'Hercule Poirot' (pronounced in English ) is a
fictional Belgian detective created by
Agatha Christie. Along with
Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters: he appeared in 39 novels and 50 short stories.
Poirot has been portrayed on screen, for films and TV, by various actors including
Albert Finney,
Peter Ustinov,
Ian Holm,
Tony Randall,
Alfred Molina and, most recently, and famously,
David Suchet.
Overview
Influences
His character was based on two other fictional detectives of the time:
Marie Belloc Lowndes' Hercule Popeau and
Frank Howel Evans' Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London.
[1] A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of
Arthur Conan Doyle. In ''An Autobiography'' Christie admits that "I was still writing in the
Sherlock Holmes tradition – eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a
Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp."
[2] Poirot also bears a striking resemblance to
A. E. W. Mason's fictional detective – Inspector Hanaud of the French surete-who, first appearing in the 1910 novel "At the Villa Rose," predates the writing of the first Poirot novel by six years. In chapter 4 of the second Inspector Hanaud novel, "The House of the Arrow" (1924), Hanaud declares sanctimoniously to the heroine, "You are wise, Mademoiselle… For, after all, I am Hanaud. There is only one."
Poirot's being a
Belgian, unlike the above-mentioned models, is clearly the result of the first book being written in
1916 (though only published in
1920). Not only did his coming from a country occupied by Germany provide a very good reason why such a skilled detective would be out of work and available to solve mysteries at an English country house, but also at the time of writing it was considered patriotic to express sympathy with the Belgians – since the invasion of their country had constituted Britain's ''
casus belli'' for entering
World War I.
Popularity
His first published appearance was in ''
The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (published
1920) and his last was in
''Curtain'' (published
1975, the year before Christie died). On publication of this novel, Poirot was the only fictional character to be given an obituary in the ''
New York Times;
August 6,
1975 "Hercule Poirot is Dead; Famed Belgian Detective".''
[3]
By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot 'insufferable' and by 1960, she felt that he was a 'detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep'. Yet the public loved him, and Christie refused to kill him off, claiming that it was her duty to produce what the public liked, and what the public liked was Poirot.
[4]
Appearance and personal attributes
Here is how
Captain Arthur Hastings first describes Poirot:
:"He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police."
[5]
In the later books, the limp is not mentioned. Poirot has dark hair, which he dyes later in life
[6] and green eyes that are repeatedly described as shining "like a cat's" when he is struck by a clever idea.
[7] Frequent mention is made of his patent-leather shoes, damage to which is frequently a subject of (for the reader, comical) misery on his part.
[8] Poirot's appearance, regarded as fastidious during his early career, is hopelessly out of fashion later in his career.
[9]
:"The plane dropped slightly. "''Mon estomac''," thought Hercule Poirot, and closed his eyes determinedly."
[10]
Among Poirot's most significant personal attributes is the sensitivity of this stomach. He suffers from sea sickness,
[11] and in ''Death in the Clouds'' believes that his air sickness prevents him from being more alert at the time of the murder. Later in his life, we are told:
: "Always a man who had taken his stomach seriously, he was reaping his reward in old age. Eating was not only a physical pleasure, it was also an intellectual research."
[12]
Poirot is extremely punctual and carries a turnip pocket watch almost to the end of his career.
[13]
Methods
In ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', Poirot operates as a fairly conventional, clue-based detective, depending on logic, which is represented in his vocabulary by two common phrases: his use of "
the little grey cells" and "order and method". Irritating to Hastings (and, sometimes, to the reader) is the fact that Poirot will sometimes conceal from him important details of his plans, as in
''The Big Four'' where Hastings is kept in the dark throughout the climax. This aspect of Poirot is less evident in the later novels, partly because there is rarely a
narrator so there is no one for Poirot to mislead.
As early as ''Murder on the Links'', where he still largely depends on clues, Poirot mocks a rival detective who focuses on the traditional trail of clues that had been established in detective fiction by the example of Sherlock Holmes: footprints, fingerprints and cigar ash. From this point on he establishes himself as a psychological detective who proceeds not by a painstaking examination of the crime scene, but by enquiring either into the nature of the victim or the murderer. Central to his behaviour in the later novels is the underlying assumption that particular crimes are only committed by particular types of person.
