethorp's son John Cavendish (David Rintoul), to stay at Styles Court, the family home, for some rest and relaxation. The atmosphere in the house is somewhat unpleasant, as there is much acrimony between Mrs. Inglethorp's family and her new husband Alfred (Michael Cronin), whom everyone thinks is a gold-digger. When there is a murder at Styles, Hastings knows just whom to call.

Forced to spend the war years away from his native Belgium, Hercule Poirot runs into a few old acquaintances. He met Arthur Hastings in Belgium before the War, and Scotland Yard's James Japp (Philip Jackson) remembers him from an international forgery case. "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" was part of Series 2 of ITV's "Agatha Christie's Poirot" that aired in 1990. Although the Poirot novels and stories were written 1920-1974, the TV series set most in the 1930s, with its stunning modernist sets. This World War I era aesthetic is quite different. Even the opening title sequence is changed. While the novel was responsible for introducing audiences to these characters, the film comes two seasons into the series so assumes we already know them. There is a certain awkwardness in knowing a group of characters who don't know each other well yet, but it's a good mystery.

The DVD (Acorn 2001): Bonus features are a short text interview with David Suchet, the same one that is on the Collector's Set discs, a brief text bio for Agatha Christie, a list of Poirot books, and short list of resources, filmographies for 3 actors. There are 4 Poirot Trivia questions, but this is not interactive as it is on some discs, and answers are not provided. And there are 4 Poirot Quotes. No subtitles.

As with all of the early Poirot episodes and movies, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is a top-notch production with fine attention to detail. Suchet & Fraser deliver great performances as they do in all episodes. It is interesting to see the WW I setting and costuming in contrast to the Art Deco feel from the early productions. Although I continue to watch the new series (up to Oct. 2010 so far) I do prefer to original 1 and 2 hour episodes with the original cast. This is high quality and well worth repeated views. "They just don't make `em like this anymore" ;-)