Episode 209 | Mystery Maniacs | Poirot | "The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" | It’s All Done With Fancy Bullhorns And Fake Smoke!
I don't know if parrot would be all that good. No. I don't think so.
Sarah:No. They don't have any meat. Hey, Maniacs.
Mark:Hey, Maniacs. We're back. Mystery Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of a show including the murders, the mayhem, and the loonies, and everything else we love, except for this episode that doesn't have any murders.
Sarah:But it does have mayhem and loonies. Yes. It does.
Mark:This week, Poirot, the disappearance of mister Davin Chime.
Sarah:Season 2 episode 5. Davin Chime. Davin Chime.
Mark:Yes. I'm Mark.
Sarah:I'm Sarah. We're back from our trip to Canada. Thank you everybody for being understanding and for all the well wishes that you sent along.
Mark:Absolutely. Thank you for all the condolences. It was a wonderful ceremony for my mother on a beautiful day that she would have loved.
Sarah:And it was a crazy road trip.
Mark:Yes. It was.
Sarah:We drove what? 16, 18 hours straight?
Mark:18 hours
Sarah:to get the
Mark:first day straight.
Sarah:And then we on the way home, we split it in half and stopped in Windsor, Ontario and stayed at a casino overnight. And Mark, of course, sat down at slot machines and just won money.
Mark:Won everything that Sarah lost and paid for our hotel room.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah.
Mark:It's what it is.
Sarah:Because you just got the lucky fingers, I guess.
Mark:I was the lucky person.
Sarah:Of course, we listen to podcasts on the way up and back. And the one that we listen to the most, I don't know how many episodes we listen to, dozen or so
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Was off menu, which is hosted by Ed Gamble and James Acaster, 2 British comedians in their early thirties.
Mark:2 young men who you may think are smart, snarky, and smarmy, and they do have a bit of that, but they are fantastic young men.
Sarah:They are. They're very kind. Yep. And they have a guest each time who they ask what their dream meal is.
Mark:Which is why Jamie James Acaster plays a genie.
Sarah:Yeah. He pretends to be a genie who can make any meal appear. And I highly encourage you, if you are at all interested in food and like to laugh to check it out, there's no reason to listen to them in order. You can just skim through and look at the guest stars and pick people that you like.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:We listen to Richard e Grant and Ross Noble and Ray Winston and Richard Ayoade and, I mean, lots of people.
Mark:Did you know Richard Ayoade directed a movie called Submarine in the nineties? Yes. I didn't know that he had directed that movie. Yes. So that's a fantastic movie.
Sarah:I don't know about that. I've never seen it.
Mark:But So
Sarah:It is really, really fun. Yes. Be another thing before we dive in. Woah. Olympics?
Mark:Yeah. The the Olympics kinda takes over my life.
Sarah:Mark is really into
Mark:the Olympics.
Sarah:Even the summer ones.
Mark:This is just the summer Olympics where I don't really care about medals or standings. The Winter Olympics, especially the next Winter Olympics, they'll have NHL players and then, oh, I might as well take 2 weeks off.
Sarah:Well, I gotta say, though, the opening ceremony in Paris was pretty crazy.
Mark:It was fantastic, though, Incredibly long and full of metal and threesomes. Go
Sarah:to Jira was awesome.
Mark:Something I didn't think I was going to say.
Sarah:Was a heavy metal band who played, and accompanied an opera singer, and there were 3 dozen headless Marie Antoinettes, and it was epic. It was it was so epic.
Mark:It was never ever in an opening ceremonies have I ever turned to my wife and said, do you think that's the blood of aristocrats?
Sarah:And there was also the, fun celebration of love of all types with 3 young people dressed in really kooky outfits in a library. They they with them making out and slamming a door in the camera's face. It was very strange.
Mark:They leaned heavily into we're French. Yeah. Which is exactly what a opening ceremony is supposed to do.
Sarah:It's a celebration. So if you didn't watch it, I encourage you to go check out a highlight reel of it Yep. Because there was some really cool stuff. Some really neat, like, dancing and lighting and, you know yeah. A lot of boats went by with teams.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.
Mark:Then the cauldron is a giant golden balloon that is floating over the city with fire.
