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.

During the early to mid-1930s, Austin Trevor played Hercule Poirot in several films. Seeing them now, it seems strange as Trevor was very tall...yet in the books, Poirot was 5'4"! He also doesn't look much like modern interpretations of Poirot, as he's missing the moustache and style of the great Belgian detective. Oddly, Poirot's partner in the story, the Captain, DOES look much like Poirot from the Agatha Christie novels! This is a big strike against "Lord Edgware Dies" from the onset.

Lady Edgware is a vain and narcissistic woman. She approaches Poirot and asks that she intercede on her behalf with her estranged husband. According to her, her husband refuses to grant her a divorce...and she says she hopes Poirot can convince him. Oddly, however, Poirot meets with the man and he's more than happy to grant her the divorce...which confuses Poirot. A short time later, Lord Edgware is found dead...stabbed. What's really going on here?!

Overall, this is a pretty lifeless installment of the Agatha Christie series....low in energy and curiously uninvolving. Not terrible but also not particularly good.

While certainly not a good movie, Lord Edgeware Dies does have a few good things in it. Number one is Jane Carr as the blithe blonde Lady Edgeware, who brings a lot of fun to her role and gets the film's final, comical line.

Then there's Christie's mystery, which the movie does a pretty good job of laying out, even if the short length means clues are discovered and explained at a somewhat breathless pace.

On the other hand, this is talky and staticly filmed, and while it sometimes rushes, other times it drags. Austin Trevor's Poirot is simply a rather conventional detective without much personality, giving the whole thing a rather generic feel.

Overall, not worth watching, even for a movie this old.

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.

If you forget that this is supposed to be the short, bald, mustachioed Hercule Poirot of the Agatha Christie books, this is actually a pretty good old British mystery. Some of the performances are a bit off - Trevor's French accent (no indication that Poirot is Belgian here) is overdone, Hastings is annoyingly stupid and clumsy, and the acting of the minor roles is amateurish - but Jane Carr is lively and lovely, and the Inspector is British stolidity at its best. The staging is awkward at times, but the direction moves things along nicely. Enjoyable on its own merits, but maybe not for diehard Christie fans.