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* InheritanceMurder: Indirectly. Victor killed Rosemary and tried to kill Iris, because if both sisters die then the family fortune would have gone to Victor's mother, Lucilla. And Lucilla always gives Victor whatever he wants.
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* MotorMouth: Aunt Lucilla, who drones on endlessly. Colonel Race and the other people interrogating her usually have to wait for her to draw breath to ask a question.
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* TheSummation: In typical Christie style, a character explains in the last chapter how the murders were done.
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* TwoDunIt: Victor and Ruth, working together. Victor did the actual poisoning while Ruth supplied him with a fake alibi and tried to make Iris's death look like a suicide (and tries to kill Iris at the climax).
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* BuxomBeautyStandard: Rosemary's "swaying voluptuous figure" was the main reason that Stephen fell for her, hard.
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* BuxomBeautyStandard: BuxomBeautyStandard:
** Rosemary's "swaying voluptuous figure" was the main reason that Stephen fell for her,hard.hard.
** Ruth Lessing as well. Iris, who is described as lovely but does not meet the Standard, thinks of "the figure so well set off" by the sensible business clothes that Ruth wears. When Pedro admires the "good curves" of one of the guests at the second fateful party, the detective interviewing him knows it's Ruth that Pedro is referring to.
** Rosemary's "swaying voluptuous figure" was the main reason that Stephen fell for her,
** Ruth Lessing as well. Iris, who is described as lovely but does not meet the Standard, thinks of "the figure so well set off" by the sensible business clothes that Ruth wears. When Pedro admires the "good curves" of one of the guests at the second fateful party, the detective interviewing him knows it's Ruth that Pedro is referring to.
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* EurekaMoment: Anthony is running through how events went down at the dinner, talks about how George sat down at the table, then says "--''oh, Lord''" as he figures out what happened, namely that George sat down at the wrong place.
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* GrandStaircaseEntrance: Anthony recalls how he was talking to gorgeous but vapid Rosemary, when he saw Iris coming down a staircase, and fell in LoveAtFirstSight.
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-->It was no good a person being dead if they lived on in your mind.
* QuizzicalTilt: "Anthony considered the reply, his head on one side," when Colonel Race suggests that Iris, the woman Anthony loves but a person with an obvious motive, might be the killer.
* QuizzicalTilt: "Anthony considered the reply, his head on one side," when Colonel Race suggests that Iris, the woman Anthony loves but a person with an obvious motive, might be the killer.
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* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: Agatha Christie regarded Americans and American English as inherently amusing. Pedro Morales, an American guest at the club who witnessed George's death, is said to be an American "who speaks a variant of the American language." Morales then lets forth a blizzard of dialogue that includes Americanisms like "hard-boiled", "classy joint", and "punk." It turns out to all be a trick.
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* StealingFromTheTill: Victor's rascally BlackSheep ways have gotten worse in South America, where he's been embezzling from the company he's working for. George is furious that he has to bail Victor out again.
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* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: Pedro Morales, the American witness to George's death, and Victor Drake the wastrel BlackSheep of the family, are the same person.
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* BrainlessBeauty: Rosemary is strikingly beautiful but lacking in intelligence or wit. That leads to both Stephen and Anthony getting tired of her pretty quickly.
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* BlackSheep: The phrase "black sheep" is used to describe Aunt Lucilla's sleazy wastrel of a son Victor, who is always getting into tight spots and sometimes outright criminal activities, and getting his overly protective and none-too-bright mother to bail him out with cash.
* BrainlessBeauty: Rosemary is strikingly beautiful but lacking in intelligence or wit. That leads to both Stephen and Anthony getting tired of her pretty quickly. (Anthony ruminates that Rosemary was great to be with, as long as she didn't talk.)
* BuxomBeautyStandard: Rosemary's "swaying voluptuous figure" was the main reason that Stephen fell for her, hard.
* ChekhovsSkill: Victor mentions that among the many odd jobs he's done in his life is work as a waiter. He impersonated a waiter in order to poison Iris's drink at the club.
* BrainlessBeauty: Rosemary is strikingly beautiful but lacking in intelligence or wit. That leads to both Stephen and Anthony getting tired of her pretty quickly.
* BuxomBeautyStandard: Rosemary's "swaying voluptuous figure" was the main reason that Stephen fell for her, hard.
* ChekhovsSkill: Victor mentions that among the many odd jobs he's done in his life is work as a waiter. He impersonated a waiter in order to poison Iris's drink at the club.
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* HeadTurningBeauty: "Heads turned round to stare at her" when Anthony squired Rosemary around.
