Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(2023)

Hey! I finally watched this! The third installment of Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot films!

This was based on a short story by Agatha Christie called “Hallowe’en Party” but has been fleshed out into a full length film. There was an installment of the David Suchet films also based on the same story which did use the title Halloween Party. There are some major differences between these two, naturally.

For one, Kenneth Branagh’s version is more violent and scary.

For another, Col. Hastings (Poirot’s humorous version of Sherlock’s Watson) and Detective Japp (Poirot’s humorous version of Sherlock’s Lestrade) have been removed from the Branagh version even though they were definitely present in the David Suchet version. This would have likely led to a stark lack of humor but for the casting of Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver, the fictional American mystery writer who seemingly shadows Poirot for inspiration. I was very surprised to see Tina in this film but she was great! Frankly she and several other characters added a healthy amount of much needed humor to this series. I was quite pleased.

I think they likely changed the title because Hallowe’en Party sounds like a kids’ movie and a kids’ movie this is not. Also, Haunting and Venice are both marketing buzz words. They (gnomes) have been changing Agatha Christie titles (and most other titles) from the day she started writing. The original titles of most her stories have been altered to appeal to American audiences at their time of distribution in the states. This generally meant the words “Death” or “Murder” were incorporated. See? Buzz words. It’s a thing.

This came out September of 2023, right near Halloween and I wish had been able to catch it. It would have been most fitting for the time. It was macabre, of course, but nowhere near as depressing as Death on the Nile. I finished this film with generally good feelings.

In fact, there was a really, REALLY scary part which puts this film right up there with the horror genre in my opinion. It may seem tame to many but I found the characters’ inspection of the cellar quite terrifying. I’ll say no more.

I know things tend to come in threes but I do hope we’ve not seen the last of Branagh’s Poirot. For all their lack of humor they are well made films.

Au revoir!