He comforts her and, as he escorts her back to the hotel, they come across one of the Polish women. Some fans think Poirot was the son's father. Having ascertained the name of Miss Carnaby's previous employer, Lady Hartingfield who died a year before, he visits her niece who confirms Lady Hoggin's view of Miss Carnaby's lack of intellect but essential good qualities, looking after an invalid sister and being good with dogs, so much so that Lady Hartingfield left her Pekingese to her. The four girls are not the daughters of General Grant, who is not a general, but head of a drugs ring, and the four young women push the drugs for him. Part of my larger sense that the early set and these later sets are practically two different series, or two different "verses" what with the differences in tone, issues, and characterization. But thank you again for your contribution - much appreciated! Miss Lemon, Poirot's secretary, finds the first of the labours in a letter from a bluff outspoken businessman, Sir Joseph Hoggin, whose wife's Pekingese dog has been kidnapped. Poirot does obtain permission for an exhumation and the body is proved to be riddled with arsenic. While this episode's labyrinthine plot teeters on self-parody, THE LABOURS OF HERCULES does succeed in charting The Next Step in Poirot's life story arc. You could be right - it may have been a deliberate choice considering Curtain was next. Did anyone catch that Kika Markham was around 50 the year the Double Clue was made...but Orla Brady is around her early 50s NOW (if sites such as Wikipedia and Imdb are to be believed? Dr. Alice Cunnningham is one of the main antagonists in Agatha Christie's 1947 Hercule Poirot short story collection The Labours of Hercules.She served as the main antagonist of the original version of "The Capture of Cerebus", its twelfth and final story. They paint a picture of her as wanton and cavorting at clubs with a South American gigolo. Poirot visits Mertonshire, where an old friend, Lady Carmichael, gives him details of the Grant family. He seems to have that effect on most everyone he meets - some of whom start out worse than the Countess. He then investigates the address to which the ransom money was sent and finds it is a cheap hotel where letters are often left for non-residents. You can't imagine him doing anything so...conducive to deshabille. From the Double Clue -- - Poirot: You are the most remarkable, the most unique woman that I have ever met, but also...Countess: Opposites.Poirot: You must continue your work and I must continue mine...but not in the same country.So, not being able to stay together is more about their being "opposites" (and I put it in quotes because I question whether they really are - he's obviously attracted by her audacity, at least) than about him being all career and no family life. Her husband, Philip, drinks, is insanely jealous and has a vicious temper. by telling her that her son, Niki, is alive and that he (Poirot) can reunite them. Having said that, I think there were ways of "tightening up" the continuity more. It's very unsubtle writing. ", When you watch some of the early 50-minute episodes, and then a later one like this, or vice versa, the difference in tone is STARK. This collection includes 12 short. "Orla Brady was a little closer to the books...perhaps less flamboyantly dressed but almost more "forward" - making no bones about making the circumstances of Alice's conception sound like a one-night stand, for example (which is something a lady with a title should have been much more ashamed of back then). One night, Poirot is telephoned for help by a young medical acquaintance, Dr Michael Stoddart. Harold is aghast, worried if the foreign police will believe the story both he and Elsie have to tell and that their "relationship" is innocent. Poirot is still in Switzerland after solving the third labour. Although the adaptation ends with the reuniting of the lovers from 'The Arcadian Deer' and Poirot seems to reconcile himself with his decision to 'travel alone' in life, I think this scene is left ambiguous for a reason. When Alice is proven to be a drug dealer, the Countess is at first alarmed for Niki's feelings, but a week later is engaged to someone else! "She is undeniably and aristocrat," said Poirot staunchly, FIGHTING BACK CERTAIN UNEASY MEMORIES OF THE WILDLY VARYING ACCOUNTS OF HER EARLY LIFE TOLD HIM BY THE COUNTESS HERSELF." Thanks for that. She dresses flamboyantly and occasionally provocatively (actually receiving Poirot in a negligee for the denouement of the Double Clue!). Poirot breaks the news of the drugs and listens to the old man's cries of anger and sworn threats against whoever is leading his girls into trouble. While, to me, it doesn't make much sense for the Countess of either "verse" to have a child, her maternal protectiveness and love are actually very much in line with the books. She translates for Harold and tells him that they know what really happened (their room being next to Elsie's) and that they are blackmailing the English people. His wife died just over a year ago and the malicious talk in the village is that he poisoned her. She is in a daze, has been doped according to the doctor who examined her, and is unable to remember much after setting off from her home town of Cranchester. On the other hand, her reaction to the crimes themselves are very "hysterical damsel.". Leaving the room, Poirot clumsily trips against his host. But with the Countess, I think it's a different, and