Murder in Mesopotamia

Murder in Mesopotamia is great production values and good use of location shooting in Tunisia which stands in for Baghdad and the area around an archaeological dig.

Poirot has rushed to Baghdad in order to meet a Russian Countess who is not there when he arrives. Hastings is there though, he has popped over to visit his nice but dim nephew who is helping out at an archaeological dig.

The dig is led by renowned American archaeologist, Dr Leidner. His wife is visiting the dig accompanied by a nurse. Also with him are his two long term archaeological associates Richard Carey and Anne Johnson. There is a priest Father Lavigny who is a linguist expert plus a few others and locals helping out.

When Poirot arrives, a local crook is murdered. Mrs Leidner confides to Poirot why she has been feeling nervous. She has received threatening letters from her long dead first husband. Dr Leidner then finds his wife dead in their room with a blow to the head. The room was locked and no one was seen going in or out.

When Anne Johnson things she has it figured, she finds herself in danger. Poirot meanwhile thinks that no one has a worthwhile alibi.

There was a lot of money spent on this episode. It looks beautiful even though there is not enough of a story for a feature length film. Poirot chasing around a fly in the middle of a night is pure padding.

The biggest problem is that the story falls apart, so do a lot of the characters back story. The murderer could never had planned where the victim could had landed because of gravity. There is a sense of randomness where the Mrs Leidner would had fallen. As for the rest, Agatha Christie was having a laugh wasn't she?

Worst adaptation ever! If screenwriters have such wonderful ideas about how Christie should have written her stories, they are more than welcome to write their own books! This story was nicely narrated by a nurse and Poirot was supposed to enter the scene a little bit later. Hastings did not appear in the original. I gather that all the unfortunate changes of this adaptation are for viewers to "enjoy" the duo. If you consider the narrative structure of the original, the changes were quite important, and they totally failed to capture the novel's atmosphere . Really, this show changing the endings, the new adaptations of Miss Marple doing the same thing and even the Poirot and Marple manga!!! I guess the grandson has to bleed the copyrights dry before they expire...

Hercule Poirot receives a telegram from the Russian countess he had met in a previous adventure (see the episode "Double Clue" for more info) asking him to come to Bagdad to help her on an urgent matter. He does, but she is nowhere to be found. But the journey is not all for naught; pretty soon he gets caught up in the investigation of the murder of the wife of an esteemed archaeologist working in the area. The woman had been receiving threatening anonymous letters that seemed to have been written by her long considered dead first husband, and, much like an archaeologist, Poirot thinks that he must dig into the past in order to solve the mystery.

My one-line summary is a quote from Poirot himself, and it gives you an idea of the pacing of this episode. Not that it is bad, mind you; the production values are great (easily on par with the theatrically released Ustinov film "Appointment With Death"), and the killing method itself is haunting and cruelly ingenious. However, there is also a crucial timing inconsistency in this episode: not wanting to spoil anything, I'll just say that something that lasts about 10 seconds when it happens for the first time, lasts at least 30 seconds when Poirot's customary narration at the end replays it from another perspective. Comedic highlight: Poirot's battle with a mosquito in the middle of the night. (**1/2)

I'll start by saying I'm a very big fan of all the Poirot mysteries. I find the locations, writing and acting along with the costumes excellent in every episode and Hercule Poirot is a character that David Suchet was born to play, having said that I don't hold anything against Albert Finney & Peter Ustinov, It's just that I feel Suchet after over 20 years has made the role his own.

In 'Murder in Mesopotamia' Hercule Poirot (Suchet) accompanies his sometimes rather naive friend Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser) to a dig in Iraq and becomes involved in - and attempts to solve the murder of an Archeologist's Wife, who had been receiving threatening anonymous letters.

As I say in my summary - The story takes a long time to reach its conclusion, but I was quite happy enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Tunisia (Filling in for Iraq) and the solid acting by all to really care, though others might.

One plot point which did disappoint me was the revelation of the Killer(s) - which I found to be highly unlikely, but that's not a criticism of the production at all as Agatha Christie herself wrote the rather implausible denouement.

Highly Recommended!

"Murder in Mesopotamia" is another Hercule Poirot mystery set in the Middle East. This one takes place around an archaeological dig in Iraq, not far from Baghdad. Agatha Christie spent two decades living and helping on archaeology sites alongside her second husband, Max Mallowan. He was a renowned archaeologist, and Christie took to the work, travel and trade with fervor. So, when she sets her mysteries around digs, and other foreign sites, she is something of an expert on the venues.

The plot for this film is probably the most far-out of any Christie tale. The story background is very far-fetched, and the whole mystery setting seems weird. Yet, with all that, at its conclusion, the story didn't seem very complex. Only the method of the main murder was difficult to imagine for a time.

Captain Hastings brought Poirot along for a visit to the dig where he was going for two weeks to be with his nephew. One aside is Poirot's trying to reconnect with a friend, Countess Rosakoff, who sent him a message from a hotel in Baghdad. He keeps missing her but in the end is pleased to pick up her unpaid hotel bill.

Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Captain Hastings, "I say, Poirot, was that tasteless of me, mentioning the countess?" Hercule Poirot, "Could you ever be tasteless, Hastings?" Hastings, smiling, "No!"

Captain Hastings, 'Pretty ruddy silly, if you ask me." Hercule Poirot, "Ah, well, if only people would ask you, Hastings, they would refrain from the ruddy silliness, huh?"

Hercule Poirot, "But facts, Hastings, facts. These are the cobbles that make up the road along which we travel."

Hercule Poirot, "However deep one buries an unpleasantness, a dog, he will always root it out again."

Dr. Leidner, "You'd have made a good archaeologist, Mr. Poirot. You have the gift of recreating the past.