Lord Edgware Dies ** (1934, Austin Trevor, Jane Carr, Richard Cooper, John Turnbull) – Classic Movie Review 12,870

Austin Trevor as Poirot and Richard Cooper as Hastings in Lord Edgware Dies (1934).

Austin Trevor makes a decent, convincingly meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the 1934 murder mystery film Lord Edgware Dies, based on the 1933 novel by Agatha Christie.

Director Henry Edwards’s 1934 murder mystery film Lord Edgware Dies is based on the 1933 novel by Agatha Christie, with a screenplay by H Fowler Mear, and stars Austin Trevor, the first actor to play Hercule Poirot on film, Jane Carr, Richard Cooper, and John Turnbull.

Austin Trevor makes a decent, convincingly meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, reprising his role from Alibi (1931) and Black Coffee (1931), in this early Agatha Christie film about the suspicious death of the aged Lord Edgware (C V France), stabbed in the neck to death in his library. His American actress wife Lady Edgware (Jane Carr) is the lady on whom the blame is put as she had enlisted Poirot’s help to negotiate a divorce from her husband – but she has an alibi and the Belgian detective sets out to find the truth.

The murder mystery plot seems thin and obvious in this version, the production is creaky and cheap-looking, and the handling lacks pace or imagination in a stagey and unconvincing picture with too few suspects. It is still of interest, however, to crime and Christie buffs, particularly as a record of Austin Trevor’s performance, and especially as Alibi and Black Coffee are both now lost films.

Richard Cooper co-stars as Captain Hastings, with John Turnbull as Inspector Japp.

It was filmed at Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK. while Julius Hagen was producer, specialising in murder mystery as popular quota quickies.

Release date: August 1, 1934 (London) and February 4, 1935 (UK).

It is remade as Thirteen at Dinner in 1983 with Peter Ustinov and as Lord Edgware Dies in 2000 with David Suchet.

The cast are Austin Trevor as Hercule Poirot, Jane Carr as Lady Edgware, Richard Cooper as Captain Hastings, John Turnbull as Inspector Japp, Michael Shepley as Captain Roland Marsh, Leslie Perrins as Bryan Martin, C. V. France as Lord Edgware, Kynaston Reeves as Duke of Merton, Phyllis Morris as Alice,  andSophie Stewart as Miss Geraldine Edgware.

Lord Edgware Dies is directed by Henry Edwards, runs 80 minutes, is made by Real Art Productions, is released by RKO Radio Pictures (UK), is written by H Fowler Mear, is shot by Sydney Blythe, is produced by Julius Hagen, and is scored by William Trytel.

Alibi (1931) is the first motion picture to feature the character Hercule Poirot, making Austin Trevor the first actor to play him on film.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,870

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