Murder in Mesopotamia
- Episode aired Jul 8, 2001
- TV-14
- 1h 38m
While Poirot is on holiday in Iraq, the wife of the head scientist at an archaeological dig confides to him that she is the target of threatening letters.While Poirot is on holiday in Iraq, the wife of the head scientist at an archaeological dig confides to him that she is the target of threatening letters.While Poirot is on holiday in Iraq, the wife of the head scientist at an archaeological dig confides to him that she is the target of threatening letters.
- Murdered Man
- (as Rejeb Magri)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the Agatha Christie novel "Murder in Mesopotamia", Captain Hastings does not appear. In this adaptation, he appears and is related to William Coleman.
- GoofsIt is impossible to accidentally drink Hydrochloric Acid because it gives off copious amounts of fumes which burn the nose and eyes. A person would be coughing violently before ever taking a sip, so Mrs. Johnson could not accidentally drink it thinking it was water, even half asleep. Sulfuric acid on the other hand has almost no fumes and could easily be drunk by a person who is half asleep.
- Quotes
Bill Coleman: [after going over a bump while driving his jeep at high speed through the desert] Whoops!
Hercule Poirot: [groaning with discomfort] Unh!
Bill Coleman: That was a good one!
Hastings: [with annoyance] We don't have to get there in five minutes, you know!
Bill Coleman: That's half the fun. You're growing old, Ucle Arthur.
Hercule Poirot: Mr. Coleman, I myself have aged ten years since entering this auto mobile.
- Crazy creditsThanks to the Archeological Site of Oudhna.
What is quite striking about this story as filmed is the utter flatness of all the other characters. To some extent this is a product of the fact that none of the actors is well known, but the script doesn't help either. They are simply boring (the Arabs are non-starters). Their function is to listen to Poriot, provide him with information or disinformation and to die when necessary. Actually one of the victims (Ms Leidner) has an interesting past but she is too pathetic to hold our sympathy. Perhaps the producers were trying to save money on salaries but the cast are not a prepossessing lot.
On the other hand the production values (for a TV movie) aren't bad and much of the film was shot in Tunisia around a real `dig'. (Iraq, alas, was not available). Hercule Poirot, always immaculately dressed and amusingly fussy, can always hold our attention even if he is to a large extent the puppetmaster. Although he makes mistakes along the way we can be assured the characters will fit his theories in the end.
Lousy art but good television.
- Philby-3
- Apr 12, 2003
Details
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 16 : 9