2 Intriguing Detective DVD Sets from the Library
each with its own evocative music and atmosphere
Are you ready to get lost tracking down a jewel thief in 1930’s London with Agatha Christie’s Jules Poirot?
Or you could try to second-guess Maigret, a pipe-smoking detective from 1950’s Paris, in figuring out who caused a Countess’ fatal heart attack.
Sam and I have watched each of these series and wish they were longer. The stories are certainly interesting to a mystery buff (that’s not quite me), but what I enjoy most are the dialogue, the theme music, and the evocative atmosphere of the past worlds they re-create.
In The Veiled Lady the fastidious detective Poirot and his sidekick Hastings meet a beautiful, mysterious woman in the Athena Hotel lobby.
Veiled Lady to Poirot: I’ve heard such wonderful things about you. Perhaps you can do the impossible.
Poirot: The impossible pleases me always.
Lady: I shall trust you. I think I’m being watched, you see.
Poirot: Watched?
Lady: It is too public here.
The three go up the wide stairs to a room.
Lady: There is a man, a horrible man. … There was [an indiscreet] letter I wrote. I was only 16 at the time … to a young man. He was going on an expedition up the Orinoco. He never came back. … And [the horrible man now] threatens to send [the letter] to my fiance unless I send him an enormous amount of money.
Hastings: What a dirty swine. How much money?
Lady: Twenty … thousand … pounds.
Now let’s leave London and turn to Paris.
Sam has 40 of Georges Simenon’s 77 Maigret novels in paperback, each short and quick moving. They’re rich with psychological puzzles and insights into the detective’s thinking.
My library DVD contains Maigret on Home Ground, where the detective is called from Paris to go to Saint Fiacre, his home town. Just after he arrives, the widowed Countess suspiciously dies by heart attack. His investigation leads him to the house he grew up in, where M. Gautier, the Steward of the late Countess’ estate, now lives.
In the conversation below, the Count is the Countess’ profligate son. Emile is Gautier’s son.
Maigret: You don’t care for the Count, do you?
Gautier: Mmm?
Maigret: You couldn’t raise the money you wanted.
Gautier: I tried but no one was prepared to put it up. …
Maigret: My father used to keep the account books in there. … Would you mind if I had a look?
Gautier: Emile took them just the other day … to the bank.
Maigret: To do an audit?
Gautier: Yes!
Maigret: Well, that’s alright. They’ll be safe in the bank.
Maigret prepares to leave.
Maigret: You know it’s very strange for me being here after all these years. It’s disconcerting. It’s very much the same but somehow different. Well, I won’t keep you any longer.
He moves closer to the steward.
Maigret: Oh, you needn’t mention to your son my inquiries about the estate accounts. Just between you and me, alright? Cheerio.
It’s interesting that this series was filmed in 1992-3 in Budapest, Hungary, meant to represent post-WWII Paris where many of the Maigret stories take place. The New York Times called this version with Gambon, “the best [filmed] adaptation” of Simenon’s novels.
What TV series would you like to recommend?