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* LadyDrunk: In the backstory. Stephen Farraday's mother "married beneath her station" and regretted it. Stephen didn't realize alcoholism was the reason for his mother's "moods" until he came home as a boy and found her passed out, a drink still in hand.
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* MurderByMistake: It turns out that Iris was supposed to be the victim of the second murder, but a waiter put Iris's purse on the wrong place on the table. So George wound up sitting on the chair that had been Iris's, and drinking the drink meant for her.
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* PosthumousCharacter: Rosemary, who has been dead for six months when the story starts, but who is talked about endlessly and appears often in flashback.
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* SheIsAllGrownUp: A sisterly version. Iris remembers her older sister Rosemary as being "clumsy, all arms and legs" when she went off to finishing school in Paris. Rosemary came back with "a strange new frightening elegance", which included "a swaying, undulating figure." Iris regarded her sister as now "a disturbing beautiful creature."
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* BettyAndVeronica: Good, reliable, soft-hearted George vs. [[spoiler:bad boy Victor]] for [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]]. Consciously, she understands George is better for her [[spoiler:but she can't resist Victor]].
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* BettyAndVeronica: BettyAndVeronica:
** George is entirely ObliviousToLove when it comes to sensible, hard-working Ruth Lessing's feelings for him, and falls deeply in love with gorgeous and much younger Rosemary Marle. [[spoiler:It ends tragically thanks to Ruth's FaceHeelTurn]].
** Good, reliable, soft-hearted George vs. [[spoiler:bad boy Victor]] for [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]]. Consciously, she understands George is better for her [[spoiler:but she can't resist Victor]].
** George is entirely ObliviousToLove when it comes to sensible, hard-working Ruth Lessing's feelings for him, and falls deeply in love with gorgeous and much younger Rosemary Marle. [[spoiler:It ends tragically thanks to Ruth's FaceHeelTurn]].
** Good, reliable, soft-hearted George vs. [[spoiler:bad boy Victor]] for [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]]. Consciously, she understands George is better for her [[spoiler:but she can't resist Victor]].
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* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: Ruth has worked for George for years, and he is utterly unaware that she is in love with him. [[spoiler:Then she falls in love with Victor Drake instead, and things go really downhill]].
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* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Iris is as beautiful as Rosemary and only manages to stay in her shadow by [[HollywoodHomely wearing less brightly-colored makeup and less revealing dresses]].
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* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Iris is as beautiful as Rosemary and only manages to stay in her shadow by [[HollywoodHomely wearing less brightly-colored makeup and less revealing dresses]].dresses.
** Rosemary, though still pretty vapid, is smarter than her book counterpart in one of the plot-relevant moments. In the book, she [[spoiler:tells Anthony she knows about his criminal past]] when ''they are alone in the room'' in a supreme TooDumbToLive scene (she only survives it [[spoiler:due to Anthony being GoodAllAlong]]). In the movie, though, she [[spoiler:reveals it]] while they are at an outdoor party, with a crowd of people around.
* AdaptationalRomanceDowngrade: Twice.
** In the book, Anthony admits to having briefly been in love with Rosemary, while here, he [[spoiler:only flirts with her to get close to the Kidderminsters whom he's investigating]].
** In the book, [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]] is already crazy only about [[spoiler:Victor Drake]] at the time Rosemary dies. Here, [[spoiler:she poisons Rosemary to get George and only goes for Victor when it's clear George isn't interested]].
** In the book, Anthony admits to having briefly been in love with Rosemary, while here, he [[spoiler:only flirts with her to get close to the Kidderminsters whom he's investigating]].
** In the book, [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]] is already crazy only about [[spoiler:Victor Drake]] at the time Rosemary dies. Here, [[spoiler:she poisons Rosemary to get George and only goes for Victor when it's clear George isn't interested]].
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* PromotedToLoveInterest: Inverted twice.
** In the book, Anthony admits to having briefly been in love with Rosemary, while here, he [[spoiler:only flirts with her to get close to the Kidderminsters whom he's investigating]].
** In the book, [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]] is already crazy only about [[spoiler:Victor Drake]] at the time Rosemary dies. Here, [[spoiler:she poisons Rosemary to get George and only goes for Victor when it's clear George isn't interested]].
** In the book, Anthony admits to having briefly been in love with Rosemary, while here, he [[spoiler:only flirts with her to get close to the Kidderminsters whom he's investigating]].
** In the book, [[spoiler:Ruth Lessing]] is already crazy only about [[spoiler:Victor Drake]] at the time Rosemary dies. Here, [[spoiler:she poisons Rosemary to get George and only goes for Victor when it's clear George isn't interested]].
