S4.E1

The ABC Murders

Episode aired Jan 5, 1992
PG
2h

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Poirot receives taunting letters from a serial killer who appears to choose his victims and crime scenes alphabetically.Poirot receives taunting letters from a serial killer who appears to choose his victims and crime scenes alphabetically.Poirot receives taunting letters from a serial killer who appears to choose his victims and crime scenes alphabetically.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

YOUR RATING

23User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews23

Featured review

Well done, well acted

The book is a good one and it has been well dramatized here. Donald Sumpter is excellent as the travelling salesman, Cust.

It's unlike other Christies in that most of the victims are not wealthy or aristocratic. The scenes in the Andover shop and at Bexhill are (perhaps unintentionally) touching. The deaths are really sad -- which is almost never the case in a Christie book, where murder is only a chance for an interesting puzzle and the victim is quite often a nasty tyrant whom almost everyone wants dead. When Hastings is moved by the scene in Andover, Poirot brushes his comments aside, saying they must not succumb to sentimentality.

Entertaining. Recommended.

pawebster
Jan 28, 2006
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Trivia
The film that Cust watches in Doncaster is Alfred Hitchcock's 1932 film Number Seventeen (1932). His wife, Alma Reville, was one of the scenario writers.

Goofs
The programme features a number of excerpts from a supposedly contemporary "film" from 1936. The effect is strikingly well-done, except at the end of the film are shown the acting and technical credits; in a genuine 1936 film, these credits would have been shown at the beginning.

Quotes
Alexander Bonaparte Cust: I just had to come and say "Thank you," Mr. Poirot. You are a very great man.
Chief Inspector Japp: Oh, he knows that.