Sarah:On fire.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And there was parkour hobo throughout the whole thing.
Mark:That was that was, lit by these 2 current Olympians. But before that, they had the oldest Olympian from France who was a 100 years old carried the charge the second last time.
Sarah:And Celine Dion, who I'm not crazy about, wrapped it all up with a super brave performance. Yep. She's had cancer. Her head's basically shaved, and she belted it.
Mark:I'm not sure if she has cancer, but she is ill.
Sarah:I thought I thought it was cancer.
Mark:It's solid body syndrome or something.
Sarah:I don't know the details. I just know she's very ill, and yet she cranked it. Yes.
Mark:So She cranked it, and certainly, without a doubt, Beyonce cranked it up.
Sarah:Oh, man. Beyonce's got it going on. Yes. She got the badang badang.
Mark:And Snoop on top of it all.
Sarah:Oh, gosh. I forgot about Snoop.
Mark:On top He's epic. Snoop should host all the Olympics ceremonies.
Sarah:He should. He's just so Snoop.
Mark:Yep. He's 100% Snoop, and that's the Snoopiest Snoop that is. Yep.
Sarah:It was great and totally unexpected. Yes. Anyhow, that's current event as what's going on.
Mark:So we asked guys are all 2 weeks ago, we asked good
Sarah:end of July.
Mark:2 weeks ago, we asked a question which we are gonna answer for ourselves and the answers that you guys suggested to us. If you
Sarah:could choose any actors that to be guest characters in a future episode of Midsummer, who would you pick?
Mark:So, David sent us, Michael j Fox mostly because he likes Coldplay and Glastonbury Yeah. But also apparently enjoys an episode of mid summer.
Sarah:Oh, I didn't know that.
Mark:So if if Michael j Fox is listening Yeah. Because you never know. Yeah. Dude, if you like mid summer, please come on the show.
Sarah:Yeah. We'll have you even if they won't. Yeah. We'll talk to you.
Mark:Go ahead. And Kathy, a longtime listener, suggested Roger Daltrey.
Sarah:Oh. She would
Mark:have said David Bowie, but
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:David Bowie. Unfortunately, he's passed And then said that probably her best pick would be Patrick Stewart because Patrick Stewart can murder somebody on the village green out in the open and then make a soliloquy, and everyone would be okay with it.
Sarah:Pretty much. Roger Daltrey, who was in the who Yes. Would have been
Mark:done lots of acting.
Sarah:Would have been great in The Axeman Cometh.
Mark:Yeah. I think he would have.
Sarah:He would have been an awesome member of that band, though it might have been a little bit too close to his actual life Yeah. For him to enjoy it. I think so. He might like to play somebody really different.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:Okay. Let's talk about our picks.
Mark:So we separated our picks into 3 types, a male, a female, and then a killer.
Sarah:Yeah. Somebody we would specifically want to be a guest star who turns out to be the killer.
Mark:So I'm gonna go first for male.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Now I wanted to pick somebody who like, James Acaster and Ross Noble are comedians who I would love to see on Midsummer, but they don't do acting. They do stand up. Yeah. That's what they do, and that's cool. Yeah.
Mark:But I wanted to see somebody who we've seen such good acting out of Mhmm. As well as one of the funniest human beings on the planet. He also happens to be a giant.
Sarah:Greg Davies.
Mark:And that is Greg Davies.
Sarah:Who's the host of British taskmaster.
Mark:Who who will appear as the crabby old barman with the heart of gold who ends up going into the basement to have his, oh, it's you moment.
Sarah:Somebody kills him?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Who could kill him? He's too big.
Mark:I know he's a giant, but could a woman have done this?
Sarah:Good answer. I like that. My male actor that I chose is also a comedian. I chose Mike Wozniak.
Mark:Mike Wozniak is fantastic.
Sarah:Who was he was on taskmaster. He's one of the hosts of the 3 beans podcast. He's got a fantastic mustache. And the character I think he could play is a lord of the manor who is absolutely dense and clueless.
Mark:Yes. He could. And he was a great tweeds. Doctor before he was an an comedian.
Sarah:Yeah. He was. Yeah. Wow. He would look absolutely good in tweeds with his big mustache.
