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.
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.
