"Murder in Mesopotamia" is another Hercule Poirot mystery set in the Middle East. This one takes place around an archaeological dig in Iraq, not far from Baghdad. Agatha Christie spent two decades living and helping on archaeology sites alongside her second husband, Max Mallowan. He was a renowned archaeologist, and Christie took to the work, travel and trade with fervor. So, when she sets her mysteries around digs, and other foreign sites, she is something of an expert on the venues.
The plot for this film is probably the most far-out of any Christie tale. The story background is very far-fetched, and the whole mystery setting seems weird. Yet, with all that, at its conclusion, the story didn't seem very complex. Only the method of the main murder was difficult to imagine for a time.
Captain Hastings brought Poirot along for a visit to the dig where he was going for two weeks to be with his nephew. One aside is Poirot's trying to reconnect with a friend, Countess Rosakoff, who sent him a message from a hotel in Baghdad. He keeps missing her but in the end is pleased to pick up her unpaid hotel bill.
Here are some favorite lines from the film.
Captain Hastings, "I say, Poirot, was that tasteless of me, mentioning the countess?" Hercule Poirot, "Could you ever be tasteless, Hastings?" Hastings, smiling, "No!"
Captain Hastings, 'Pretty ruddy silly, if you ask me." Hercule Poirot, "Ah, well, if only people would ask you, Hastings, they would refrain from the ruddy silliness, huh?"
Hercule Poirot, "But facts, Hastings, facts. These are the cobbles that make up the road along which we travel."
Hercule Poirot, "However deep one buries an unpleasantness, a dog, he will always root it out again."
Dr. Leidner, "You'd have made a good archaeologist, Mr. Poirot. You have the gift of recreating the past.