User Reviews

I recently discovered Poirot and have been watching the entire series one episode after another, and I love it! But this particular one just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know if I'm missing something. I even tried to watch it a second time but something still seems backwards.

SPOILERS INCLUDED

To start with, at the very beginning Poirot is feeling negative and says he wants to retire, while Hastings in vain tries to cheer him up. In the very next scene, Poirot is saying that Hastings needs a holiday to get fresh air and feel better, etc. Shouldn't it be Hastings urging Poirot to take a holiday? Sure, later we are told it was Poirot's idea to go because he secretly wanted to hear Japp's speech and to see whether Japp will give him due credit. But then why does he have to be so depressed in the beginning? Is it because he suspects that Japp will take credit for all his successes?.. if so, it is not made clear..

But these are just interpersonal details. The behavior of the criminals is strange, too. At the end we find out that the young girl knows all about her aunt's scheme and had been merely acting the whole time. If so, then I would assume she also knows that her supposedly wheelchair-bound aunt can actually walk just fine. Why, then, in the beginning scenes does she wheel her aunt around in the wheelchair and they speak of how the aunt needs to take care of her frail health, etc, when they are alone together? Who are they putting on the act for? Merely for the film's audience, I suppose, but realistically I don't see why they would be having that conversation if they are both plotting to fake a theft.

The third thing that I thought wasn't well-explained was the whole deal with the suspicious couple, the man with the bit of a moustache and his lady friend. The man's nervousness, his phone calls, their conversation about a suitcase - everything was so extremely suspicious, as if they really had done something serious like committed a murder or something. Hastings chases them down in an exciting car chase only for them to be recognized as some famous lady and her lover and immediately released, never to be seen again. What was that all about? Unless I am missing some celebrity reference, it doesn't make much sense.. Okay, I assume they were being secretive because they were lovers planning to run away together.. But that was it? Then why the overly suspicious behavior?

I don't know, maybe the episode seems so clumsy because Poirot is reluctant to actually investigate this case, and it is Hastings who tries to do so and becomes misled. Anyway, I thought this one was a little bit oddly put together, but then again I have not read the original story.

I was never able to quite comprehend exactly what the young lady who was the niece of the elderly woman was arrested for.Fraud---I guess but, am not quite sure. I did not appear to me (and certainly not to Hastings-----who always has an eye out for the baby dolls) that she was ever really guilty. I immediately concluded that the aunt was part of a scheme to get some fast bucks as part of a scam. Another thing that was quite enjoyable to me was being able to see them ride along in that trusty bus. One--or one just like--- it appears in numerous Poirot videos. I wonder if they have several they use, or if they just repaint them every so often. Most of the time it appears to me that the use yellow with some shade of green---and blue ----and brown.

Caroline Milmoe guest stars as Mary Durrant in Double Sin, and I was reflecting that this episode of Poirot was released over 30 years ago, and without a doubt Poirot grows in popularity from one generation to the next, and thankfully I'm able to find the time to watch it. Anyway, Double Sin has a double twist of an ending init, and I never saw it coming. Anyway, I like the Poirot episodes with the Scooby Gang of Poirot, Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon, and the absence of Hastings, Japp and Lemon was glaring in the final seasons. I'm not sure if Caroline Milmoe has continue her acting career, but it's a shame if she didn't.

A depressed Poirot, contemplating retirement, suggests he and Hastings head to the coast for a holiday. In route, they meet a young girl transporting $7,000 worth of antique miniatures to a buyer. When the miniatures are stolen, the young girl asks Poirt for help. But, alas, he's retired. Never fear, Hastings is on hand to take the case.

Double Sin is diverting enough, but it's not one of the best. I'm not gong to go through all the problems I had with it. Another reviewer has already covered the most significant - the logical inconsistencies concerning the old lady and the young woman's interactions in the beginning of the episode. They just don't make sense give what is to come. On the positive side of things, there is some fine acting on display. I'm not sure I remember an episode where Suchet was so able to make Poirot so sympathetic. Given the "lead" in Double Sin, Hugh Fraser doesn't disappoint. I was also impressed with Caroline Milmoe as Mary. Another area where Double Sin excels is sets and locations. All of he episodes are nice in this area, but few can match Double Sin. Overall, a 6/10 from me.

Average episode -- meaning pretty diverting -- in which Poirot decides that he's fed up with detecting and is retiring, which fills Hastings with the determination to apply Poirot's methods himself. Poirot drags Hastings to a resort in the Midlands Hotel, a streamlined art moderne resort in Lancashire, which is the home of the delicious stinging nettle porridge. It's hilly, chilly, and it rains a lot. I often wonder how the location scouts for series like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes dig up these striking settings.

Anyway, no one is murdered in this story. The plot has something to do with a duo of women -- one old, one young -- who sell a valuable collection of miniature portraits while in disguise and then claim they were stolen and demand that their property be returned. That crime has a name but I can't remember it. Some sort of fraud? False pretenses? Mopery? They don't get away with it. There is a sub plot that turns out to be the sort of red herring that Christie was so fond of using. Still another sub plot has the juicy Miss Lemon losing the keys to Poirot's flat and reconstructing the act.

I didn't think that much of the story. But the location shooting was impressive and all the necessary performances are in place. Especially enjoyable is Poirot secretly listening to a lecture being given by Japp, in which the speaker claims that all private sleuths are phonies. Poirot's face drops. "Except ONE," Japp continues, and goes on to deliver a paean to the Belgian sleuth. As Poirot listen, his face brightens slightly, then he nods his head once or twice in agreement, and leaves.