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* BlackSheep: Victor Drake, Rosemary and Iris's good-for-nothing cousin, is that for the Marle family. It's obvious to everyone except his doting mother.
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[[quoteright:427:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/329d7fee_144e_4658_8b75_4808d732ddba.png]]
%%[[caption-width-right:427:some caption text]]
%%[[caption-width-right:427:some caption text]]
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* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Anthony Browne]], after spending most of the novel as its most suspicious character, not only turns out to be innocent, but become the one to solve the case.
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* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Anthony Browne]], after spending most of the novel as its most suspicious character, not only turns out to be innocent, but become becomes the one to solve the case.
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* MamaBear: Usually Sandra might be her least favorite child, but the moment Lady Kidderminster feels she can be in danger, she is ready to fight for her tooth and nail, even demanding her husband break the law to defend her if need be.
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* MamaBear: Usually Sandra might be her least favorite child, but the moment Lady Kidderminster feels she can could be in danger, she is ready to fight for her tooth and nail, even demanding her husband break the law to defend her if need be.
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* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Several different people comment that they can feel Rosemary's ghost hanging about, and there are one or two subtle, but odd hints that it might be true, but it's never made explicit. [[spoiler: In the end, Tony suggests she was trying to protect Iris from being murdered in her turn.]]
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* DiedOnTheirBirthday: Rosemary Barton dies of cyanide poisoning during her own birthday party.
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** Rosemary and Iris are a lot closer than in the book (it helps that the contrast between them is blurred). In particular, the book scene with Rosemary's bragging about knowing about [[spoiler:Anthony's ties with criminals]] is entirely changed: here, she says it as a warning since [[BigSisterInstinct she is afraid for her sister]].
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** Rosemary and Iris are a lot closer than in the book (it helps that the contrast between them is blurred). In particular, the book scene with Rosemary's bragging about knowing about [[spoiler:Anthony's ties with criminals]] is [[AdaptationalContextChange entirely changed: changed]]: here, she says it as a warning since [[BigSisterInstinct she is afraid for her sister]].
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* AffairLetters: George discovers Rosemary is having a serious affair after reading what's left on her blotting paper since she has hidden the actual letters.
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* UnknowinglyInLove: Stephen Farraday doesn't realise that he has long been in love with Sandra, his MealTicket wife, until his lover Rosemary starts nagging him to get a divorce. He later admits he was so sure he married Sandra for her money and position that he didn't allow himself to think otherwise.
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* HereditarySuicide: [[spoiler:The initial plan of the murderers is to make Iris Marle's death look like suicide so that the police would think suicide runs in the family, as the murder of Iris's sister took place the previous year on the exact same day and successfully passed off as suicide. Due to a SpannerInTheWorks, however, the plan fails and another person gets murdered, whose death is clearly not a suicide.]]
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* MamaBear: Usually Sandra might be her least favorite child, but the moment Lady Kidderminster feels she can be in danger, she is ready to fight for her tooth and nail, even demanding her husband break the law to defend if need be.
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* MamaBear: Usually Sandra might be her least favorite child, but the moment Lady Kidderminster feels she can be in danger, she is ready to fight for her tooth and nail, even demanding her husband break the law to defend her if need be.
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** Christine Shannon puts up with an ugly and boring boyfriend because he gives her valuable jewels and takes her out to expensive restaurants. She makes no secret of the fact when telling the investigation about it. [[spoiler:Ironically, said boyfriend is the murderer and intends to use Ruth as a MealTicket by getting her to murder the people in the way of the Bennet inheritance.]]
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** Christine Shannon puts up with an ugly and boring boyfriend because he gives her valuable jewels and takes her out to expensive restaurants. She makes no secret of the fact when telling the investigation about it. [[spoiler:Ironically, said boyfriend is the murderer and intends to use Ruth as a MealTicket by getting her to murder the people in the way of the Bennet Bennett inheritance.]]
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* BlackSheep: Victor Drake, Rosemary and Iris's cousin, is that for the Marle family. It's obvious to everyone except his doting mother.
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* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Anthony, Race and Kemp]] rush in just barely in time to drag [[spoiler:Iris]] away from the gas stove.
* BlackSheep: Victor Drake, Rosemary and Iris's good-for-nothing cousin, is that for the Marle family. It's obvious to everyone except his doting mother.
* BlackSheep: Victor Drake, Rosemary and Iris's good-for-nothing cousin, is that for the Marle family. It's obvious to everyone except his doting mother.
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* MamaBear: Usually Sandra might be her least favorite child, but the moment Lady Kidderminster feels she can be in danger, she is ready to fight for her tooth and nail.