Poirot's methods focus on getting people to talk. Early in the novels, he frequently casts himself in the role of "Papa Poirot", a benign confessor, especially to young women. Later he lies freely in order gain the confidences of other characters, either inventing his own reason for being interested in the case
[14] or a family excuse
[15] for pursuing a line of questioning.
:"To this day Harold is not quite sure what made him suddenly pour out the whole story to a little man to whom he had only spoken a few minutes before."
[16]
Poirot is also willing to appear more foreign or vain than he really is in an effort to make people underestimate him. He admits as much:
: "It is true that I can speak the exact, the idiomatic English. But, my friend, to speak the broken English is an enormous asset. It leads people to despise you. They say – a foreigner – he can't even speak English properly. […] Also I boast! An Englishman he says often, "A fellow who thinks as much of himself as that cannot be worth much. […] And so, you see, I put people off their guard."
[17]
In the later novels Christie often uses the word ''
mountebank'' when Poirot is being assessed by other characters, showing that he has successfully passed himself off as a charlatan or fraud.
All these techniques help Poirot attain his principal target: "For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away …"
[18]
Recurring characters
===
Captain Arthur Hastings===
Hastings first meets
Poirot during his years as a private detective in Europe and almost immediately after they both arrive in England, becomes his life-long partner and appears in many of the novels and stories. Poirot’s view of Hastings was of a man with plenty of imagination but not a great deal of brains.
It must also be said that Hastings was a man who was capable of great bravery and courage when the road got rough, facing death unflinchingly when confronted by
''The Big Four'' and possessing unwavering loyalty towards Poirot. When forced to choose between Poirot and his wife in that novel, he chose Poirot.
The two were an airtight team until Hastings met and married Dulcie Duveen, a beautiful music hall performer half his age, which was not objectionable in the late Victorian, Edwardian world. They later emigrated to Argentina leaving Poirot behind as a "very unhappy old man." Poirot and Hastings are at last reunited in 'Curtain: Poirot's last case'.
===
Ariadne Oliver===
The frequently recurring detective novelist Ariadne Oliver is Agatha Christie's humorous self-caricature. Like Agatha Christie, she isn't overly fond of the detective she is most famous for creating – in Ariadne's case a Finn
Sven Hjerson. We never learn about her husband but we know that she hates alcohol and public appearances and has a great fondness for apples until she is put off them by the events of the Hallowe’en party. She also has a habit of constantly changing her hairstyle and in every appearance by her much is made of the clothes and hats she wears. She has a maid called Milly who prevents the public adoration from becoming too much of a burden on her employer, but does nothing to prevent her aggravating employer from becoming too much of a burden on others.
She has authored over fifty six novels and she has a great dislike of people taking and modifying her story characters. She is also the only one in Poirot's universe to have noted that "''It’s not natural for five or six people to be on the spot when B is murdered and all have a motive for killing B''." She first met Poirot when they put their ''Cards on the Table'' and has been bothering him ever since.
Miss Lemon
Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, has few human weaknesses and the only two mistakes she is ever recorded making is a typing error during the events of Hickory Dickory Dock and the mis-mailing of an electric bill. Poirot described her as being "''Unbelievably ugly and incredibly efficient. Anything that she mentioned as worth consideration usually was worth consideration''." She is an expert on nearly everything and plans to create the perfect filing system. Interesting enough is the fact that she once worked for the government agent-turned-philanthropist,
Parker Pyne. Whether this was during one of Poirot’s numerous retirements or before she entered his employ is unknown.
===
Chief Inspector Japp===
Japp is an Inspector from
Scotland Yard and appears in many of the stories, trying to solve the cases Poirot is working on. Japp is an outward going, loud and sometimes inconsiderate man by nature and his relationship with the bourgeois Belgian is one of the stranger aspects of Poirot’s world. He first met Poirot in Belgium, 1904, during the Abercrombie Forgery and later that year joined forces again to hunt down a criminal known as Baron Altara. They also meet in England where Poirot often helps Japp solve a case and lets him take the credit in return for special favours. These favours usually entail being supplied with cases that would interest him.
[19]
Georges
Georges (we are never told his last name) is a classic English valet and first entered Poirot’s employ in 1923 and didn’t leave his side until the 1970s, shortly before Poirot’s death. A competent, matter-of-fact man with an extensive knowledge of the English aristocracy and absolutely no imagination, Georges provides a steady contrast to Hastings.
