Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Hercule Poirot's Christmas 2001


     When Simeon Lee was a young man, he had a partner that he worked with in the South African diamond fields.  They did find diamonds and Simeon killed his partner so he could keep the wealth to himself.  He almost died riding a horse to stake his claim but he met Stella de Zuigder.  She he helped him regain his strength and he repaid her efforts by sneaking away in the night.  Now, Simeon is a very bitter elderly man with a huge country manor house in Kent.  He has asked Hercule Poirot to visit his manor house at Christmas.  Simeon is planning on having a lot of relatives visit for the holidays and he doesn’t trust them??
     Simeon Lee is an evil man and his ways have not changed throughout his life??  He treats his progeny with a sadistic and cruel attitude.  He has warned them that he plans to change his ten-year old will!!  No wonder he wants a famous detective on the scene.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

110 min, TV episode, crime directed by Edward Bennett with David Suchet, Philip Jackson, Vernon Dobtcheff, Simon Roberts, Catherine Rabett, Eric Carte, Andree Bernard, Brian Gwaspari, Sasha Behar, Mark Tandy, Olga Lowe, Ayub Khan-Din, John Horsley, Scott Handy, Liese Benjamin.

Note:  The book by Agatha Christie has 3.92* of 5* on goodreads.com,  Imdb 8.1 out of 10, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 27 reviews, Acorn Online 4 ½* out of 5* with 4 reviews.
Special Note:  The French title is Le Noel d’Hercule Poirot.  This is appropriate since Hercule speaks French but he is Belgium.   Alternate titles are Murder for Christmas and A Holiday for Murder.  Vernon Dobtcheff is in the role as Simeon Lee and he has appeared with Albert Finney as Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express of 1974.  The name Stella de Zuiger did not appear in the original book.  She was only mentioned once and was referred to as “your mother” and not by her name. 

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