Mark:Oh, he would. He would look fantastic as the clueless
Sarah:I say.
Mark:I say.
Sarah:Okay. Who's your female actor?
Mark:Well, you go female first.
Sarah:Okay. So for for this one, I tried to go way out of the box. Okay. And choose somebody who I knew you would not pick.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:And I chose Judy Love Oh. Who is also a comedian. She was also on Taskmaster.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:She's great. And what she's super good at is she's got these eyes.
Mark:So if if you don't know Judy Love, she's 30?
Sarah:Mid late thirties. Yeah.
Mark:A, black woman with enormous personality Yep. Enormous hair
Sarah:Yep.
Mark:And enormous eyes.
Sarah:Yep. Yes. And she's got these eyes that could, like well, her kids, those poor people, she must just look at them and they go, I did it. It was me. I I can't lie to you.
Mark:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Sarah:She's real good at sucking her teeth. Yep. You know? So, I would have her be a psychic, like, a a visiting psychic who actually knows who did it, but Barnaby and Winter don't believe her. And I want her to flirt with Winter and make him really uncomfortable.
Mark:Oh, okay. My my pick also flirts with Winter.
Sarah:Oh, yeah?
Mark:And my pick is Ferne Brady. Oh. So she's a suspect at first.
Sarah:A bunch of taskmaster people.
Mark:Okay. A suspect at first, but then falls the DS falls for her and her snort.
Sarah:Because her snort She does go when she laughs. But She's actually a really good actor too.
Mark:But she ends up becoming a victim of the killer.
Sarah:Oh, no.
Mark:Poor. You you can't stay a a relationship long on Midsummer.
Sarah:I can't think about her and it's gonna sound bad. Not think about her butt. Because when she was on taskmaster, she wore this silver bodysuit with this, like, metal space bikini on top of it. It looks fantastic. But it had the the bottom had, like, a webbing, like, a strap that went around her back and, like, up up the back of her butt
Mark:to
Sarah:keep it on. And I just felt like, god, that must be so uncomfortable all the time. That's all I could think of is it must be uncomfortable.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:She's so funny. Yes. Okay. Who's your killer?
Mark:Okay. So there's a lady who runs the historical society, but this historical society is being threatened, and they're gonna close the museum because they wanna open some brand new thing and destroy the museum. So she's driven insane by this action and uses historical reenactments to cause murder scenes. Okay. All doing this with the cutest lisp on British TV, miss Lucy Worsley as the killer.
Mark:Who's actually a historian? Yes.
Sarah:She is the head curator of palaces, I think.
Mark:I think so.
Sarah:Of all the palaces. One of them, anyway. One of the head curators. All of her documentaries are great. If you've never seen them
Mark:She loves a good mystery.
Sarah:Look them up. She just recently did a BBC podcast called Ladykillers Yeah. That focuses on women who have been killers in history and looks at it from, like, a feminist point of view. It's really fascinating. Oh, she's a good choice.
Mark:I I thought either her or Tony. Sir Tony Robbins.
Sarah:Tony Robbins. Yeah. He he would be good.
Mark:But I would love her to, like, just lash out about people not enjoying history.
Sarah:But wouldn't it be obvious that she's the killer? I mean, she's historian and people are dying in historical ways.
Mark:She would have to maybe be brought on as a consultant or something, that kind of thing. But just I just wanna see her so angry and and let that lisp fly at the end with just rage and just amazing passionate screaming.
Sarah:Okay. So my choice is somebody we've already mentioned.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:But here's the character. He is the local elementary school teacher and wears his Fair Isle sweater vest every day and a bow tie and his corduroy pants, and the children love him. He's funny and puts on plays and, basically, is the Pied Piper of the village, but in reality is a crazy killer. Oh. James Acaster.
Mark:James Acaster.
Sarah:Who I would pick.
Mark:That that ginger hair.
Sarah:Yeah. But I just thought he would be so fun as somebody who is, like, the village clown and really sweet, nice, and the kids love him, and he's funny. And in reality, he's killing people
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:In gruesome ways.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So if you've got more ideas, let us know. So But we have a new question for next time. What is
Mark:it? Question for next time, which will be the 12th August when we return because remember I'm away next week at
Sarah:We have to move a child to grad school too.