Shared world theory
Although Agatha Christie never wrote the much demanded "Poirot meets Miss Marple", some fans claim that they share the same universe anyway. In ''The Pale Horse'', Mrs. Oliver is acquainted with the Rev. and Mrs. Dane Calthrop, who are also friends of Miss Marple (as seen in The Moving Finger) – thus establishing that Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot exist in the same world. In ''The Mystery of the Blue Train'', a Poirot novel, Katherine Grey comes from
St. Mary Mead (the town where Miss Marple lives).
Also a few fans have taken this further, noting that in the ''Labours of Hercules'', it was (jokingly) mentioned that Poirot's mother came up with his name while talking to Sherlock Holmes’s mother. Since this is contradicted in ''The Clocks'' when Poirot discusses, with Colin Lamb, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of Holmes and Watson (and says the stories are somewhat far-fetched), we learn that the reference in ''Labours of Hercules'' was indeed just a joke.
Hercule Poirot's life
Family and childhood
:"I suppose you know pretty well everything there is to know about Poirot's family by this time".
[20]
It is difficult to draw any concrete conclusions about Poirot's family due to the fact that Poirot often supplies false or misleading information about himself or his background in order to assist him in obtaining information relevant to a particular case. In chapter 21 of ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'', for example, we learn that he has been talking about a mentally disabled nephew: this proves to be a ruse so that he can find out about homes for the mentally unfit … but that does 'not' mean that Poirot does not have such a nephew. In ''Dumb Witness'', he regales us with stories of his elderly invalid mother as a pretence to investigate the local nurses. In ''The Big Four'' Hastings believes that he meets Achille Poirot who (in an apparent
parody of
Mycroft Holmes) is evidently his smarter brother. On this occasion, Achille is almost certainly Poirot himself in disguise (Poirot speaks in Chapter 18 of having sent Achille "back to the land of myths"), but this does not conclusively demonstrate that Poirot does not have a brother, or even a brother called Achille. Any evidence regarding Poirot for which Poirot himself is the source is therefore most unreliable.
Poirot was apparently born in
Spa, Belgium and, based on the conjecture that he was thirty at the time of his retirement from the Belgian police force at the time of the outbreak of the First World War, it is suggested that he was born in the mid 1880s. This is all extremely vague, as Poirot is thought to be an old man in his dotage even in the early Poirot novels, and in ''An Autobiography'' Christie admitted that she already imagined him to be an old man in 1920. (At the time, of course, she had no idea she would be going on writing Poirot books for many decades to come.) Much of the suggested dating for Poirot's age is therefore post-rationalisation on the part of those attempting to make sense of his extraordinarily long career.
Poirot is a Roman Catholic by birth,
[21] and retains a strong sense of Catholic morality later in life.
[22] Not much is known of Poirot’s childhood other than he once claimed in ''Three Act Tragedy'' to have been from a large family with little wealth. In ''Taken at the Flood'', he further claimed to have been raised and educated by nuns, raising the possibility that he (and any siblings) were orphaned.
Poirot’s police years
:"Gustave […] was not a policeman. I have dealt with policemen all my life and I ''know''. He could pass as a detective to an outsider but not to a man who was a policeman himself." — Hercule Poirot in "The Erymanthian Boar" (1940).
As an adult, Poirot joined the Belgian police force. Very little mention is made in Christie's work about this part of his life, but in "The Nemean Lion" (1939) Poirot himself refers to a Belgian case of his in which "a wealthy soap manufacturer […] poisoned his wife in order to be free to marry his secretary". We do not know whether this case resulted in a successful prosecution or not; moreover, Poirot is not above lying in order to produce a particular effect in the person to whom he is speaking, so this evidence is not reliable.
Inspector Japp gives some insight into Poirot's career with the Belgian police when introducing him to a colleague:
:"You've heard me speak of Mr Poirot? It was in 1904 he and I worked together – the Abercrombie forgery case – you remember he was run down in Brussels. Ah, those were the days Moosier. Then, do you remember "Baron" Altara? There was a pretty rogue for you! He eluded the clutches of half the police in Europe. But we nailed him in Antwerp – thanks to Mr. Poirot here."
[23]
Perhaps this is enough evidence to suggest that Poirot's police career was a successful one.