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* MamaBear: Usually Sandra might be her least favorite child, but the moment Lady Kidderminster feels she can be in danger, she is ready to fight for her tooth and nail.nail, even demanding her husband break the law to defend if need be.
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** Christine Shannon puts up with an ugly and boring boyfriend because he gives her valuable jewels and takes her out to expensive restaurants. She makes no secret of the fact when telling the investigation about it.
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** Christine Shannon puts up with an ugly and boring boyfriend because he gives her valuable jewels and takes her out to expensive restaurants. She makes no secret of the fact when telling the investigation about it. [[spoiler:Ironically, said boyfriend is the murderer and intends to use Ruth as a MealTicket by getting her to murder the people in the way of the Bennet inheritance.]]
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* SarcasticConfession: When Colonel Race comes to confront Anthony about the latter's criminal past and very suspicious behavior in the present, Anthony hears out all the facts and, before Race can come to a conclusion, does a sarcastic summation himself: he killed Rosemary for finding out about his past, [[spoiler:then he killed George for getting suspicious and now he is after Iris's fortune]]. Subverted, as he adds there is not an ounce of proof. [[spoiler:And a moment later, he reveals himself as GoodAllAlong]].
* SettleForSibling: Iris worries she is this for Anthony, who made no secret of his relationship with Rosemary. Anthony assures her that he was only briefly in love with her sister and the feeling lacked any depth, unlike what he feels for Iris. [[spoiler:He is telling the truth]].
* SettleForSibling: Iris worries she is this for Anthony, who made no secret of his relationship with Rosemary. Anthony assures her that he was only briefly in love with her sister and the feeling lacked any depth, unlike what he feels for Iris. [[spoiler:He is telling the truth]].
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** Christine Shannon puts up with an ugly and boring boyfriend because he gives her valuable jewels and takes her out to expensive restaurants. She makes no secret of the fact when telling the investigation about it.
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* SpannerInTheWorks: The perfect murder plan gets foiled because of [[spoiler:a random sixteen-year-old waiter putting a handbag on the wrong chair]].
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* SpannerInTheWorks: The perfect murder plan gets foiled because of [[spoiler:a random sixteen-year-old waiter putting a handbag on by the wrong chair]].
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* BrainlessBeauty: Rosemary is strikingly beautiful but lacking in intelligence or wit. That leads to both Stephen and Anthony getting tired of her pretty quickly
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* BrainlessBeauty: Rosemary is strikingly beautiful but lacking in intelligence or wit. That leads to both Stephen and Anthony getting tired of her pretty quickly quickly.
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* SiblingYinYang: Rosemary Barton, the dashing and silly society husband beauty. Iris Marle, less pretty, more quiet and withdrawn, but with the intelligence and character Rosemary lacks.
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* SiblingYinYang: Rosemary Barton, the dashing and silly society husband beauty. Iris Marle, less pretty, more quiet and withdrawn, but with the intelligence and character Rosemary lacks.
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* AloofBigSister: Iris muses on how she never really knew Rosemary and hardly interacted with her, and Rosemary usually barely noticed Iris was there.
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* FloralThemeNaming: Rosemary and Iris.
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* MeaningfulName: Played with.
** Rosemary's name becomes significant only after her death, as rosemary symbolizes remembrance.
** Victor Drake comments on the inversion of this trope in the case of Ruth, who is quite ruthless.
** Rosemary's name becomes significant only after her death, as rosemary symbolizes remembrance.
** Victor Drake comments on the inversion of this trope in the case of Ruth, who is quite ruthless.
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* MythologyGag: In the beginning Iris returns from a business trip to England and complains how horrible English coffee tastes. It's a nod to Anthony's hatred of English coffee in the book – he finds it so awful [[spoiler:he suggests they use Iris's fortune to remedy the situation]].
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* MythologyGag: In the beginning Iris returns from a business trip to England and complains of how horrible English coffee tastes. It's a nod to Anthony's hatred of English coffee in the book – he finds it so awful [[spoiler:he suggests they use Iris's fortune to remedy the situation]].
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** Rosemary and Iris are a lot closer than in the book (it helps that the contrast between them is blurred).
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** Rosemary and Iris are a lot closer than in the book (it helps that the contrast between them is blurred). In particular, the book scene with Rosemary's bragging about knowing about [[spoiler:Anthony's ties with criminals]] is entirely changed: here, she says it as a warning since [[BigSisterInstinct she is afraid for her sister]].
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* MythologyGag: In the beginning Iris returns from a business trip to England and complains how horrible English coffee tastes. It's a nod to Anthony's hatred of English coffee in the book – he finds it so awful [[spoiler:he suggests they use Iris's fortune to remedy the situation]].
