Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest
Season 3
Episode Number: 29
Season Episode: 7
Originally aired: Sunday February 17, 1991
Writer:
Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz
Director: Andrew Grieve
Show Stars: Hugh Fraser (Captain Arthur Hastings), Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector
James Japp), David Suchet (Hercule Poirot)
Guest Stars: Christopher Lamb (Party Dancer), Catherine Bott (Gilda), Richard
Cawte (young officer), Edward Clayton (Rouse), Peter Copley (Burgoyne),
Clem Davies (reporter), Roger Kemp (doctor), Caroline Langrishe
(Marguerite Clayton), John McEnery (Colonel Curtiss), Andy
Mulligan (reporter), John Noble (Rigoletto), Antonia Pemberton (Lady
Chatterton), Victoria Scarborough (dancer at party), Malcolm Sinclair
(Edward Clayton), Sam Smart (Smithy), Pip Torrens (Major John Rich),
Melissa Wilson (maid), Metin Yenal (umpire)
Summary: Poirot is called in to help a woman who lives in fear of her husband,
and he is invited to a dinner party which goes horribly wrong. Then
Colonel Curtiss, the scar-faced prime murder suspect, even unwisely
calls Poirot ”a detective.” The detective finds that the murder mystery
hinges on a duel fought ten years before. He soon proves Curtiss to
be the killer who pushed a stiletto blade into a trunk, straight into the
head of a man hiding in the trunk. As the police take the Colonel away,
he adds insult to injury by sneering at ”that bloody little Frog”. . . but
it was by getting such details wrong that he got himself caught.
Poirot’s attention is caught by newspaper headlines
which tell of the latest developments in the ”Spanish
Chest Mystery”. At his request Miss Lemon prepares a
précis of the case. A Major Charles Rich held a small
party at his flat. The guests were a Mr and Mrs Clayton,
a Mr and Mrs Spence and a Commander McLaren.
At the last minute, Mr Clayton received an urgent telegram
summoning him to Scotland that night on business
and did not attend the party. Shortly before the
party, he had a drink with McLaren at their club where
he explained his coming absence and then before going
to the station, took a taxi to Rich’s to offer his apologies.
Rich was out but Burgess — Rich’s manservant
— let him in and left Clayton to scribble a note in the
sitting room while he carried on his preparations in the
kitchen. Some ten minutes later, Rich returned and sent
Burgess out on a short errand. Rich denies seeing Clayton
at the flat nor did Burgess after leaving the man
to write his note. The party went well. The next morning,
Burgess noticed what seemed to be bloodstains on
a rug that were seeping from a Spanish chest in the corner
of the room. Opening it, the startled man found the
stabbed body of Mr Clayton. Rich has now been arrested
as the obvious suspect but Poirot sees a flaw in that he
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