Summer Movies
Arrived on time. No damage. Gave as a gift and recipient just loves them.

David Suchet is #1
Out of all the movie/TV adaptions of Agatha Christie's stories, I think David Suchet does the most justice. It's as if he has been playing the role his whole life.

All three episodes in this dvd are wonderful, but this is coming from a die-hard fan (there isn't one thing that Agatha Christie writes that I don't love).

Great Poirot
This movie is great. My family loves to watch it all the time. It grabs your attention and never lets it go.

It's great!
Every once in a while, an actor comes along who not only plays the role of Sherlock Holmes, but actually redefines the role. Well, this has now happened with Agatha Christie's detective, Hercule Poirot! In 1989, veteran actor David Suchet (b.1946) was tapped to play Poirot, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This marvelous DVD contains three(!) of the hour-long episodes of the Adventures of Hercule Poirot:

The Cornish Mystery - Season 2, episode 4 (28 January 1990) - A woman seeks out Poirot's help, claiming her husband is slowly poisoning her. And when she is found dead, it is up to Poirot to see to it that the husband goes free!

Double Sin - Season 2, episode 6 (11 February 1990) - To everyone's amazement Poirot suddenly announces that he is retiring, and when a young woman's paintings are stolen, he refuses to help. It's up to Hastings to solve the mystery, but what is Poirot really up to?

The Adventure of the Cheap Flat - Season 2, episode 7 (18 February 1990) - Poirot meets a young couple with a strange story to tell, they got their flat for an outrageously low price, and all because of their name. There's more to this little mystery than meets the eye, and Poirot is just the man to get to the bottom of it!

This is a great DVD, one that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a good mystery, or just loves excellent drama. It's great!

Great Shows, Mediocre Video Transfer
This rating is an average, taking about 5 stars for the quality of scripts and performances, and about 1 for the technical quality of these DVDs. I've been a fan of Suchet's Poirot from the get-go; and have just about worn out my tapes. For my wife and me, Poirot is video comfort food. That's why I'm buying the DVDs-to have wear-proof copies of these beloved shows.

Having said that, Acorn should not be proud that this is the best technical quality they can produce. Basically, these shows on DVD look no better than mediocre VHS; perhaps less than mediocre. The imagery is neither sharp nor crisp; dark scenes have a sort of permanent haze over them; they're almost in a monochrome, washed out with little color to the wonderful period scenery and sets.

I believe the shows were shot on film, which means negatives must exist. One has to wonder if the negs were lost or damaged, and these DVDs were made from secondary or tertiary sources. At any rate, I would love to know the story of how these video transfers came to be.

Whatever the reason, it's too bad that such a great series is being represented this way on DVD.