In the short story ''The Chocolate Box'' (1923) Poirot provides
Captain Arthur Hastings with an account of what he considers to be his only failure. Poirot admits that he has failed to solve a crime "innumerable" times:
:"I have been called in too late. Very often another, working towards the same goal, has arrived there first. Twice I have been struck down with illness just as I was on the point of success."
Nevertheless, he regards the case in "The Chocolate Box", which took place in 1893,
[24] as his only actual failure of detection. Again, however, it must be stressed that Poirot is not reliable as a narrator of his personal history and there is no evidence that Christie sketched it out in any depth.
It was also in this period that Poirot shot a man who was firing from a roof onto the public below.
[25]
Poirot has retired from the Belgian police force by the time that he meets Hastings in 1916 on the case retold in ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles''.
It should be noted that Poirot is a French-speaking Belgian, i.e. a
Walloon; but there can hardly be found any occasion where he refers to himself as such, or is so referred to by others. At the time of writing, at least of the earlier books where the character was defined, non-Belgians such as Agatha Christie were far less aware than nowadays of the deep linguistic divide in Belgian society.
Career as a private detective
: "I had called in at my friend Poirot's rooms to find him sadly overworked. So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot."
[26]
During the
first world war, Poirot left
Belgium for
Britain as a
refugee. It was here, on
16 July 1916, that he again met his lifelong friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, and solved the first of his cases to be published: ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles''.
[27] After that case Poirot apparently came to the attention of the British secret service, and undertook cases for the British government, including foiling the attempted abduction of the Prime Minister.
[28]
After the war Poirot became a free agent and began undertaking civilian cases. He moved into what became both his home and work address, 56B Whitehaven Mansions,
Sandhurst Square,
London W1.
[29] It was chosen by Poirot for its symmetry. His first case was "The Affair at the Victory Ball", which saw Poirot enter the high society and begin his career as a
private detective.
Between the first and second world wars, Poirot traveled all over Europe and the Middle East investigating crimes and murders. Most of his cases happened during this period and he was at the height of his powers at this point in his life. ''The Murder On the Links'' saw the Belgian pit his grey cells against a French murderer. In the Middle East he solved ''The Murder on the Orient Express'' (though the bulk of the story takes places in the territory of the former-Yugoslavia), the ''Death on the Nile'', and the ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' with ease and even survived ''An Appointment with Death.'' However he did not travel to the Americas or Australia, probably due to his sea sickness.
:"It is this villainous sea that troubles me! The ''mal de mer'' – it is horrible suffering!"
[30]
It was during this time he met the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a glamorous jewel thief. The history of the Countess is, like Poirot's, steeped in mystery. She claims to have been a member of the Russian Aristocracy during the Russian Revolution and suffered greatly as a result, but how much of that story is true is an open question. Even Poirot acknowledges that Rossakoff has told several wildy varying accounts of her early life. Poirot later became smitten with the woman and allowed her to escape justice.
:"It is the misfortune of small, precise men always to hanker after large and flamboyant women. Poirot had never been able to rid himself of the fatal fascination that the Countess held for him."
[31]
Although letting the Countess escape may be morally questionable, this tendency to take the law into his own hands is far from unique. During the case of "The Nemean Lion", he sides with the criminal, Miss Amy Carnaby, and prevents her from having to face justice by blackmailing his client Sir Joseph Hoggins, who himself was plotting murder and was unwise enough to let Poirot discover this. Poirot even sent Miss Carnaby two hundred pounds as a final payoff before her dog kidnapping campaign came to an end. When dealing with ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' he allows the murderer to escape justice through suicide and then ensures the truth was never known in order to spare the feelings of the murderer's relatives. In "The Augean Stables" he helps the government to cover up vast corruption, even though it might be considered more honest to let the truth come out.
After his cases in the Middle East, Poirot returned to Britain. Apart from some of the so-called "Labours of Hercules" (see next section) he very rarely traveled abroad during his later career.
Retirement
:"That’s the way of it. Just a case or two, just one case more – the Prima Donna’s farewell performance won’t be in it with yours, Poirot."
