Cards on the Table
- Episode aired Mar 19, 2006
- TV-PG
- 1h 32m
The enigmatic, sinister Mr. Shaitana, one of London's richest men, invites 8 guests, 4 of them possible murderers and 4 'detectives' to his opulent apartment.The enigmatic, sinister Mr. Shaitana, one of London's richest men, invites 8 guests, 4 of them possible murderers and 4 'detectives' to his opulent apartment.The enigmatic, sinister Mr. Shaitana, one of London's richest men, invites 8 guests, 4 of them possible murderers and 4 'detectives' to his opulent apartment.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe novel "Cards on the Table" (1936) features a crossover between four recurring characters of Agatha Christie. 1) Hercule Poirot was introduced in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (1920) and was Christie's most frequently appearing protagonist. 2) Colonel Race, a secret agent of the MI5, was introduced in the novel "The Man in the Brown Suit" (1924). 3) Superintendent Battle of the Scotland Yard was previously among the main characters in the novels "The Secret of Chimneys" (1925) and "The Seven Dials Mystery" (1929). 4) Ariadne Oliver was introduced in the short story "The Case of the Discontented Soldier" (1932) as a freelance assistant to protagonist Parker Pyne. She had also appeared in the short story "The Case of the Rich Woman" (1932). Both of the stories were published in book form in the collection "Parker Pyne Investigates" (1934).
- GoofsDuring the party, Shaitana talks to a waiter and pushes him towards Poirot and Mrs. Oliver. When Shaitana pushes him, there is one cocktail glass on the tray carried by the waiter. When he approaches Poirot and Mrs. Oliver, there are two.
- Quotes
Hercule Poirot: The question is, can Hercule Poirot possibly by wrong?
Mrs. Lorrimer: No one can always be right.
Hercule Poirot: But I am! Always I am right. It is so invariable it startles me. And now it looks very much as though I may be wrong, and that upsets me. But I should not be upset, because I am right. I must be right because I am never wrong.
- ConnectionsVersion of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie: Cartes sur table (2014)
The money for the production is more, for sure. But there's more intelligence in the projects. Gone are the reliance on the stupid tactic of making fun of Poirot. Gone are the supposedly endearing recurring characters. Good riddance.
IMDb comments are useful in this case, because they reveal a trend. Christie really was a master of sorts in writing mysteries. When screenwriters muck about with the plots, they neuter the mystery, usually. But in this case, I feel the adjustments made to the book are both an improvement in any medium, and much more cinematic as well.
You know, watching movies is fun, even when you watch them simply. But its more fun if you watch them lucidly. In this case that means noticing why they did certain things and what the underlying sense of those actions imply. Its how Poirot would be watching this and if you are not, well, you are missing something.
There is motive behind the changes. Photographs become more than evidence of crimes, but of embarrassing revelations of (sexual) identity.
The character of the rich, exotic victim is changed from things that a racist, class-sensitive earlier Britain would understand, to something we can understand and perceive visually. The important things from the book are emphasized more than in the book: the folded notion of one of the detectives being a woman writer of detective novels who seems to get all the logic wrong as she follows a sort of faux Miss Marple intuition.
There are four suspects and four detectives. This dynamic is also clarified and made visual. All the clues are presented cinematically. The game of playing a game is made more astute.
I realize that there are folks who think every change must be a change for the worse. But this is really for the better. And I (in my Poirot stance) appreciate what these folks have done with this episode in a usually offensively bad series.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
- tedg
- Jul 16, 2007
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- Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London, England, UK(Poirot, Miss Oliver and Supt. Wheeler walk around the memorial discussing the case. Later on Poirot and Colonel Hughes do the same.)
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