admittedly cliched decision: he's excited by someone whose sense of justice and right and wrong are (on the surface) different from his, but can he really be with her? She was employed in the last week of June when the previous maid had left, possibly due to illness. We have to bear in mind that, due to budget constraints, they would never be able to actually film in the Alps - this had to be done 'on the cheap', as it were, somewhere in the UK. They are practically two different "'verses.". In questioning Hugh, Poirot hears of his dreams which always seem to include elements of hydrophobia. In the Big Four, they are supposedly enemies but end up making several deals. In the words of Goethe (and Poirot): 'the threshold is the place to pause'. I am sure if they had been totally mysterious about Alice's paternity fans would have speculated that she was Poirot's daughter. Two of the men were captured and some of the stolen items recovered but the goblet was not among them. At that moment, Philip Clayton runs in. ...though, in fact, The Big Four adaptation in some ways felt more like the earlier episodes, particularly after the reveal. Andersen's chemistry background (although he was probably not a Jewish refugee) came in useful for preparing injections of hashish to produce ecstasy in his adherents, and also for injecting them with relevant bacteria when he wanted to kill them and inherit their estates. Poirot has solved the case, but he has not remained unchanged after years of murder and horror. His aim, of sorts, is redemption. In the original Cerberus story, Alice has the theory that Vera steals because her life has been safe and dull and she craves drama (!)(?). As he leaves he hears Pam whisper to Sheila about the flask. Glad to hear Poirot is popular in India! In some cases (such as The Nemean Lion) the connection is a highly tenuous one, while in others the choice of case is more or less forced upon Poirot by circumstances. Poirot catches on to her extortion scheme, but after she lectures him about the limited opportunities for uneducated women like herself and how horrible the upper classes are to her, Poirot lets her escape. But this is an elaborate character study of the man we have become so familiar with. A ransom note said to leave the money in notes in an envelope for a Captain Curtis at an address in Bloomsbury. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. The detective turns the conversation round to murder cases and tells a rattled Sir Joseph that he reminds him of a Belgian murderer who poisoned his wife to marry his secretary. While she wasn't quite that explicit about the trade, it did feel like she was saying that in a way. Before retirement, Poirot takes on the twelve labours of his namesake, each one a new mystery to be solved across Europe. I did a post on that a while back: http://investigatingpoirot.blogspot.com/search/label/titles. Poirot forces Frobisher to tell him more details of the incident with the sheep and finds out that on the night concerned, the Admiral found his son in bed with blood on his clothes and blood in the washbasin but Hugh remembered nothing of what he had done. He is carrying a spanner and screams at Elsie, accusing her of having an affair just as one of the Polish women had told him. Miss Carnaby has and to her he is a very strange man. to save Alice). To Poirot, the hotel manager seems in too much of a nervous panic; the only efficient person is Gustave, the waiter. Desperate, he confesses what has happened. It is obvious that Sheila has heard of him and is nervous of him. Mr Cole is in fact Detective Inspector Cole and he arrests Andersen. And wouldn't Poirot be as bad as Alice if he let her go?How likely is it that the Countess was totally ignorant of everything Alice did, in the first place?Admittedly, Poirot himself doesn't point these things out to the Countess is in really moralistic way...he refuses her plea but he seems regretful about it, and he keeps the cuff links. And I can't believe that, in a society where gender roles were still pretty rigid, a civilian, upper-class couple would ALLOW their daughter to be used as bait like that.Poirot comes across as totally losing his touch all through this one (in the original story about Marrascaud, he is NOT fooled by the waiter who pretends to be a policeman but is really a criminal.) In her loneliness, Mrs Clegg has found comfort in a religious sect called "The Flock of the Shepherd", based in a retreat in Devon. If it is given back to the convent, the nuns will say masses for Power's soul. :). It is being given to Hugh as part of his shaving cream and thereby continually entering his system with each day's application. Also, it's almost impossible to make a believable story out of something that's really 12 separate stories with dozens of unrelated characters. The General himself completes the clichéd picture, sitting in an armchair with his foot bandaged up from gout, drinking port and railing against the world. The next service is proceeding and Miss Carnaby is about to be injected again when Mr Cole steps in. The true culprits are Mrs Rice and her daughter. His directing choices are interesting and not distracting. It was like something out of a classical "quest" story, but of course, that theme ran all throughout this episode.Partly because of the way they did the lighting effects, I was very confused throughout about which character was which, and their reasons for being at the hotel. As to who is responsible ... Poirot reveals