[32]
Poirot's last cases as a private detective
There is a great deal of confusion about Poirot's retirement. Most of the cases covered by Poirot's private detective agency take place before his retirement to grow marrows, at which time he solves ''
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd''. It has been said that twelve cases related in ''The Labours of Hercules'' (1947) must refer to a different retirement, but the fact that Poirot specifically says that he intends to grow marrows indicates that these stories also take place before ''Roger Ackroyd'', and presumably Poirot closed his agency once he had completed them. Unfortunately, there is specific mention in "The Capture of Cerberus" to the fact that there has been a gap of twenty years between Poirot's previous meeting with Countess Rossakoff and this one. If the ''Labours'' precede the events in ''Roger Ackroyd'', then the Roger Ackroyd case must have taken place around twenty years 'later' than it was published, and so must any of the cases that refer to it. One alternative would be that having failed to grow marrows once, Poirot is determined to have another go, but this is specifically denied by Poirot himself.
[33] Another alternative would be to suggest that the Preface to the ''Labours'' takes place at one date but that the labours are completed over a matter of twenty years. None of the explanations is especially attractive.
In terms of a rudimentary chronology, Poirot speaks of retiring to grow marrows in Chapter 18 of ''The Big Four'' (1927), which places that novel out of published order before Roger Ackroyd. He declines to solve a case for the Home Secretary because he is retired in Chapter One of ''Peril at End House'' (1932). He is certainly retired at the time of ''Three Act Tragedy'' (1935) but he does not enjoy his retirement and comes repeatedly out of it thereafter when his curiosity is engaged. Nevertheless, he continues to employ his secretary, Miss Lemon, at the time of the cases retold in ''Hickory Dickory Dock'' and ''Dead Man's Folly'', which take place in the mid-1950s. It is therefore better to assume that Christie provided no authoritative chronology for Poirot's retirement, but assumed that he could either be an active detective, a consulting detective or a retired detective as the needs of the immediate case required.
One thing that is consistent about Poirot's retirement is that his fame declines during it, so that in the later novels he is often disappointed when characters (especially younger characters) do not recognise either him or his name:
:"I should, perhaps, Madame, tell you a little more about myself. I am ''Hercule Poirot''."
: The revelation left Mrs Summerhayes unmoved.
: "What a lovely name," she said kindly. "Greek, isn't it?"
[34]
Post war world
:"He, I knew, was not likely to be far from his headquarters. The time when cases had drawn him from one end of England to the other was past."
[35]
Poirot is less active during the cases that take place at the end of his career. Beginning with ''Three Act Tragedy'' (1934), Christie had perfected during the inter-war years a sub-genre of Poirot novel in which the detective himself spent much of the first third of the novel on the periphery of events. In novels such as ''Taken at the Flood'', ''After the Funeral'' and ''Hickory Dickory Dock'' he is even less in evidence, frequently passing the duties of main interviewing detective to a subsidiary character. In ''Cat Among the Pigeons'' Poirot's entrance is so late as to be almost an afterthought. Whether this was a reflection of his age or of the fact that Christie was by now heartily sick of him it is difficult to assess. There is certainly a case for saying that
Crooked House (1949) and
Ordeal by Innocence (1957), which are not Poirot novels at all but so easily could have been, represent a logical endpoint of the general diminution of Poirot himself within the Poirot sequence.
Towards the end of his career it becomes clear that Poirot's retirement is no longer a convenient fiction. He assumes a genuinely inactive lifestyle during which he concerns himself with studying famous unsolved cases of the past and reading detective novels. He even writes a book about mystery fiction in which he deals sternly with
Edgar Allan Poe and
Wilkie Collins.
[36] In the absence of a more appropriate puzzle, he solves such inconsequential domestic problems as the presence of three pieces of orange peel in his umbrella stand.
[37]
Poirot (and, it is reasonable to suppose, his creator)
[38] becomes increasingly bemused by the vulgarism of the up and coming generation's young people. In ''Hickory Dickory Dock'', he investigates the strange goings on in a student hostel, while in the ''Third Girl'' he is forced into contact with the smart set of Chelsea youths. In the growing drug and pop culture of the sixties, he proves himself once again, but has become heavily reliant on other investigators (especially the private investigator, Mr. Goby) who provide him with the clues that he can no longer gather for himself.
: "''You're too old''. Nobody told me you were so old. I really don't want to be rude but – there it is. ''You're too old''. I'm really very sorry."
[39]
Death
Poirot dies from inevitable complications of a heart condition at the end of ''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case''. By this point in his life he is wearing a wig and false moustache, and also seems to be afflicted by
arthritis.
