Poirot...As James Bond??! - The Big Four 

You might say Fleming was instead inspired by Christie since his first Bond novel didn't come out until the 1950s.

Something about that book that surprises me; there have been several Adventures Games adapted from Agatha Christie's novels (most of them the Poirot novels), yet this book, which is the one that feels the most like a video game, due to its gimmick of having many smaller crimes investigated, tied together with a larger arc, was never adapted into a game. I think that's kind of a missed opportunity. 😅

Oh great. Two hours after posting this and I find out the next Branagh/Poirot film is based on Hallowe'en Party. I guess we didn't have to wait long to find out if my predictions in this video are accurate. Also I was going to cover Hallowe'en Party next, so I'll have to rethink that.

I was disappointed by the lack of Hastings, too. My best guess is that it's because Hugh Fraser had a bigger role in Curtain. Maybe they wanted to even out Japp and Hastings's screen time.

I LOVE AC's Poirot and have watched the series/movies many, many times... but I just CAN'T watch CURTAIN! I think it would be FAR too sad!

Oh my god YES. I didn’t know content like this existed and I’ve been obsessed with Christie for awhile

Underrated masterpiece.

When I saw the title of this video, I thought it was going to be Branagh's Orient Express. I'd say he went pretty Bond-esque from the start! specifically that chase on the snowy scaffolding

Love AC Poirot- David Suchet is amazing and this was a good movie, the earlier films were much better than the more recent ones- although The Curtain, was amazing. Thanks for post

Good commentary. The Poirot series made sure to choose the better Christie stories for all the earlier series when they weren't sure they would get to do all of them. The problem with that is it meant, with the exception of "Curtain", they saved the duds for the last season. I think they do a great job with The Big Four as Christie doesn't do a good job with thrillers and spy novels. I did miss Hastings and wished we had more time with him and Poirot but I was just so glad they did manage to bring back Japp, Miss Lemmon and Hastings for this episode as they have been gone from the show for years. However, because of this, my big complaint is I think Adriana Oliver should have been it. Yes, she wasn't in the original novel but she hadn't been introduced yet. Since the TV series relied on her so much, I think it would have been a wonderful opportunity to do the one thing Christie never herself did, have her be in company with Japp and Hastings (and Miss Lemmon). Oh well, missed opportunities.

Chapeau ! Monsieur, merci pour votre vidéo.🥳🥇👍

I have to agree, this adaptation doesnt resemble the original in the slightest, but, because of how drastically different it is, I think it was for the best. The big 4 is one I have actually read, so this complete change kept me pleasantly on my toes

The opening is hillarious🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

As you hinted with your choice of 007 clips, Roald Dahl's script for 'You Only Live Twice' has probably rather more of 'The Big Four' in it than it does of Fleming's 'You Only Live Twice'! It is difficult not to wonder if, having decided the book was unadaptable (not least because it is a direct sequence to OHMSS which was filmed AFTER YOLT), Dahl recalled the 'live twice' trick from 'The Big Four' and that gave him much of the last couple of acts of YOLT also! The irony here is also that Mark Gatiss also considered 'The Big Four' to be incapable of adaptation and hence reworked it, as you say, as a rather more typical, if somewhat unlikely, Poirot murder mystery. My understanding is that Agatha Christie wished to alternate murder mysteries and spy thriller - a number of her early works were more in the spy genre and she continued to include spy elements in later books, such as 'The Incredible Theft'. Due to the comparative success of the murder mysteries, her publisher advised her to stick to these, leaving the gap in the market for a smooth but ruthless secret agent to be exploited a couple of decades later by a man with first hand experience - not all of it successful - of real espionage.

Excellent commentary.

My first thought was that perhaps Hugh Fraser had limited availability at that time and that is why there was so little of Hatsings? 🤔

Am I the only one who gets the impression that Miss Lemon would very much like to become Mme. Poirot?

Interesting comparisons and observations. I agree. Hastings could have easily taken the place of Tyso during the revelation instead of popping in for his customary exclamation of "Good Lord!" for a throw-away comedic moment (that flopped, in my humble opinion). I will forever associate David Suchet with Poirot as a favourite.

Makes you wonder if they had cast was it Tyson? In case that couldn't get Hugh Fraser back only to then manage it. Supposedly the third Branagh film is based on Hallowe'en Party

David Suchet - No1 Poirot 👑

The reason the screenwriter made the adaptation different is that it was, according to him, “an unadaptable mess”

What a wonderful review! Actually that story was SO bad even Christie herself called it "that rotten book". Well... that was a very mild definition 😂 The plot is absolute, total rubbish. Poirot spitting poisoned darts?! Secret twins?? Secret kids?! Suspicious Asians and Americans and secret societies?? Mysterious drugs and all sorts of pathetic cliches?? That was cheap and ridiculous to the extreme. I was so shocked reading that book I was thrilled to see someone dared to actually film that trash. Poor Dame Agatha must had been tormented by the fact she'd actually written that for her dear life 😂 And wow!! - that was adapted! Still as a very.... fantastic plot. But indeed far more christieish!! The moment miss Lemon straightens the stuff in Poirot's table and says smth like "He liked things just like that, didn't he?" was so heartbreaking and heartwarming. And Japp signing those letters. Really compensates for the concealed matters of Poirot's death reception in "Curtain". Thanks for that video!! And please forgive my possible mistakes as I'm not a native speaker 😁

Poirot is way cooler than Bond and a much better dresser

The comments about the disappearance of the core gang (Hastings, Japp, and Ms. Lemon) after 2002 made me sigh. I disliked the campy, childish portrayal of Hastings, but they were a great and endearing cast. I'd have much preferred that they'd been in nearly all of the stories.

❤❤❤🎉

Please let it be someone else!!!!

If Sherlock Holmes and James Bond had a baby... Tbh my least favourite Christie book. Couldn't even finish it

This feels more like Agatha Christie was struggling with her novel so she asked Ian Fleming to make it

Another reason I'm glad they changed the story for the film: the book surprised me with how racist it was. Christie was big on sorting people into types, often based on ethnicity or 'breeding'. Seems to her that the Chinese type was inherently sneaky, devious and unscrupulous, and the intelligent ones were even more dangerous. The scene where Hastings is captured, there's a lot of mentions of the Chinese mens' facial features and how unnerving they were. I know it's probably reflective of British attitudes at the time but still, ew!

Countess Vera Rossakoff as love interest? No my friend you are mistaken. Love of this sort it is not for Poirot just as surely as he would never partake of the steak & kidney pie. Pommes frites, perhaps.

The reason hastings, japp, and lemon don't appear is the production company changed and they wanted to take the series in a less comedic way

this was only 1 of about 4 or 5 of the Suchet POIROTs that I disliked. The original book, although dated, was much more interesting. This POIROT turned the motive into a banality. Hated it.