Mark:I have Gen Con, so it's it's a busy time for us in the summer of busy times. Yeah. But we'll be back the 12th August with the double sin, and the question will be, what unique, specific, or crazy way would you like to see somebody die in the new new season
Sarah:of A method of death? Yes. Alright. Wow. That'll be hard because we'll have to pick one that they haven't done already.
Sarah:Yes. Dreyer's cheese. You know? Why being beheaded by a wire while on a motorcycle. You know?
Sarah:Bump. His head just goes pop pop. Trebuchets. There's just there's very few methods of death left, I think. Yeah.
Sarah:So next time, we'll talk about the murder method that we'd all like to see in the future midsummer. And please send us send us your answers. I'm sure you guys will come up with even better things than we do and you know how to get a hold of us. Here's how.
Mark:If you wanna reach out to the maniacs, you can email us at mysterymaniacspodcast@gmail.com. You can join our Facebook page, comment on our posts on Twitter or Instagram, or join our subreddit. You can also message us directly. We'd love to hear from you. Well, speaking of methods of death that are left or not left, let us talk about the disappearance of mister Davenjot Davenhot.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Originally aired in 1990 in February on 4th, directed by Andrew Grieve and written by David Renwick.
Sarah:Who also wrote all the Jonathan Creek episodes.
Mark:Which makes this episode make a lot more sense because the story itself has no magic stuff in it.
Sarah:No. But this like In it but it but in and of itself, somebody kind of disappearing is kind of a locked room. Like Yes. There's a road. Yeah.
Sarah:He should have been on it. Yeah. He wasn't.
Mark:It's kind of a locked
Sarah:road history. And David Renwick wrote, like, 4, but this one, I think, is most up his alley. Yes. It's he put his spin on it because he's primarily known as a comedy writer. And, man, there are some funny bits in this episode.
Mark:Well, I think this is where you get quality television adaptation because he has solid reference material. Like, the story itself is pretty solid. It's just a couple of pages. Right? And I think Christy this is a early Christy story so it's 23 that she writes this.
Mark:Not every story can have a death in it. No. And she saves the big deaths, like, and then there were none. Everybody dies. Yeah.
Mark:And orient express, everybody kills the cops. Right.
Sarah:So there A mystery doesn't require a murder.
Mark:She's saving all the big stuff for the novels. Yeah. Right? So I think that this is a valid out, like, exploration without a killing.
Sarah:And Mhmm.
Mark:And the story is solid in that It's a weird thing. Like It's a stumper initially. Let's be honest. If Davenheim just disappeared and didn't involve his buddy, it the the other guy, he might have gotten away with it.
Sarah:Yeah. Like If he didn't try to frame somebody.
Mark:Yeah. He should've just left with all the money.
Sarah:Yeah. But Renwick also does a good job of adding Hastings and miss Lemon and Chap and making it all fit and making it funny and still very Poirot and very Christie.
Mark:We're we're definitely in Poirot when my first note for the entire episode is, oh, it's this house.
Sarah:Yeah. That house. Yes. The quintessential 19 twenties white art deco
Mark:house. It actually only appears in 2 episodes.
Sarah:But it is of a type.
Mark:It is of a type.
Sarah:There's at least one other house that's used as a set for Poirot and for midsummer, I think, that, looks very similar.
Mark:Yeah. This is used for theft of the royal ruby in this story. Mhmm. It is actually like, what's funny is we see a piece of paper here that has Kimberly House, Holmberg, Saint Mary, Surrey.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And everything but Kimberly House is the actual address of this house. Oh. It is in Surrey in Holmbury near Saint Mary, and it is called Joldwyns.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:J o l d w y n d s, Joldwyns. It was built in 1932, so it kind of predates the the story itself. And it replaced an arts and crafts style house, and it was created by an architect named Oliver Hill. And it's a grade 2 listed build.
Sarah:It's very similar to the house, in the episode about the actress Yes. In the movies
Mark:And I just that
Sarah:we just did a few weeks ago. And I got
Mark:to say also a building that is built by Oliver Hill. I think they're very similar. And you can rent it out now, and there's all sorts of pictures of this all over the place. It's also used in a movie called Blythe Spirit. Yes.
Mark:In 2020 remake of it, they used this building. So it's super gorgeous and full of statues and art. It's really a museum. Mhmm. But in this particular episode, all of the artists, like, Pre Raphaelite and all the statues are huge.
Mark:The paintings are pre Raphaelite.
Sarah:Yeah. The statues are very deco.
Mark:Yes. They're very, very deco.
Sarah:So the house is familiar and so are the main characters. Because Charlotte Davenheim is played by Mel Martin,
Mark:who
Sarah:you might remember from Midsummer season 7, ghosts of Christmas past. Yes. And of course, Matthew Davenheim is played by Kenneth Colley.
Mark:He was in Star Wars.
Sarah:He's in Star Wars, but more important to me, he was in Electric Vendetta. He plays Floyd Kirby, the UFO expert.
Mark:He plays the UFO expert, Floyd Kirby, in the fantastic Electric Vendasta.
Sarah:And it's them and the guy who plays Loewen, Tony Matthews, and that's kind of it.
Mark:Don't forget the flirty maid.
Sarah:There's a maid and there's the boatman, and that's kind of it.
Mark:Don't be joking with the maid. Martha is her name. So this is let's just go over the plot.
Sarah:We haven't said, which we usually do, but way before now. This is a spoiler podcast. Yes. We are about to give away who doesn't do a killing in this episode. Yes.
Mark:What is happening is mister Davenheim is playing the long con. He has embezzled money from the bank
Sarah:That he's the director of.
Mark:And is creating an escape plan.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:Now this is the most elaborate escape plan ever because it includes going to jail for 3 months.
Sarah:Yeah. So as a way to protect himself, he's created an alter ego who is a pickpocket
Mark:Known to the police. As Kellett.
Sarah:Yes. And to a
Mark:man or may not be blind.
Sarah:Told his wife that he'd been in South Africa for 3 months, but he'd really just been in jail for 3 months and is now trying to end his life as Davenheim to get away with his embezzling by getting caught as Kellett and going to jail again and framing Davenheim's death on his arch nemesis, Loewen.
Mark:Yes. So Davenheim is horrific because he doesn't care about his wife.
Sarah:No. Not at all.
Mark:He doesn't care about his business partners. No. He doesn't care about Lohan. No. He all he cares about is the money in disappearing.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Like, he is truly reprehensible.
Sarah:Mhmm. And He his intention is to leave her broke and bereft Yeah. Grieving for him, having never known what happened to him.
Mark:Now do you not think his partners at the bank would have been like, we haven't seen him in 3 months. Do you know where he is?
Sarah:Well, he would have said he was in South Africa.
Mark:But wouldn't may have known?
Sarah:Well, I assume that he was, like, sending letters or something.
Mark:Maybe. Maybe he told them he was going to South Africa too.
Sarah:Yeah. That's what I mean. And this is a time when, oh, you haven't heard from him for 2 months? He's in South Africa. Oh, okay.
Sarah:Well Yes. Okay. I guess.
Mark:So then we have JAP show up with Puero at the house.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And they've gone to see a magic show. Yes. And unfortunately, in this magic show, they've had to flub because they make a actress disappear by stopping the camera, and she moves out of frame and
Sarah:Yeah. So the as is often the case, this is common entertainment as far as Poirot is concerned, and he sees right through it. Yeah. He doesn't really approve of it.
Mark:No. But, of
Sarah:course, Hastings and Jap are sitting there with their jaws hanging open.
Mark:Well, it's a lady in her underwear.
Sarah:You know, basically, eating I say be eating popcorn and going, wow. This is amazing. And Parra's like, what? I'm her. I see right through it.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:And the lady vanishes having wrapped herself in her butterfly costume.
Mark:Now this this is a well known trick. We have a poster
Sarah:of this
Mark:trick in in The dining room. The dining room.
Sarah:The whole idea That's
Mark:the kind of people we are.
Sarah:Is that you wrap yourself in some kind of costume. It has structure in it to make it appear as if you are still inside of it even though you have gone down a trap door
Mark:You slip out.
Sarah:And then the costume falls away and you're not there anymore. However, this costume doesn't even cover her ankles.