that Admiral Chandler has inherited the insanity of his family but Hugh is not his biological son. To keep an eye on Alice? I think it's very Poirot! Now, again a-la-Sherlock, I was honestly confused as to whether Poirot was truly faking it with the wireless. Maurice Richardson, in the 5 October 1947 issue of The Observer wrote briefly, the Queen of Crime tries the difficult, unrewarding sprint form. The Countess of the books was not nearly as refined-ly aristocratic is Kika Markham. Although they are short, the stories are very varied and enjoyable. Poirot sets himself a challenge before he retires - to solve 12 cases which correspond with the labours of his classical Greek namesake! But I think the combining of the Nita and Marrascaud stories actually works rather well - because both hide out in the same kinds of locations, so perhaps they really would pick the same one.The Countess's conversation and mannerisms toward Poirot are very familiar - as if they really are old friends. She is worried as she constantly thinks of illegal schemes which she is sure would work and she fears she is turning into a hardened criminal. He wonders how much she saw. I know that's far-fetched but we don't see her depart from the flat. And by the way, if in fact the Countess met Mr. Cunningham after "The Double Clue" Alice is 19 years old at the very most. The adaptation marks the second and final appearance of Countess Vera Rossakoff in this series, played here by Orla Brady. Talking to the manager and then to Schwartz again, Poirot learns that the beautiful woman is a Madame Grandier, who comes each year on the anniversary of her husband's death in the area, and that the distinguished-looking man is Dr Lutz, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis in Vienna. The revelations are about to be revealed to the public by a scandal sheet of a newspaper called The X-Ray News when Ferrier is attempting to clean up public life. Under the guise of picking up a wanted murderer, the police raided the club but were unable to find any jewels or drugs secreted in the club or on anyone there, particularly Varesco. It's not a very credible plot and the CGI (including Halton House) doesn't really work. One thing that bothers me in the later episodes is the 1930s time bubble Poirot seems to exist in. Which could either mean, she can't let Japp find her, or she's going into Poirot's bedroom to prepare for the rest of the night! Hawker arrives with Sheila, having just come from a hunt, wanting to fill up his liquor flask. Lady Carmichael is thrilled to think that Poirot has visited to investigate some special crime but the detective tells her he is simply there to tame four wild horses. The final scene, in which he looks down on a pair of cufflinks he was given by the Countess, seems to suggest that he has reconciled himself with the decision to leave the Countess behind. And yet the Countess calls Poirot "cruel" for "letting" her be arrested? Poirot returns the goblet to the convent as the gift of a man so unhappy he does not know he is unhappy. Poirot tells them their activities must stop and that the money must be returned to Lady Hoggin, although he is sure that he will be able to persuade her husband not to involve the police. Poirot travels to Pisa to find from her family that Nita Valetta, whom they call Bianca, had had appendicitis and had died on the operating table. From The Labours of Hercules. Andersen was about to inject Miss Carnaby with tuberculosis bacteria to tie in with the fictional ailment she told him about. Hugh strikes Poirot as a fine young bull of a man. The previous June, Williamson was called out to a large house nearby called Grasslawn to repair a broken radio. He is far more interested in a case that Japp has about Winnie King, a fifteen-year-old English girl who was being escorted to Paris as one of a party of such girls for the new term at Miss Pope's exclusive school there. His quest for the Arcadian deer is at an end. None of her thefts that we know about have ever involved hurting actual people, so she could have made a distinction: ("I may steal sometimes, but I don't condone taking humans' lives.") Poirot compares drug-peddling to feeding on human flesh (in his mind, like the horses of Diomedes, who were fed on human flesh). The Admiral refuses to let a doctor see his son. Stoddart lectures her about the cocaine and Poirot introduces himself. )Reviewers such as this one seem to feel that Poirot's two opposite decisions - the letting the Countess escape justice, yet sending her away in The Double Clue, and taking a hard-nosed approach to justice that leads to her arrest in Labours - are equally wrong and unsatisfactory choices that served to part the two, and that the letting her get away the first time contributed to her becoming a worse criminal.Were there other options? Poirot visits Percy Perry, the seedy editor of The X-Ray News who he has heard has previously accepted sums of money for not printing stories. For me, the Poirot short stories are generally very weak, but the Labours are much better than most. And note that Alice claimed that her mother talked obsessively about Poirot. @Anonymous - I agree with you about triumphs vs failure - it felt like Poirot was off his game and failing all the way through this. The Labours of Hercules is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1947[1][2] and in the UK by Collins Crime Club in September of the same year. Poirot has himself invited to a party at Mrs Larkin's