In the book the '' Hastings finds a manuscript written by Poirot, within the confines of the script is a confession that Poirot has committed murder.
He also states that since he has become something that he has always opposed and fought for he neglects to take his heart medication, which subsequently, causes his death.
With Norton unconscious, Poirot, whose incapacity had been faked (a trick for which he needed a temporary valet who did not know how healthy he was) moved the body back to Norton’s room in his wheelchair. Then, he disguised himself as Norton by removing his own wig, putting on Norton’s dressing-gown and ruffling up his grey hair. Poirot was the only short suspect at the house. With it established that Norton was alive after he left Poirot’s room, Poirot shot him – with perfect and unnecessary symmetry – in the centre of his forehead. He locked the room with a duplicate key that Hastings knew Poirot to possess; both Hastings and the reader would have assumed that the duplicate key was to Poirot's own room, but Poirot had changed rooms before Norton's arrival, and it was to this previous room that he had the key.
Poirot’s last actions were to write the confession and await his death, which he accelerated by moving amyl nitrite phials out of his own reach. His last wish is implicitly that Hastings will marry Elizabeth Cole: a final instance of the inveterate matchmaking that has characterised his entire career.
Major novels
The Poirot books take readers through the whole of his life in England, from the first book (''
The Mysterious Affair at Styles''), where he is a refugee staying at Styles, to the last Poirot book (''
Curtain''), where he visits Styles once again before his death. In between, Poirot solves cases outside England as well, including his most famous case, ''
Murder on the Orient Express'' (1934).
Hercule Poirot became famous with the publication, in 1926, of ''
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'', whose surprising solution proved controversial. The novel is still among the most famous of all detective novels:
Edmund Wilson alludes to it in the title of his well-known attack on detective fiction, "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?" Aside from ''Roger Ackroyd'', the most critically-acclaimed Poirot novels appeared from 1932 to 1942, including such acknowledged classics as ''
Murder on the Orient Express'', ''
The ABC Murders'' (1935), ''
Cards on the Table'' (1936), and ''
Death on the Nile'' (1937). The last of these, a tale of multiple homicide upon a Nile steamer, was judged by the celebrated detective novelist
John Dickson Carr to be among the ten greatest mystery novels of all time.
The 1942 novel ''
Five Little Pigs'' (aka ''Murder in Retrospect''), in which Poirot investigates a murder committed sixteen years before by analyzing various accounts of the tragedy, is a ''
Rashomon''-like performance that critic and mystery novelist
Robert Barnard called the best of the Christie novels.
''For a list of novels and short stories featuring Hercule Poirot, please see
Hercule Poirot in Literature''.
Portrayals
Film
Austin Trevor
Austin Trevor debuted the role of Poirot on film in the 1931 movie ''Alibi''. The film was based on the stage play ''
Alibi'' which had been adapted by Michael Morton from the
novel ''
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd''.
Trevor reprised the role of Poirot twice, in ''Black Coffee'' and ''
Lord Edgware Dies''. Trevor said once that he was probably cast as Poirot simply because he could do a French accent.
[40]
Albert Finney
Albert Finney played Poirot in 1975 in the cinematic version of ''
Murder on the Orient Express''. His portrayal was considered by many to be the definitive Poirot until
David Suchet took up the role. It was a very faithful adaptation of
the novel and was, at the time, the most successful British film ever made. It received the stamp of approval from Agatha Christie herself. Finney is, so far, the only actor to receive an
Academy Award nomination for playing Poirot, though he did not win.
Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov played Poirot a total of six times, starting with ''
Death on the Nile'' (1978). He reprised the role in ''
Evil Under the Sun'' (1982) and ''
Appointment With Death'' (1988)
Christie was less sanguine about Ustinov's portrayal, given that Poirot, written as short, slim, and with coal-black hair, bore little resemblance to the tall, heavy, grey-haired Ustinov. When Christie's daughter,
Rosalind Hicks, observed to Ustinov that Poirot did not look like him, Ustinov quipped that "He does now!"
[41]
He appeared again as Poirot in three
made-for-television movies: ''
Thirteen at Dinner'' (1985), ''
Dead Man's Folly'' (1986), and ''
Murder in Three Acts'' (1986). The first of these was based on ''
Lord Edgware Dies'' and was made by
Warner Brothers. It also starred
Faye Dunaway and David Suchet as Inspector Japp, just before he himself played the famous detective. (Ironically, it is reputed that David Suchet highlights his performance as Japp to be "possibly the worst performance of [his] career.")
[42]
Other
★
Tony Randall, ''
The Alphabet Murders'' (1965) (Film, also known as ''The ABC Murders''). This was more a satire on Poirot than a straightforward adaptation, and was greatly changed from the original. It turned the sharp and observant detective into a blundering buffoon who solves the case almost by accident.
Television
'David Suchet' has starred in many Hercule Poirot films and four new ones – ''Cards on the Table'', ''The Mystery of the Blue Train'', ''After the Funeral'' and ''Taken At The Flood'' – were shown in the UK in March/April 2006. For more information about the ongoing UK television series starring
David Suchet, see
Agatha Christie's Poirot.
'Other'
★
Ian Holm, Murder by the Book, 1986 (TV)
★
Alfred Molina, Murder on the Orient Express, 2001 (TV)
Animated
In 2004,
NHK (a Japanese TV network) produced a 39 episode
anime series titled ''
Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple'', as well as a
manga series under the same title released in 2005.
The series, adapting several of the best-known Poirot and Marple stories, ran from
July 4,
2004 through
May 15,
2005, and is now being shown as re-runs on
NHK and other networks in Japan. Poirot was voiced by Satomi Kōtarō and Miss Marple was voiced by
Yachigusa Kaoru.
Radio
There have been a number of radio adaptations of the Poirot stories, most recently on
BBC Radio 4 (and regularly repeated on
BBC 7) starring
John Moffatt.
Parodies and references
In Neil Simon's ''
Murder By Death'', James Coco plays a character named "Milo Perrier" who is a parody of Poirot. (The film also features parodies of Charlie Chan, Sam Spade, Nick & Nora Charles, and Miss Marple.)
Poirot was also parodied in ''
The Goodies'' episode ''
Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express''.
Although not strictly a reference to Poirot, the new series Christé and Doyle will feature a lead role similar to that of Hercule Poirot. With the name of the character being similar to that of Poirot's creator Agatha Christie and his being half Belgian, Christé also shares many of Poirot's methods and characteristics, the series is expected to begin filming in the late summer in
Sandhurst.
An episode of
Animaniacs featured
Yakko Warner as "Hercule Yakko." The episode involved the theft of a diamond on a train, involving much of the series' cast as suspects.
In the movie
Spiceworld, Hercule Poirot is about to blame a weapons-packing
Emma Bunton, but after she flashes him an innocent smile, Poirot instead accuses an innocent man of the crime.
In , Poirot appears as a young boy on the train transporting Holmes and Watson. Holmes helps the boy in opening a puzzle-box, with Watson giving the boy advice about using his "little grey cells", giving the impression that Poirot first heard the line here. Poirot would go on to use the "little grey cells" line countless times throughout Agatha Christie's fiction.
In an episode of
Muppets Tonight,
Jason Alexander played Hercule Poirot, believed by the Muppets to be
Hercules Poirot, with superhuman powers.
The Belgian brewery Brasserie Ellezelloise makes a highly rated stout called ''Hercule''
[1] with a moustachioed charicature of Hercule Poirot on the label.
Dave Stone has created two parodies of Poirot named Dupont. The first, Andre Dupont, appears in the ''
Detective-Judge Armitage'' story ''Dowager Duchess of Ghent''
[2]. The second, Emile Dupont, appears in the ''
Bernice Summerfield'' novel ''
Ship of Fools''.
The "decipherer of enigmas" in
José Carlos Somoza's novel ''
The Athenian Murders'' is named Herakles Pontor.
See also
Plot devices in Agatha Christie's novels
References
1. Agatha Christie (1890-1976) Chris Willis, London Metropolitan University
2. Reproduced as the "Introduction" to Christie, Agatha. ''Hercule Poirot: The complete short stories'' (Harper Collins, 1999) p. viii
3. Official Agatha Christie Website
4. Agatha Christie (1890-1976) Chris Willis, London Metropolitan University
5. ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', Chapter 2
6. As Hastings discovers in ''The A.B.C. Murders'', Chapter 1
7. e.g. "For about ten minutes [Poirot] sat in dead silence […] and all the time his eyes grew steadily greener" ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', Chapter 5
8. e.g. "Hercule Poirot looked down at the tips of his patent-leather shoes and sighed." "The Apples of the Hesperides" (1940)
9. e.g. "And now here was the man himself. Really a most impossible person – the wrong clothes – button boots! an incredible moustache! Not his – Meredith Blake's kind of fellow at all." ''Five Little Pigs'', Chapter 7.
