Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are invited to the Victory Ball, a costume party where everyone is dressed as someone famous from the past or present (Poirot appears as "himself"!). When a man dressed as Harlequin is found stabbed to death, Poirot's reputation takes a blow ("Masked murderer eludes famous Belgian detective", read the newspapers' headlines the following morning), and he is determined to restore it by reconstructing the events of that night to find out what really happened.
Because most of the characters are introduced rather rapidly, and spend a lot of time half-hidden under masks and elaborate costumes, this episode is pretty hard to follow on the first viewing. In my opinion, you'll need to see it at least twice to get the most out of it. It does reward you, however, with a fairly clever story and an atmospheric verbal recreation of the crime(s) by Poirot on a live radio program. (**1/2)
Because most of the characters are introduced rather rapidly, and spend a lot of time half-hidden under masks and elaborate costumes, this episode is pretty hard to follow on the first viewing. In my opinion, you'll need to see it at least twice to get the most out of it. It does reward you, however, with a fairly clever story and an atmospheric verbal recreation of the crime(s) by Poirot on a live radio program. (**1/2)