[.ca] Poirot: One, Two Buckle My Sho

From Amazon.com:
Even the great Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) dreads a trip to the dentist. And in this case, with good reason: while the detective's checkup is completed without a hitch, mere hours later the dentist and two of the day's patients are found dead. Poirot's first clue is a fancy buckle that fell off a patient's shoe as she climbed out of a cab earlier that same day. Always attentive to the ladies and their fashions, Poirot senses that something is amiss well before Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) catches on. Although the viewer is able to see the deception before Poirot works it out, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe has enough unexpected twists to keep the motive a mystery until the climactic scene in which all is revealed. What has always set the Agatha Christie's Poirot series apart from other mystery shows is the high production values, and this 103-minute episode is no exception. From the eerie, slow-motion opening sequence of two girls singing the title's nursery rhyme to the art deco set details (down to the curtains and teacups), One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is not merely a video adaptation of Christie's novel but a beautifully wrought film in its own right. The DVD's special features include biographies of Agatha Christie and David Suchet, challenging Poirot trivia, and cast filmographies. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

My favorite of the DVDs is a unique experience, indeed!:
Whether you like it or not, this episode is darker, more confusing, and more quickly-paced than any other in the series' history. Personally, I LOVE IT. The multiple, characters, settings, plot devices, and moods give it and incredible feeling of intrigue, creepiness, and A LOT to think about! I didn't mind pausing to get my bearings a few times, even though it may have interrupted the flow! It made me feel clever that I could keep up with it! Wonderful stuff! And, as you may have noticed in some of my other reviews, I'm obsessed with picking which episodes have my favorite theme music. This one makes incredibly great use of the "One, Two, Buckle, My Shoe" nursery rhyme and makes it into a them that it played all throughout in so many different varations that it's mind-bogglingly wonderful! You've got a love a film that can make girls playing hop-scotch seem demonic and evil!

From the Poirot Movie Collection:
This has perhaps the best opening in a Poirot episode I have seen so far: slow-motion footage, plenty of superimposed images, of a (particularly malevolent) dentist being shot while little girls play hopscotch outside (the very fact that they do nothing else during the course of the film but play hopscotch makes them seem obsessive and evil)... The film itself did not disappoint. No other episode quite conjures up the feeling of clueing and detection in the books--although I am a great fan of the films, I sometimes feel that they fail to measure up to the essence of detection and mystery possessed by the books (the last two films, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD and LORD EDGWARE DIES, are examples of this). Yet in this adaptation, I was conscious of Poirot as __a mind__, as, with the assistance of Inspector Japp, he investigates murder after murder: a dentist's suicide (although the clue of the stains and the rug, also, I think, found in MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA, was missing), his patient's death by overdose (not revealed that he was a spy / blackmailer until end, unlike book), and the death of an actress (or was somebody else the victim, as the dental records indicate?). Finally, following the titular clue of a shoe buckle, Poirot is able to accuse the murderer (watching with my family, they were able to spot the villain--one of the flaws in the series, as Christie's misdirection works perhaps better on page than on screen). The acting was superb, and new areas of the characters' lives were revealed: a shot of the Whitehaven Mansions lobby, and Inspector Japp at home in Isleworth. Unfortunately, the church service scene was not in the film, nor are Mr. Chapman and Howard Raikes to be found; and most of the spy business was missing. Yet this is still an absolutely superb film, one that any fan of Agatha Christie would do well to watch.

Drilling for crimes...:
This feature-length mystery falls squarely into the "middling" range. The plot lacks propulsiveness and too many of the supporting characters are of the cardboard cutout variety (a situation not helped by some weak acting, particularly by the actor playing the would-be Black Shirt). On the other hand, David Suchet is, as per the usual, effective as the misleadingly droll Poirot: he does a fine job of revealing the dangerous qualities lurking beneath the effete exterior. Peter Blythe turns in a similarly excellent performance as a coolly evil megalomaniac. As other reviewers have noted, the score is effective, and the reconstruction of the murder scene (done twice) is also well done. Some viewers may rejoice with me at the absence of Capt. Hastings. The quality of the DVD itself is adequate, but the picture was occasionally fuzzy.

The Best Poirot of them all.:
This is really the best of all the Poirot movies of them all. Great writing, directly adapted from Christie's book. Great production values recreating 1936 London, and wonderful acting by the whole cast led by David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Philip Jackson as Cheif Inspector Chapp.

Just WONDERFULL:
This movie is so good, that you can watch it many times. 100% suspens!!!!!!!!! One thing fo sure, be caferul when you go to you dentist appointment ;-)