Triangle at Rhodes

As I have said before, London Weekend Television lavished money on this series, it really was no expense spared.

We are still in the first series and Poirot has gone on vacation in Rhodes, meaning overseas location shooting.

Rhodes at the time was under Italian control and Poirot finds himself investigating the murder of beautiful enchantress Valentine Chantry (Annie Lambert) by a poisoned drink. It seems her husband might had been the intended victim and the main suspect is Douglas Gold (Peter Settelen.) Gold is visiting the island with his wife but he is mesmerised by Valentine and soon arouses her husband's jealousy as well as upsetting his own wife.

Poirot is stripped here of his regulars with no Hastings and Japp. He does have a character who he gets friendly with during his investigation. The drama is leisurely paced, sumptuously filmed and tries to wrong foot you with a wrong kind of triangle.

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.

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."

Poirot, Hastings and Miss Lemon have all gone off on holiday. Poirot's in Rhodes having a well earned rest, but of course The great Detective cannot escape one thing, murder.

The scenery is utterly breathtaking, no studio based sets here, beautifully filmed in Greece. It all works impeccably well for the time period. There are some wonderful costumes on show, it's a good reminder of how glamorous the era was, Annie Lambert (Valentine) looks sensational at times.

I love the music throughout the episode, so different, it adds to the exotic feel of the episode.

Fourteen minutes in you see that Poirot's newspaper is blank. It only has a front cover.

I love Triangle at Rhodes, not just for the visuals, I love the story too, I love the twist in the tale. It's an incredibly watchable episode. 9/10

This is not a favourite of mine, but it is still a very good episode of a truly great mystery series. The short story wasn't a favourite either but it was an enjoyable read, and the plotting here is well constructed and easy to follow in general. The true star though is the scenery, it is utterly amazing, and captured wonderfully by the skillful and very vivid photography. The dialogue is great and the direction is efficient. And I loved the music too, the only real problem and this is very minor is that the mystery does start off fairly slowly. But everything else is fine, and among the acting David Suchet of course stands out as Poirot while Annie Lambert is a delight as Valentine Chantry. Overall, a very good episode that is well worth watching for the amazing scenery. 8/10 Bethany Cox