The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim
- Original Airdate: 4 February 1990
Written by: David Renwick
Directed by: Andrew Grieve
Recurring cast: Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp, Miss Lemon
Tropes
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Since showing Poirot doing nothing at his flat would be dull and boring otherwise, the episode includes Poirot pet-sitting a friend's parrot and practicing some magic tricks to help him pass the time.
- The rivalry between Davenheim and Lowen is expanded upon in the introductory scenes.
- Adaptational Job Change: Mr Lowen is now a race car driver in addition to being a business rival/partner of Mr Davenheim.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Hastings pretends to be an interested buyer of one of Lowen's cars in an attempt to get to him. Lowen isn't quite fooled, however.
- Big Fancy House: The Davenheims' art deco home, Kimberley House - in reality Joldwynds
in Surrey. - Cacophony Cover Up: Davenheim uses the cannon blasts of the 1812 Overture to mask the sound of him breaking into his own safe.
- Exact Words: Since The Bet with Japp means that Poirot is supposed to solve the case without leaving his place, he deputizes Hastings to do the dirty work for him. In the original story, it was Japp who fed info to Poirot.
- Magician Detective: Temporarily. Poirot uses the magic tricks of a Stage Magician, which he learned from reading a book called The Boy's Book of Conjuring (which is out of character, but it works) and from watching a magic show. (According to David Suchet, he apparently did all the magic tricks himself.) Subverted at the end, however, when he tries making a parrot disappear... only to find that the bird is still there.Poirot: At least it was worth a try.
Parrot: Worth a try, worth a try! - Needle in a Stack of Needles: What's the best place for a criminal to hide till the heat dies down? In prison, on a lesser charge.
- Obfuscating Disability: Billy Kellett pretends to be blind in order to make it easier for him to steal things.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Poirot gets a parrot that gets chatty with squawks and whistles... and sometimes mimics other people's words.
- Poor Communication Kills: Since Hastings and Japp are investigating the case without cooperating due to The Bet, this lead to a situation where Japp mistakes Hastings for Lowen and attempts to question him.
- Product Placement: There are signs all over the race course that say "BP", "Mobiloil" and "Shell", all petrol companies.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The 1812 Overture is played and later becomes Chekhov's Running Gag in the plot.
- Stealing from the Till: Davenheim's plot to frame Lowen unfolded over several months as he stole from his bank and purchased expensive jewellery - ostensibly for his wife, but also for him to steal from himself and exchange into cash for his getaway.
- Stealth Insult: Poirot snarks at Hastings by unfavorably comparing him to the parrot:
- Poirot: Please, do not fraternise with that creature. I am still training him.Hastings: It's just a parrot.Poirot: I was talking to the parrot.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp discuss Mrs. Davenheim and her maid. What's interesting is that Hastings speaks with Mrs. Davenheim upstairs, while Japp speaks with her maid downstairs, but both ladies speak about Matthew Davenheim's disappearance but are not sure why. At the end of the dialogue:
- Hastings: [to Mrs. Davenheim] Perhaps I'll go have a chat with your maid.
[cut to downstairs at the same time]
Japp: [to the maid] Perhaps I'll go have a chat with your mistress.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: How Davenheim hides out as Billy Kellett - shaving off his beard, exchanging his fine suit for something more worn and torn, and dropping his posh accent. Also how Davenheim hides out between his first imprisonment and his disapperance, adopting a fake beard and shaving regularly so that he can be himself a while longer.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode and its source story evoke the plot of Sherlock Holmes' story The Man with the Twisted Lip, wherein a wealthy man lives a double life as one of the downtrodden classes (a tramp in this case), and therefore gets accused of their own murder when their respectable persona disappears. The key difference is that here, the man in question is doing it for a far less innocuous reason.
