


The newsreel of the Beroldy trial of 1926, which opens the film, emphasises how long ago the novel’s temporal setting is in relation to the film’s setting – although this timeshifting doesn’t really affect the plot or atmosphere of the piece in the way it does with some of the other Poirot adaptations. Clearly this was a busy year for Suchet’s version of the detective. We learn later that the film is set, along with most of the nineties Poirot episodes, in 1936. Cast: David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, Hugh Fraser as Captain Hastingsįrom the outset, the very ‘thirties’ title sequence announces loudly that this is definitely not 1923.
