October 16th, 2008

The much-awaited episode “Appointment with Death” of Hercule Poirot reminded me of “The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb” and “Murder in Mesopotamia”. It took some effort to get the video of this episode after lot of tough hunt on Internet.
However, this story did not live up to my expectations, and unfortunately, it could not create the ripples similar to some of my favorite older episodes of Poirot. The story starts with a man digging out ancient ruins of “Petra”, and a mystical ancient fable of man on a horse is used in the backdrop about this man meeting his death while roaming in desert. All Agatha Christie stories that are based on Middle Eastern and Arabia show the same stuff where group of Arabic men’s are digging. British people are portrayed as careless people roaming, drinking, and kissing. Anyways, it is well understood as all the stories have been penned in 30’s of the colonial period, as most of the archaeological discoveries were happening in that period could have left major impression in the mind of the writer.
“Appointment With Death” takes us to a Holy Land tour of Petra in 1937, first showing the busy reception area of the “King Solomon Hotel” in Jerusalem and then at a tourism camp at Petra. The tour group is primarily consists of Southern-bred Americans and Brits, making for an interesting mix of well-developed accents.
Lord Boynton an archaeological head working in Petra invites his family and friends to visit the digging site. Suddenly one afternoon among the towering red cliffs and historic ruins of Petra, the dead body of Mrs. Boynton is found. Poirot finds a tiny puncture mark, the only sign of the fatal injection that killed her, with blood and some wax. Suddenly Poirot recalls a statement that he overheard back in Jerusalem: “You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?” Yes, Mrs. Boynton was, indeed, the most hateful woman Poirot had ever met. Poirot finds the killer amongst many suspects including the adopted children’s of Boynton’s.
The whole episode is full of drama and the climax too ends with it. For the first time I see Poirot praying in night. Poirot in the last scene has been show like an angel who is caring and a person with lot of grit, the picturization was perfect for this scene.
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