Kenneth Branagh got a lot of shit for his Poirot’s moustache, but I saw A Haunting in Venice in the cinema and now I get it! This is a cinematic moustache. David Suchet’s iconic little twirl was the moustache we needed for analogue standard definition television, but the big screen calls for detail. The big screen calls for texture and depth. The big screen calls for panoramic width!
Branagh gives us the kind of moustache that bears up to scrutiny when projected ten feet wide across the silver screen, with layering and graceful angles that hold and guide the eye. It’s a sculptural object that commands the frame and demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
We’ve seen this kind of controversial widescreen glow-up before of course:
As they walked along the sound of squibs was still heard periodically. An occasional shower of golden rain illuminated the sky.
“Good night for a murder,” remarked Japp with professional interest. “Nobody would hear a shot, for instance, on a night like this.”
“It has always seemed odd to me that more criminals do not take advantage of the fact,” said Hercule Poirot.
“Do you know, Poirot, I almost wish sometimes that you would commit a murder.”
“Mon cher!”
“Yes, I’d like to see just how you’d set about it.”
“My dear Japp, if I committed a murder you would not have the least chance of seeing — how I set about it! You would not even be aware, probably, that a murder had been committed.”
“Murder in the Mews” was first published in the USA in Redbook Magazine, September/October 1936, then as “Mystery of the Dressing Case” in Woman’s Journal, December 1936.
thought it was about time I drew everyone's favourite moustachioed fictional detective! I was inspired by the art of Tamara Łempicka since her style of work fits perfectly with the era Poirot was written in!
(also fun fact, a couple of her artworks were adapted and used in an episode of Poirot which was actually where I discovered her lol!)
I want a David Suchet Poirot Muppets movie so so so so so bad. It’d be perfect. He’d treat the Muppets with human dignity and the Muppets would try so hard to help him solve the case and we watch his energy slowly drain from his eyes as the movie goes on.
I sometimes feel that Jeremy Brett and David Suchet have cursed me to never enjoy other actors' portrayals of their respective Great Detectives. I love Robert Downey, Jr., but he is not Holmes; he is a pulp action hero version of Holmes, whirling through melees and explosions that Holmes would have predicted and let Lestrade resolve with the combined might of Scotland Yard. Branagh and Ustinov are geniuses, but they are too comfortable in the world to be the fussy little Belgian. They lack the discomfort with the messiness of the day-to-day that Suchet imparts in every gesture. (Poirot does not _chase_ the fleeing villain on foot, Msr. Branagh; that is what Japp and Hastings are for.)
Despite this, though, I enjoy the other visions of Holmes and Poirot. They show that even such iconic, important archetypal characters can be re-interpreted and show some new and fun.