Agatha Christie: Poirot-Mystery of the Blue Train (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Mystery	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	94:13
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Peter Barber-Fleming Edward Bennett John Bruce Ross Devenish
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David Suchet Hugh Fraser Philip Jackson Pauline Moran
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Christopher Gunning Christopher Gunning Christopher Gunning

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Hercule Poirot, one of Agatha Christie's most famous creations, has been brought to the small and large screen many times, probably most famously by Peter Ustinov in the series of movies made in the 1970s and 80s. More recently, the role has been inhabited by David Suchet who has appeared in many made for television productions for Granada television as the Belgian sleuth. He has been making these shows since 1989 in an on again, off again manner, however, recently, four more episodes were made in 2005. A previous set of four were made in 2003, which were reviewed on this site at the time of their release. This one is one of the four most recent productions, Mystery of the Blue Train - A Journey To Death. As usual with Poirot stories (and Agatha Christie generally) there are many suspects and a convoluted plot involving red herrings, half-truths and small hints.

    The plot here involves a group of people travelling by The Blue Train from Paris to Nice. By the end of the journey one of the young women on the train has been brutally murdered in such a way that her identity is difficult to establish. Poirot, of course, investigates with the help (or hindrance) of the local law enforcement, Inspector Caux (Roger Lloyd Pack). The characters travelling on the train include:

• Rufus Van Aldin (Elliot Gould) - An oil billionaire from the USA
• Major Knighten - Van Aldin's secretary
• Count La Roche - a card shark and ladies man
• Katherine Gray - A young woman who has just received a large inheritance
• Ruth Kettering - Rufus's only daughter who he dotes on
• Derek Kettering - Ruth's no good husband who Rufus is trying to buy off
• Mason - Ruth's maid
• Lady Tamplin - a middle aged socialite who is related to Katherine Gray but has money problems
• Corky - Lady Tamplin's toy boy current husband
• Lennox - Lady Tamplin's daughter
• Mirelle - a mysterious negro woman

    Unlike most episodes in this series this one was actually shot in the south of France. Although benefiting from the locations and some stylish direction, I found this story to be a little cramped in the 90 minute run time and although still worth watching not as good as some of the other episodes in the series. Suchet as always is excellent as the annoying perfectionist Hercule Poirot.

Video

    The video quality is average.

    The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite soft throughout, affected by grain and macro-blocking. Luckily there was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was poor.

    The colour was reasonable but there was some colour bleeding, especially from lighter colours.

    From an artefacts perspective there was quite a bit of macro-blocking to be seen especially on faces, backgrounds and in smoky scenes plus some minor aliasing here and there.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear, easy to read and in yellow.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music was good featuring some jazzy instrumentation and some tasty guitar.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    None.

Menu

    The menu was still and silent allowing for the ability to select scenes and turn on subtitles.

    This latest set of four stories seems only to be available as a box set in both Region 1 and Region 2. In Region 1 they are pan & scanned plus do not have subtitles. They do, however, include some minor text based extras but have the same sort of video difficulties. The Region 2 versions seem to be the same as ours. Region 4 seems to be the pick.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall