It is a performances centric movie

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I remember reading The Clocks many years ago and all I actually recalled about was that I didn't particularly care for it. In general, I think Christie's "espionage" stories including all of those with Col. (or Lt.) Race are inferior to the rest of her mysteries. The storyline for this one is pretty disjointed and unbelievable. What saves it are the wonderful production values, which are remarkable, and the cast. Suchet is the quintessential Poirot. I will endlessly remark that I much prefer the early Poroit shows with the Japp, Hastings and Lemon characters, as they were, for me considerably more engaging and charming. And more fun to watch. In this show, Phil Daniels was good as the Japp- like character and it was nice seeing Anna Massey. I first noticed Massey in a Midsummer Murders episode and later read Christopher Plummer's autobiography and he mentions Massey. This led me to her autobiography which is fascinating in the insights she shares on the acting profession (however, her father, Raymond Massey, was certainly an aloof and disinterested father). Massey was such a talent that she makes even a relatively small role memorable. For me, there are no "bad" shows in this long running series but this one is a lesser effort.

This has to be the most disappointing of all the Agatha Christie stories brought to the TV screen by Masterpiece Theater and starring David SUCHET as the mastermind detective Hercule Poirot.The story is so far-fetched in concept and cluttered with such a lot of nonsense about a spy plot and the sinister group of people involved, with every facet of the story straining credibility from the start. And this, despite a fine central performance by ANNA MASSEY as a blind receptionist who finds a murdered man behind her sofa and is unable to explain either his identity or the circumstances of his death.As usual, the production values are excellent and the acting by all concerned is on a high level of expertise. But the story seems so absurd and is hard to follow once the various details come to light, making it appear that even Poirot will be unable to unwind the tangled mess of events.Very disappointing and certainly not one of Agatha Christie's more credible mysteries.

Some nice shots of Dover as Poirot investigates the case of a dead man found in a blind woman's home. A young lady enters the empty house, having been called for some temporary secretarial business, sees the legs of the corpse behind the setee, and rushes out hysterically into the arms of a handsome passing stranger who happens to be the son of the now-retired Colonel Race. Young Race acts as Poirot's sidekick in this episode and he also falls for the young secretary whose love in return is pure, though she herself has a slightly shady past.I kept thinking I'd like to know more about that shady past. This dark young woman is attractive enough but has been "working" for one of her agency's clients twice a week for some months. It develops that she is no virgo intacta. I, frankly, don't think she's pristine enough for the son of the devoted and dull and respectable Colonel Race, although it might have been entertaining if the old Colonel himself had a fling with her.There isn't too much to say about the plot, or rather plots. Christie often threw in some other subplot involving people who are particeps criminis. In this case, they don't simply divert the investigators, they confuse the viewers too. One of the plots is about the equal in importance of the other and they have nothing to do with one another. An opening scene, in which two women chase one another and are both run down and killed, hangs irrelevantly in the air until the final few minutes.I won't give away too much, I don't think, if I say that it all has to do with the approaching war with Hitler's Germany and with the inheritance of a great deal of money.

I own the British ITV Collection 8 (which is nothing else than the collection of episodes of Season 12 divided onto 4 DVDs and lasting 89 minutes each).In "The Clocks", which has been excellently directed by Charles Palmer, we are being served with a double mystery, but this is only revealed toward the very end of the episode.It is so well concocted that we are led to think that this is a normal Poirot's "whodunnit" with your usual murder, but wait... Not that easy this time.The episode starts in 1938 at Dover Castle, in a Secret Base set up for MI6. It all starts there. At first one is convinced to be watching a normal Spy Thriller, but then something happens, that changes the facts completely and here come "The Clocks" to the foreground as the main subject of the Mystery.I stop here, since it would really be a crime to reveal the plot. Suffice it to say that all the cast plays their relative roles at their best and seem very natural in this setting.David Suchet cannot be judged anymore. Every time he slips into Poirot, he simply is Poirot.It is a very dark tale, not as funny as many other previous ones, but because of this, it gains in suspense and grittiness. The pace is adequate for such a Mystery/Thriller, but make no mistake, you will have to keep your eyes and ears well open, because nothing is what it seems to be in this one.