The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

The London & Scottish Bank needs to transfer one million dollars' worth of Liberty Bonds from England to America via ship (on "Queen Mary"'s maiden voyage), but when someone attempts (twice) to murder the man assigned to the job, the assignment goes to another bank employer - a younger man with gambling problems. The bank's manager asks Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings to accompany him on the trip, but despite their presence the bonds do get stolen and only the young employer had a key to the case....

An exceptional episode of the "Poirot" series. The mix of newsreel b&w footage from the 30's and new footage featuring the actors is creative, the pace is breathless, the acting from all the key players is perfect and the moment of revelation is truly stunning - I challenge anyone to say he or she had figured this one out. There are some laugh-out-loud comedic moments as well - it's amazing how a 50-minute episode of a mystery series can make you laugh more than entire 2-hour supposed comedies. A must-see. (***)

Series 3 of Poirot seems to involve any story that had strychnine poisoning featured in it. This also adds a 'double' to it as well although it is done rather well here.

Miss Lemon mentions that Poirot had problems with his previous bank, in fact he got the bank executive arrested.

Now Poirot is hired by the London & Scottish Bank to beef up the security of a large bond transfer across the Atlantic and this involves a trip on the new liner Queen Mary something which Hastings is looking forward to.

The person accompanying the bonds is poisoned so his unsuitable deputy Philip Ridgeway takes his place and he spends more time on the ship gambling.

When the bonds are stolen suspicion lands on Mr Ridgeway who was deemed unfit to lead by the bank's own head of security.

A nice nifty mystery but not too deep with a lull in the middle. It was sad to see Hastings get sea sick as he was so looking forward to the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary and his genuine disappointment that someone so glamorous could also be so dowdy as well.

In this episode, as in a few others of the series, Poirot has been on the scene of the crime as it took place, instead of trying to solve it after it happened, as happens in the original story. In this particular case, there is no harm done by this particular change, since the screenwriters decided to set the crime on the Queen Mary (I assume they traveled to California to get those shots, since the ship is no longer seaworthy). The scenes on board ship are the only ones that save this episode from having a lower rating.

Once again we have an episode that suffers somewhat for the details that the screenwriter added to the original story. In the original story there was no gambling addiction, no attempted murder, and definitely no accomplice. The gambling addiction and the attempted murder I find to be rather silly but not too unreasonable, but I couldn't get past the addition of the accomplice. Not only was it evident that this extra person was going to play a crucial role from this person's first appearance on screen, and every subsequent appearance as well, but the explanation given at the end just did not work for me. Why did there even need to be an accomplice in the first place? Wasn't it enough that the criminal would have gained a million dollars by being successful? It just left me with a sour taste in my mouth, that no amount of creme de menthe would remove. Ugh.

A fair part of this sublime episode takes place on the maiden voyage of the RMS Queen Mary sailing from Southampton to New York, leaving on May 27th 1936.

At the end of day two of the voyage, before seeing some of the men playing cards, we see the wake of the ship and further away the sun setting. The ship is evidently sailing away from the sunset, so the direction must be due east - not the straight route to New York...!

• No wonder the speed record wasn't broken at this occasion ;^)

(Actually IRL the ship made a "pit stop" in Cherbourg-Octeville, France just south of Southampton but that will not explain going due east).

"The Million Dollar Bond Robbery" is very different from the Agatha Christie story...very. One of the differences is that someone supposedly consumes Strychnine...a story element used in the two previous episodes of "Poirot"! Yes, this is the third strychnine poisoning episode in a row...which is odd because there are many other sorts of poison.

Poirot has been called to meet with a bank president. It seems one of their people was nearly run over...and it seems intentional. The next day, this same man is supposedly poisoned as well! THis is tough because he was supposed to take a million dollars with of bonds across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary...but now the job is given to a man who is a compulsive gambler! So, it's not all that suprising when the bonds are reported stolen...even though Poirot is aboard this ship, the Queen Mary. What really happened here?

The big question never answered is the exact whereabouts of the bonds by the end of a show...a strange omission to say the least. Add to that the problem that the show is VERY different from the Agatha Christie story make this a weak episode...enjoyable but weak.