Agatha Christie: Poirot-Cards on the Table (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Mystery	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	92:38 (Case: 95)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Sarah Harding
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David Suchet Zoe Wanamaker Tristan Gemmil Alexander Siddig
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	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 acting in this role since 1989 in an on again, off again manner, however, four more episodes were recently made in 2005. A previous set of four were made in 2003, which were reviewed on this site at the time of their release. Cards on the Table is one of the four newer productions. 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 involves a mysterious middle eastern man, Mr Shaitana (Alexander Siddig,) who has a fascination with crime and murder in particular. He is a traveler and collector of fine art. He is accepted in London society due to his wealth but is hardly respected. He hosts a dinner and card party at his house and invites four sleuths - both amateur and professional - and four people he believes capable of murder. After dinner, during which he makes some pointed remarks about his guests, he splits the sleuths and suspects into two different rooms to play bridge. By the end of the games some hours later, he is dead, stabbed through the heart with a small thin blade. The sleuths join forces to investigate.The eight guests are:

The Sleuths

• Hercule Poirot
• Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker) - A successful crime writer
• Colonel Hughes - An officer in the secret service
• Superintendent Wheeler - A detective from Scotland Yard

The Suspects

• Major Despard - An adventurer and expedition leader who is not necessarily completely virtuous
• Anne Meredith - A young woman with a mystery in her past
• Mrs Lorimer - A middle aged woman with something to hide
• Dr Roberts - A medical doctor and well known ladies man

    This is one of the best episodes of this series I have seen with some excellent acting and an interesting story, kicked off with an intriguing set up. It is also good to see Poirot collaborating and getting useful assistance from other sleuths.Siddig is an interesting actor who appeared recently in a major part in Syriana. Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good and significantly better than Poirot episode Mystery of the Blue Train.

    The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio (which is presumably the original aspect ratio) and 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture was reasonably sharp and clear throughout. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was decent. There was some grain here and there of variable density.

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

    From an artefacts perspective there was some mild macro-blocking to be seen in backgrounds.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear, easy to read and in yellow. There were some minor mistakes at times.

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 very good.

    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 good.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall