Day 187: Poirot, The Cornish Mystery

Show: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Episode Particulars: S2EP4, “The Cornish Mystery”, original airdate January 28^th, 1990.

 Summary: Poirot is contacted by a Mrs. Pengelly (Amanda Walker), who is worried that her husband (Jerome Wills) is poisoning her. Poirot agrees to come to her home in Cornwall to investigate, but he arrives too late; she died earlier that day. Kicking himself over letting this happen, Poirot throws himself into the investigation, uncovering several love affairs in the process. The question is, which one was the motive for murder?

Standalone Thoughts: The word I would use to describe this episode is “slight”. Not only does Poirot not do all that much investigating, but there honestly isn’t much of a mystery here. I say this because a) there’s not a lot of obfustication or red herrings, and b) the episode tips its hand somewhat as to what’s going on. It’s not as bad as in “Four and Twenty Blackbirds”, but there’s an excellent chance you’ll know who the killer is long before it’s made official. Given all that, there really isn’t much to say about the episode, partly because there’s only so much to talk about and partly because talking too much would give things away.

I will, however, give the episode credit for some of the character bits involving Poirot. When he realizes that Mrs. Pengelly is dead, Poirot berates himself, and Suchet makes it sound genuine and heartfelt. Even better, when Poirot questions Mrs. Pengelly’s doctor (Derek Benfield), he’s much more rude and sharp about it, and it becomes obvious pretty quickly that it’s due in part to Poirot’s guilt and anger over the situation, which I think is a great touch. And after the scraping Hastings got in “Peril at End House”, Poirot genuinely praises Hastings for clever thinking (tempered with a bit of sarcasm, but that’s par for the course), reassuring me that Hastings isn’t doomed to always play the role of the whipping boy. In short, even if the episode itself isn’t much to write home about, the characterization for the leads remains stellar. Even if I rag on the rest of the show, I’ll do my best not to lose sight of that fact.

Number of Tropes Followed/Subverted: Only 2/15 tropes today, and one subversion. The subversion is “Murder Obscura”, because despite being told that Mr. Pengelly is a dentist, nothing comes of it. As for tropes, I’d say we’ve got at least one case of “An Affair to Forget”, and while the evidence itself is scanty, I’d say the episode on the whole is a case of “Playing Fair”. Maybe too fair, as suggested above, but that just makes it far easier to count it as a trope rather than a subversion. At least, that’s the consolation I take from things like this.

Other: *I have less of a dog in the hunt when it comes to Poirot’s fashions, but I’ll occasionally comment on them if there’s a really good or bad example. And today, we have a case of the latter;

Or rather, we have a case of a dressing gown/smoking jacket that really shouldn’t have been paired with floral upholstery. The jacket itself would probably be all right on its own, but the costuming department probably should have thought this one through a little better.

*The reading of Mrs. Pengelly’s will seems off to me. Firstly, I think it’s a little too convenient that the lawyer reading the will needs to get it read quickly because he “has to be back in the office”, and thus allows Poirot to be present for it. And secondly, I’ve never been present at a will reading, and thus could be wrong about this, but I thought you generally didn’t skip over all the “being of sound mind and body” parts at the beginning. But this lawyer just glosses right over it and goes straight to the monetary parts, and that just seems unprofessional to me. I’ll freely admit I could be wrong about this, though, so anyone can feel free to correct me.

Most Interesting Character: Most of the supporting cast don’t get all that much to do today. Which means that I have to default to the only one who stood out, which was;

Jacob Radnor (John Bowler)

Radnor takes this solely on account of the speech he makes to Poirot about keeping Mrs. Pengelly’s murder quiet, because while it doesn’t leave a positive impression of him, it is at least, as Poirot says, an honest one. Plus, Bowler delivers his dialogue with enough verve to make things interesting, which in turn makes Radnor stand out even more. And in cases like these, that’s more than enough to give him the title.