Mark:Which you could clearly see the bottom half of her legs.
Sarah:If the trick actually happened the way they show it in the episode, it would be amazing.
Mark:Yes. Well, the woman would actually disappear.
Sarah:Now she's a butterfly.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:But they're playing playing tweeting sounds.
Mark:They're playing tweeting sounds, and I don't like how he leads her around with the flame. It's a bit
Sarah:Yeah. Like, I have a candle, and she's like, oh, you have a candle. Yeah. Oh, I don't but a moth does that, not a butterfly.
Mark:Yeah. I
Sarah:don't know. It's a bunch of mishmash. It's But it sets up this whole theme of magic
Mark:I bet you can't
Sarah:of illusion.
Mark:I bet you can't explain this disappearance.
Sarah:Right. So Poirot sees through illusion as the trick. He sees the trick. The disappearance of Davenheim is an illusion Yep. Which we haven't even talked about.
Sarah:So the whole setup that Davenheim has put together is he tells his wife that he's going to walk to the train station to meet his nemesis, Loewen, who is coming to visit him for a meeting.
Mark:It's a locked road mystery.
Sarah:Yes. He goes down the road. Lowen comes up the road. They never pass each other, and Davenheim never shows up. So they don't know where he's gone.
Sarah:He's disappeared off the road with nobody witnessing him.
Mark:Which is great because that's infinitely relatable. Like, everybody's done that where they went to meet somebody halfway, and they've missed that person.
Sarah:However, the gardener is in the driveway burning stuff.
Mark:I don't know what he's burning because he makes fog like pea soup. The beginning of the episode, when we
Sarah:first see the house, he's got a discreet little pile of leaves of smoke coming out of it. Yep. Ten feet away from the house. I don't know why he's doing it there. But by the time Davenheim leaves, it's impenetrable smoke.
Mark:And okay.
Sarah:If it's supposed to be fog, it's a fog that moves in so fast Yes. That like atmospheric scientists would be like descending on this house.
Mark:The sudden fog.
Sarah:It's absolutely sudden fog.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:When he walks away, he just disappears. I think the gardener's in on it. I'll make some smoke, sir.
Mark:What I always am amazed by is, like, okay. We do a large Halloween display every year, and we have 2 smoke machines Yeah. That we usually run just on Halloween night. And they put out a lot of smoke.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:But that's a lot of smoke.
Sarah:Yeah. It's a lot
Mark:of fog. They would be giant machines.
Sarah:And if that was actually smoke from the gardener burning and not fog, like, Davenheim would be coughing his lungs out, not just disappearing into it. So what he's actually done is emptied his own safe of all of his wife's jewels
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:That he's bought with embezzled money, pocketed them, and he plans to disappear. Yeah. And basically end his life as Davenheim and frame low and for it.
Mark:And like I said, if he watched the end of that driveway, turns left, gets in a car, and goes away, he's gone. Yeah. They have no idea where to find him. No. They have no idea who he is.
Mark:He he takes those jewels and fences them. He has got lots of money.
Sarah:Yep. He's gone. He's scot free.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:I don't know what he actually plans on doing. Like, he has the envelope with all of the jewelry in it and he seals it. Is he putting that in the mail to mail to himself? Because his intent is to get arrested and go to prison.
Mark:I think he must put
Sarah:in the
Mark:mail to go somewhere to some other hideout. It's needlessly complex. Yeah. It doesn't need to be.
Sarah:No. He doesn't need to go to prison to get away with it.
Mark:No. But Poirot is gonna figure this out on his own
Sarah:Without leaving his apartment.
Mark:Without leaving
Sarah:To win a £5 bet.
Mark:As we've mentioned before, this is the episode where you go, oh, this is the one where he doesn't leave the apartment.
Sarah:There's more than one. When Charlotte Davenheim is waiting for him, her husband, he's in the office, and he's got 15 minutes to kill. Right? Before he goes to meet low end at the train, she sits on a window sill looking out of closed blinds Yes. Which I don't understand.
Sarah:But there's one of the many weird statues in this house is sitting on the windowsill. Yes. And it's a woman crouched with one of her feet extended in front of her, and there's a parrot on the end of her finger. But the parrot is on a stick, and I don't understand it. I got a picture of it in the folder there, and we'll put it in the show notes.
