An another one of Agatha Christie's country house whodunnits, The Hollow is a story about a murder case that happens during a country weekend where Hercule Poirot is spending time at his cottage. He's invited to a dinner party next door at the lavish home of Lady Angkatell, where he gets to meet the colorful family: the eccentric Lady Angkatell, her artist cousin Henrietta, the bland Gerda Christow who arrives with her playboy husband John, etc. Veronica Cray, a one-time fiancée of John and a celebrated actress, crashes the party with the intention of catching up with him, and the two end up having sex while Gerda is asleep at the house. The following day, however, he's found bleeding into the swimming pool to his death, with Gerda standing there, a gun in her hand. As usual, Poirot takes on the task of finding the guilty one, and there's a whole array of suspects to choose from, as usual. In terms of the Poirot series, this one of the best episodes when it comes to the production design-the house, the grounds and the costumes are breathtaking. John Christow's outfits are timelessly elegant and could just as well be straight off the current runways. Henrietta, her cars and clothes are the female equivalent of him. Then there's the hopelessly dainty, boring Gerda and her counterpart, the gloriously quirky Lady Angkatell, who keeps obsessing about lunch even before the corpse has cooled. If there's anything I hate about some of the Poirots is that it turns out that your first suspect is the actual killer, and the whole plot is about a detour on the way to him/her. Still, definitely one to enjoy. I've already seen it twice.
Review of The Hollow