10. ''Death in the Clouds'', Chapter 1.
11. "My stomach, it is not happy on the sea" ''Evil under the Sun'', Chapter 8, iv
12. ''Mrs. McGinty's Dead'', Chapter 1
13. "he walked up the steps to the front door and pressed the bell, glancing as he did so at the neat wrist-watch which had at last replaced an old favourite – the large turnip-faced watch of early days. Yes, it was exactly nine-thirty. As ever, Hercule Poirot was exact to the minute." "The Dream" (1937)
14. "It has been said of Hercule Poirot by some of his friends and associates, at moments when he has maddened them most, the he prefers lies to truth and will go out of his way to gain his ends by elaborate false statements, rather than trust to the simple truth." ''Five Little Pigs'', Book One, Chapter 9
15. e.g. "After a careful study of the goods displayed in the window, Poirot entered and represented himself as desirous of purchasing a rucksack for a hypothetical nephew." ''Hickory Dickory Dock'', Chapter 13
16. "The Stymphalean Birds" (first published as "The Vulture Women" in 1939)
17. ''Three Act Tragedy'', final chapter
18. ''After the Funeral'', Chapter 18.
19. Captain Arthur Hastings in Chapter 9 of ''The Big Four''
20. Dr. Sheppard in Chapter 21 of ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd''
21. "Hercule Poirot was a Catholic by birth." "The Apples of the Hesperides" (1940)
22. In ''Taken at the Flood'', Book II, Chapter 6 he goes into church to pray and happens across a suspect with whom he briefly discusses ideas of sin and confession.
23. ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', Chapter 7
24. The date is given in ''Peril at End House'', Chapter 15.
25. ''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case'', Postscript
26. "Double Sin" (original version published in 1928)
27. It is clear that Hastings and Poirot are already friends when they meet in Chapter 2 of the novel, because Hastings tells Cynthia that he has not seen him for "some years". The date of 1916 for the case, and the fact that Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium, is given in ''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case'', Chapter 1.
28. Recounted in "The Kidnapped Prime Minister". The events in the story are immediately connected with the First World War, and feature an "Allied Conference" at Versailles that is probably meant to be understood as the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919.
29. Hastings first visits the flat at Whitehaven Mansions when he returns to England in June 1935. ''The A.B.C. Murders'', Chapter 1 (It is a plot point in the novel that the flat is at Whitehaven Mansions because a letter to Poirot is misaddressed.) In ''Cat Among the Pigeons'', Chapter 17, III, the address is given as "228 Whitehouse Mansions". Given the similarity in the names it is not impossible that the same address was meant. In ''The Clocks'', Chapter 14, the address is given as 203, Whitehaven Mansions.
30. Poirot, in "The Kidnapped Prime Minister" (1923)
31. "The Capture of Cerebus" (1947) The first sentence quoted is also a close paraphrase of something said to Poirot by Hastings in Chapter 18 of ''The Big Four''.
32. Dr. Burton in the Preface to ''The Labours of Hercules'' (1947).
33. ''The Clocks'', Chapter 13: in response to the suggestion that he might take up gardening in his retirement, Poirot answers "Once the vegetable marrows, yes – but never again"
34. ''Mrs. McGinty's Dead'', Chapter 4
35. Hastings, in Chapter One of ''The Big Four''
36. ''The Third Girl'', Chapter 1
37. ''The Clocks'', Chapter 14
38. In ''The Pale Horse'', Chapter 1, the novel's narrator, Mark Easterbrook, disapprovingly describes a typical "Chelsea girl" in much the same terms that Poirot uses in Chapter 1 of ''Third Girl'', suggesting that the condemnation of fashion is authorial.
39. Norma Restarick to Poirot in ''Third Girl'', Chapter 1
40. TV & Film page at the Hercule Poirot Central website.
41. Web page at mapdig.com
42. Web page on David Suchet at strandmag.com
External links
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Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot
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