Sarah:She has a she has a parrot on a stick.
Mark:Why why does she have a pair?
Sarah:And it's kind of I don't know. But there's a parrot in the episode too. It's weird. It's really weird.
Mark:It's very strange.
Sarah:Jap challenges Poirot to solve this. And Poirot then because he's trapped in the house and waiting for Hastings to come back with the information, becomes interested in magic tricks while he's at home. Yes. So given that and the stage magician, I looked into the methods that magicians use to make people or large objects disappear
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:Which you can probably guess. They do it with mirrors. They do it with boxes with false bottoms. They do it with trapdoors.
Mark:So the famous one I remember from being a kid is, David Copperfield made the statue of the image disappear.
Sarah:Yeah. And now it's completely done with lights. Yeah. And Bright lights.
Mark:They turned the stage.
Sarah:Yeah. And they yeah. They turn the stage that the viewers, the observers, the witnesses are on so subtly that they don't even notice that their view has changed.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So that wasn't very interesting. That was kind of a failed rabbit hole there. So then I was like, well, what about failed magic tricks? Like, really epic fails. And, of course, there have been the tragedies of people trying to catch a bullet in their teeth.
Sarah:Stupid.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:People trapped underwater, you know, can't get out or whatever. I found one that it's not deadly.
Mark:Well, that's good. Because
Sarah:But it happened on live TV. Oh. And it's not even the magician that got injured. Okay. So, you know, 3 card Monty?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So sometimes you play it, like, with shells, like a shell game.
Mark:You put
Sarah:a ball under shell. You switch the 3 shells around. You have to guess which one it is. Right?
Mark:Yeah. With cards, it's find the queen.
Sarah:Right. So the trick that this magician was doing on a morning show
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Okay? Was he had he had 3 boards
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:3 little squares of wood, and one of them had a giant spike in it. Yep. Big nail sticking up out of it. And he puts 3 boards on the table and he puts a paper bag on top of each one and he switches them around and he smashes the first paper bag, spoom with his hand. Yep.
Sarah:Flat to the board.
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:And there's 2 left. And he says, I've made the spike disappear. Neither of these has a spike and challenges the morning host, this woman Yeah. To smack one of them.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Well, she believes him. Right? It's his trick. Yeah. So she there's a video of it on YouTube.
Sarah:We'll have to link to it. She if if you have the stomach to see it, she wholeheartedly just smashes this paper bag and puts her hand right down on this big nail.
Mark:Oh.
Sarah:It goes right through
Mark:her hand on line TV. The trick supposed to be?
Sarah:It was supposed to just be gone. All 3 of them
Mark:were supposed to be screwed up?
Sarah:He screwed up.
Mark:Oh. And she slammed that thing. Can you imagine the behind the scenes of that?
Sarah:Oh, she. There was bleeping and screaming. Because it is it is then stuck to her hand. A board with a nail and a paper bag on her hand.
Mark:Wow.
Sarah:It's awful. Awful. Wow. He was never on TV again. Never.
Sarah:I know you're shocked. Sometimes those tricks don't go
Mark:The way
Sarah:the way you expect them
Mark:to. Then we have Gerald arriving because they're doing some crazy stuff with time here.
Sarah:Yeah. Because so JAP is recounting what happened.
Mark:There's a voice over, which is very weird.
Sarah:Yeah. Via Charlotte, the wife, recounting that day. But then we also have Jap and Hastings going back to the scene and gathering more information and interviewing people, and those people recounting what happened and showing Yeah.
Mark:There's lots of times From
Sarah:their point
Mark:of view.
Sarah:I love Jap and Hastings, like, passing each other in the hallway of the house as they interview the maid and the wife and the boatman and, you know, obviously. And
Mark:Hastings has the line of the episode.
Sarah:I know it's a rather odd question, but a rather odd person would like to know. What color were Davenheim's pants?
Mark:He says that, and no one like, the the person he's asking doesn't care. Martha. He doesn't tell Hastings that. No one else hears it. It's solely for Hastings' enjoyment.
Sarah:There's so many good lines in this. Yes. When when Hastings is interviewing the boatman Yes. And the boatman is like, I'm real busy. He's doing absolutely nothing.
