The Worst Film Ever

Good movie but grossly overrated

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Hickory Dickory Dock suffers from some random ingredients thrown together and a plot was cooked up. Ironically as a subplot involves Inspector Japp staying with Poirot as his wife is away and he has to eat fancy food when he just prefers a fry up.Miss Lemon introduces her sister who is all at sea. The student boarding house she runs has been stricken with some minor thefts of some inconsequential items. A diamond ring, a shoe, a stethoscope, a rucksack that has been ripped up are some of the missing items. Poirot suspects there is something more sinister afoot and then one of the student is found dead.Although one of the guest in the house admits to being a kleptomaniac, she does state that a few of the items missing were nothing to do with her. Poirot finds that the boarding house is mixed with a diamond smuggling ring and in the background of the Jarrow march, a dying socialist MP is of interest to Inspector Japp.The director has gone for some arty shots of a mouse running about and the repeating riff of a nursery rhyme but it rather detracts from a plot that does not flow too well.

Poirot goes to a hostel where students stay in England that are going to school there. Miss Lemon's sister runs the hostel. She is upset because things are being stolen from the students and the police are getting involved.There are many characters in this episode most of them are students that live in the hostel. A suspicious man watches as people arrive in England There are students that are in the medical field, history and also clothes designing.Poirot invited Japp to stay with him for a week an Poirot makes his favorite meals for Japp to enjoy (which are strange and Japp does not like). Japp does not know what a bidet is that is in the toilet at Poirot's and tells Poirot he wet himself with it. Poirot is embarrassed and does not want to explain what it is especially in front of Miss Lemon.There are more mysteries in this. Stealing. murder and the connection between them and a business that sells heavy bags to carry books etc.At the end Inspector Japp invites Poirot to eat over and he makes him "English" meal with three things and dessert. The meal is mash potatoes, mushy peas, and "faggots" (bits of pork and mixed meat). For dessert he has "Spotted Dick" (pudding. The meal scene is funny. Poirot says he has a "allergy of the faggot". Japp is disappointed and says "you haven't got a phobia to dick have you?" referring to the pudding.Suspenseful and funny.

There is a lot to like in this longer episode: Japp and especially Miss Lemon have prominent roles, a lot of humor (some of it laugh out loud), an interesting setting in a student hotel, we learn more about Japp's and Miss Lemon's private lives, a quirky and cool motif of a mouse running throughout the show with good repetition of the nursery rhyme, an intriguing cast of characters, interesting puzzles and a resolution to all of the puzzles that make sense. The story starts inauspiciously enough - Miss Lemon, ever the perfect secretary, has made multiple mistakes in a letter. Upon questioning, she tells Poirot that there have been a number of thefts at the student hotel her sister runs. Poirot goes to the hotel and investigates the generally petty thefts. Unfortunately, soon thereafter a murder occurs. There are suspects galore and a sufficiently intricate plot with yet an additional murder. While murder is appalling, we do not know the victims sufficiently well enough to feel a great sadness at their deaths so what is memorable in this episode are the way Poirot solves the puzzles, the humor and the depiction of the friendship between Poirot, Japp and Miss Lemon. This makes for a satisfying and most enjoyable episode. Highly recommended.

It all begins with a series of thefts of seemingly unrelated objects in a hostel for students on Hickory Road, London. Concerned for her sister, who is the housekeeper there, Miss Lemon asks Hercule Poirot to look into the matter. He agrees, but soon the stakes get higher when a girl, who had admitted that she was responsible for most (not all) of the thefts, is found murdered."Hickory Dickory Dock" is a solid brain exercise, without being as mind-numbingly complicated as "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe". Murder, theft and diamond smuggling are the crimes involved, and the final twist that ties everything together is revealed only in the last 2 minutes! The characters are interesting, particularly the psychology student Colin McNabb and the mysterious American girl Sally Finch, Inspector Japp has his funny moments (in perhaps the closest this series has come to "toilet humor"), and Miss Lemon gets a more integral part to the story than usual. (***)