home where he meets Sheila's sister Pamela. It seems more likely that they were uncomfortable with the idea that Hitler could be redeemed - or just that they found the premise a bit twee. No foreign police are open to bribery in the way that Harold was told. Going to the address given to him, Poirot finds Stoddart in the flat of Mrs Patience Grace, where a debauched party is ending, including use of cocaine. For me this is a gross mistake. In the Double Clue, it was definitely Vera; Hardman used it when he introduced them and then later Poirot mentioned the full name because it became relevant to the "double clue" itself. The hotel business didn't, for me, line up with the Kika Markham characterization but you could see it with Brady's character. Soon afterward, along with the stories about Hammett, another series of news reports start to appear in the press which hint at various sex scandals regarding Ferrier's wife, Dagmar. She remembers nothing of meeting one of Miss Pope's staff, Miss Burshaw, in London before the trip to France. The Countess is definitely having an effect on him!This from Hercule Poirot, who claims he never believes what anyone tells him!? Poirot restores order, and reunites 'Nita' with the chauffeur. And later, Alice is supposedly engaged to her son, Niki, and she discussed with Poirot why Alice is not her kind of person, but says she is going to love Alice for Niki's sake. He hears how two sets of Parisian police asked to search through Winnie's trunk, neither seemingly having spoken to the other, and sees a badly painted picture in oils depicting the bridge at Cranchester, executed by Winnie as a present for Miss Pope. That evening, Elsie bursts into Harold's room. almost all cristie's stories, and this series based on them, are not 'slightly unbelievable', but unbelievable, period. Almost the entire film you can see a building (otherwise pretty nice RAF Halton House) which is quite absurdly placed in inappropriate place - in the mountains (in the Alps) the building with this architecture would not "survive" the first winter (nor its residents). Yes, using her first name, for once.) No review of this book appeared in the Times Literary Supplement. Yet - reasoned the detective - like Hercules he had been responsible for ridding society of some of its most unpleasant monsters. However, Alice does find an individual called Paul Varesco fascinating. His last visit is back to Sir Joseph to report on progress, where he observes that Sir Joseph's relationship with his blonde secretary is not exactly on a professional level. You are the modern incarnation of Hercules. And she kisses him! She left her husband a not inconsiderable sum of money and, under pressure, Oldfield admits that a lot of the talk revolves around Jean Moncrieffe, his young dispenser, who he wants to marry but dare not because of the talk. Before seeing the adaptation I had read the line about "our love could have burnt down a city." Stop feeding anonymous. As, in the original Cerberus story it is said that the Countess has told Poirot contradictory stories about her past (leaving us to wonder when she did the telling), I thought there were some contradictions in what the Countess said in this adaptation about what she had been up to in the 20 years since she and Poirot had last seen each other. Nevertheless, Poirot views Andersen as the monster Geryon whom he is determined to destroy. Spare my daughter. Year: 2013. It's generally assumed that the original Capture of Cerberus was rejected by The Strand for being "too political" - but would they really have issues with satirising Hitler? A tricky task, neatly done.[5]. I have!") However, for me, the atmosphere and the character study of Poirot make up for this. The Countess really behaves toward Poirot with familiarity, as if they were truly old friends, but HE is more restrained. Yet - reasoned the detective - like Hercules he had been responsible for ridding society of some of its most unpleasant monsters. The killer appeared as the main antagonist in its fourth story, The Erymanthian Boar, and the story collections' 2013 adaptation in ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot.He is soon revealed to be a seemly waiter known as Gustave. He also suffers from hallucinations and has one while speaking to Poirot of seeing a skeletal figure in the garden. He should disapprove of that. The greedy Sir Joseph agrees to the latter option and takes Poirot's cheque. The police at the time were certain that a gang of three international thieves were responsible. (Sorry about the caps but I can't use bold or italics here.) Not a particularly forceful, "You're just a conwoman and I'm done with you," message.And yet, people talk about Poirot's helping the Countess escape early in the series as choosing justice (and work) over love, too. Poirot is asked for help by a physician, Dr Charles Oldfield, who has a practice in Market Loughborough, a small village in Berkshire. It was Varesco who planted them on her and she admits that he is the true owner of the premises. When the raid occurred and the lights went out temporarily, Poirot was waiting by Cerberus and heard her put the packet in the dog's mouth – and Poirot took the opportunity to cut off a sample of cloth from her sleeve as proof. "But has he redeemed himself? Mrs Oldfield was a difficult invalid whose death was put down to a gastric ulcer, whose symptoms are similar to that of arsenic poisoning.
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