Triangle at Rhodes

The glorious island of Rhodes, a Greek island, is the setting for this Poirot mystery from season 1, "Triangle at Rhodes." Poirot is at the end of his holiday when a beautiful woman and her husband, Commander and Valentine Chantry arrive. It seems that pretty soon, a love triangle has developed -- Valentine seems to be having an affair with Douglas Gold, who is there with his wife Marjorie. Poirot smells trouble and advises Marjorie Gold to leave the island with her husband. They don't leave.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Chantry is then poisoned by a drink meant for her husband. Poirot is actually supposed to be on the ship taking him away, but he has passport problems and his friend on the vacation, Pamela, is able to find him and bring him back.

Neat mystery in stunning surroundings, with Suchet in top form as Poirot. As usual, there is a lot of attention to style, with beautiful vintage clothes, speech, and attitudes. Very good.

Hercule Poirot, private eye, is closed. The postman delivers mail and the building doorman adds it to the growing pile of correspondence. Captain Hastings is off for a shoot, probably in Scotland. Miss Lemon is away visiting her sister - on the channel coast. And Mr. Poirot - he's off to some foreign country in the east. So, is the episode of "Triangle at Rhodes" opened.

But that's enough in old England, we then catch up with Poirot in the eastern Mediterranean. He has a few days left at Rhodes and then he must leave. But that's enough time for a crime and our master sleuth to solve it. And, so the story goes. This is another very interesting and different intriguing story. It had me fooled even the second time I watched it and then I only got it half right this recent third time, several years later. This episode has six interesting characters, and a very good, surprise type of ending. Agatha Christie, through her Hercule, could really come up with some good ones.

Without his usual cadre of characters, Poirot is more reserved, so we don't have much humor in this episode. Here's my favorite line.

Hercule Poirot, "Where are you headed, major, Abyssinia?" Major Barnes, "How in Hades did you know that?" Poirot, "Well, I assumed you want to be there for the ostrich-shooting season."

Hercule Poirot goes to Rhodes (a Greek island) on vacation and, wouldn't you know it, gets involved with the death (via poisoning) of a rich and glamorous (and married, to her fifth husband) woman staying at the same hotel. Captain Hastings is not present in this one; Poirot's sidekick is a woman he meets in Rhodes.

The mystery is pretty good, once again appearances are completely deceiving, but the highlight of this episode must be the magnificent, vividly photographed island scenery. In both story and production values, "Triangle at Rhodes" reminded me of the 1982 film "Evil Under the Sun". This is a TV production of cinematic standards. (***)

Towards the beginning of this episode, Poirot, while on vacation on the island of Rhodes, points out to a fellow tourist that he is intrigued by the behavior of English people on vacation in foreign countries. On this point, as so many others, I am inclined to agree. Any government official who happened to watch this episode could certainly be excused for eying any potential English tourist with grave suspicion.

Right from the beginning, and throughout the episode, one is struck by the stunning depiction of the location. From the costumes, to the archaeological sites, to the shots of the sunset, they could have won awards for the cinematography alone. And, because the story is set in the mid 1930's, there are a number of references to the growing unrest of the time. (Apparently Rhodes was then part of the Italian empire.) In some ways, the location makes up for the overly melodramatic acting and the curious sequence of events. In this adaptation of the story, Poirot is scheduled to leave the island and is at the harbor ready to get on a boat when the murder takes place at the hotel. Despite being stopped by harbor officials and "detained", apparently suspected of espionage, when someone from the hotel comes running to fetch him to help solve the murder, Poirot merely hands his business card to the official and, not only is he allowed to return to the hotel unimpeded, but shortly afterword he is seen being informed about the case by the Italian police inspector. Really? So, the plot holes are an issue, but I was so charmed by the location, the scenes of people shouting in Greek and Italian, and the blatant depiction of the English making idiots of themselves, capped off by the line I've used for the title of this review, that I can overlook those other details this time.

As the two previous reviewers have mentioned, it is the beautiful photography of the beautiful island of Rhodes that makes this episode special. Although I think that the mystery with its well done misdirection is good. This happens to be one of the very few short stories that I actually remembered how it ended even though it has been decades since I read it. The story is a simple one - two couples, the Chantrys and the Golds meet on a beach on Rhodes and later, one of them is poisoned. But was the "right" person poisoned or was the intended victim someone else? Frances Low as Poirot's sidekick does a very good job but I prefer the shows with the regular sidekicks of Hastings, Japp and Lemon and the humor and interest they add to the shows. But there are no bad Poirot shows only some that are not as good as others.