Lord Edgware Dies

The usual cast of patricians in evening dress take serial murder in their stride in this typical thirties quota quickie in which it's hard to decide who's accent is the more outrageous, Austin Trevor's Belgian one as a moustacheless Hercule Poirot or Jane Carr's American one as chief suspect Lady Edgeware; the latter attended to by a memorably severe maid played by Phyllis Morris.

Austin Trevor stars as an atypical Hercule Poirot in "Lord Edgware Dies" from 1934.

There was a tv film starring Peter Ustinov and Faye Dunaway titled "Thirteen at Dinner."

In 2000, the Hercule Poirot series featured the story, starring David Suchet as Poirot.

Poirot endeavors to figure out how Lady Edgware killed Lord Edgware while she was at a dinner party. Two other murders follow the first.

In this film, Poirot - tall, slender, and unmoustached doesn't correct those who think he's French.

Passable and interesting. Not as detailed in the plot as Thirteen at Dinner. Still, it's a good story.

The reviews are,by and large,unfair. It was the early thirties and one should not ask for Finney's and Ustinov's movies or Suchet's TV series.

This is one of Christie's best books,in a golden decade ("the ABC murders ", " death on the nile " "death in the clouds","murder on the orient express ", 'the Tuesday club murders" ,ending with her triumph "and then were none" );if my memory serves me well , it's one sentence which makes the little gray cells discover the whole truth .

Written in 1933 ,the year before, it is anyway interesting for Christie's fans to see early movies based on her books;although not as good as "love from a stranger"(based on the short story "Philomel Cottage ), "lord Edgware dies " , it is ,for the time, an interesting adaptation.

Trevor may not physically be Poirot (no moustache,tall and not bald) ,but it's false to write there is no hint at Belgian :he has an accent and one can hear many French words in the dialog ( "mon cher ami" "mon Dieu",etc ) Hastings serves as a foil to him (it's his dr Watson),and when he hears that Lady Edgware might be a potential criminal, his tea goes down the wrong way .

Christie's fans should try and watch "the ninth guest" ,released the very same year ,not from one of her books, but contains the seeds of "and then there were none" .

I love Agatha Christie stories, she was an excellent writer no matter what people think or say. I read her entire work. But I think casting-wise Hastings should have been Piorot and Poirot should have been Hastings but that's just my opinion, watch it and see if you like it. One of the earliest versions of Agatha Christie as far as I know.

Austin Trevor dons his best Belgian accent as "Hercule Poirot", the famous detective here called in to investigate the fatal stabbing of the wealthy Lord Edgware (CV France). It doesn't take us long to discover that his wife (Jane Carr) was seeking a divorce so she could marry the "Duke of Merton" (Esme Percy) - could that be a motive? Well he and Scotland Yard's finest "Inspector Japp" (John Turnbull) must find out. It moves along nicely, this, and is fairly faithful to Agatha Christie's original story. Sure, Austin Trevor's persona takes a bit of getting used to and the style of the production is very stage bound, but it is still quite an engaging budget murder mystery, with some decent acting efforts that I quite enjoyed.