Mark:Well, he says at one point he was asleep.
Sarah:Yeah. And he's, oh, I remember that morning quite well because I was really, really busy. 2 homeless people and a girl on a bike went by. Yeah. I was overwhelmed by how busy I was.
Sarah:And he says, I'm gonna give that bench another coat of paint as soon as you go.
Mark:And we get the shot of the episode, which is Hastings' ass.
Sarah:Yeah. And a little bit of paint on his pants. Like, but it's Hastings getting to be the smart aleck for once Yes. And saying, well, I know you're very busy. Obviously, you're overwhelmed busy.
Mark:And that he learned from Poirot. Yes.
Sarah:He learned how to be snarky from Poirot.
Mark:And Poirot is at home working on all these conjuring tricks.
Sarah:David Suchet actually learned all of those tricks for this episode.
Mark:The book boys book of conjuring, which is an actual book Yeah. It's on Google Books. It has all, like, there I found the page where he had the pictures from and everything. It it is a well known conjuring beginner book.
Sarah:So what's your favorite trick that he does?
Mark:I love the card trick that he does where he surprises himself that he actually did it.
Sarah:Which one?
Mark:So he has the card in his hand while he's talking to miss Hastings.
Sarah:Miss lemon?
Mark:Miss lemon. Sorry. And he's, like, trying to get rid of it.
Sarah:Oh, yeah. And then it And then then
Mark:he doesn't. It suddenly disappears. Yeah. And then he brings it back. And he kinda looks at his hand like, hey.
Mark:Hey.
Sarah:I did.
Mark:I did that.
Sarah:I like the house of cards that he's building while when the phone rings and he knocks it down, and then he just picks it back up again. He just seems to be enjoying himself Yes. Which you don't often see because he's so serious. Yep. The the dragging of the lake is the most half hearted Wow.
Sarah:Lake dragging. If there was actually a body at the bottom of that lake, they would never find it.
Mark:And they would totally, those clothes would totally float, I think.
Sarah:Well, I think that's why they find them.
Mark:But but luckily, Jap has his fancy brass bullhorn.
Sarah:Yeah. Bring him over her. He I love those moments when Jap gets to be head cop
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And in charge of a bunch of guys in uniform because he's so good at it. He he's minimized when he's with Poirot because Poirot is such a great detective that Jap looks ineffective. But then when Jap is in his element with other policemen, he is like head cop. He's really good at it.
Mark:In exactly the same way that I think the television show Friends should be the Chandler, Joey, and sometimes Phoebe show.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:The rest of them can go die in a fire for all I care. Sometimes Poirot is the Jap Hastings show. Yeah. Yeah. And this is a prime example of the Jap Hastings show.
Mark:Yeah. He figures out that Loewen, he knows him because of racing cars, and he picks up Speed Magazine. I couldn't find that exact episode issue.
Sarah:Issue. But Hastings like, he drives a Bugatti. I know exactly who he is.
Mark:Which leads me to the current pictures of the house in that's used. There is currently a bunch of Bugatti pictures in the house right now.
Sarah:Oh.
Mark:So it's kinda neat that that did it like that. So
Sarah:Then the parrot appears.
Mark:Well, before that, I think miss Lemon is tired of him being around there. She
Sarah:is so tired of Poirot being in the apartment. Especially You really you should go investigate. You should just forget the bet. You I mean, this is important. You really should go to the to the scene yourself.
Sarah:Shouldn't you? Do
Mark:do these little tricks.
Sarah:He's like, I made a handkerchief disappear. I made a card disappear. She's like, shouldn't you be going to get some evidence?
Mark:And then the guy got paperwork
Sarah:in her arms up to her nose, and the doorbell rings, and and he's like, can you get that? He's she's like, mister Poirot.
Mark:Commander Wallace wants you to take care of his Poirot parrot. So the guy Poirot.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:The guy says, I have a parrot for Poirot.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:And he says
Sarah:Okay. I've got a Poirot for mister Poirot.
Mark:It's it's perfect.
Sarah:And the and the parrot, it's they do such a good job with it, he's like, I have no use for this thing except maybe as food. It wouldn't be a very good serving though. