One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

This is a great episode -- one of the most enjoyable of all. Even watching now a second time and knowing who the culprit was , I still was nearly lost in all the details. Besides the good acting and costumes, this episode really shined in the sets, the house and garden of Blunt and his sumptuous boardroom. Christopher Eccleston shone in another of his angry young man performances from his youth.

I love an intricate plot, but there's a difference between intricate and downright confusing. "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is the latter.

When Poirot's dentist is found shot to death shortly after Poirot's appointment, the Belgian detective is on the case. Though some assume it's suicide, he knows it is not. He begins by looking at everyone who had an appointment after his: Alistair Blunt, a prominent bank director, Frank Carter, who had a grudge against the dentist, Mr. Amberiotis, from India, and Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, an ex-actress just in from India.

Mabelle disappears, and Mr. Amberiotis is found dead. So what's going on? The answer can be found in India, years earlier.

Intriguing mystery, with Suchet in his usual top form and the normally high production values. If you see this, concentrate. concentrate hard. It's not easy to follow. I was reminded of an Inspector Morse episode where I couldn't figure out whodunit and asked a friend, who answered, "I not only know whodunit, I don't know who was killed."

Hercule Poirot investigates the death of his dentist in London. At first, it appears to be a clear case of suicide, but when one more client of the dentist is found dead a few hours later, and yet another one disappears, Poirot realizes that the matter is much more complicated than it seems.

The plot of "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is so incredibly convoluted that it takes Poirot an entire 20 minutes (ie. 2 DVD chapters) to explain it at the end! It's clever, yes, but I don't see how any person with an IQ below 150 can follow it on the first viewing. Neither the locations nor the characters are particularly memorable, although the production is of course up to the usual high standards. The single best thing about this film may be the highly atmospheric score, which offers a series of variations on the melody of the title rhyme. (**1/2)

The director makes some visual flourishes such as using newsreel footage at the beginning, some scenes set in India and little girls playing hopscotch.

We even see a man get shot dead which is later revealed as the Harley Street dentist, Dr Morley killed in his surgery. He also happens to be Poirot's dentist and the police think his death is suicide after he gave a patient from India, Mr Amberiotis a fatal overdose.

Poirot sees links between Dr Morley's other patients. A wealthy banker Alastair Blunt, a yobbish blackshirt Frank Carter, the boyfriend of Dr Morley's assistant and Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, a former actress who toured India and had once met Blunt.

The film is a multi layered mystery which requires a long explanation from Poirot during the reveal. It is complicated but also in some ways nonsensical. The murderer has far from planned the perfect murder but rather take some outrageous risks.

We can probably all understand why someone would murder a dentist, but what happened to the seemingly scatterbrained missionary woman with the loose shoe buckle? Poirot must find out.

And what about the seemingly important personage at the heart of the story? He doesn't like the Reds and he doesn't like the Black-shirts. He sounds like my kind of guy.

I suppose the unnecessary and wasted scenes up front were to make the story clearer. Or to further muddy a convoluted plot. One or the other. Cut to Poirot.

Murder stories should be mystifying. Christie was a queen of mystification and misdirection. This story was satisfactorily baffling. If you can overcome your fear of the dentist you may enjoy it.

Once the story gets to where the book starts (Poirot's fear of the dentist) things rattle along well. There is confusion, but that's part of the fun. It's a fairly accurate recreation of the book (close enough for horseshoes).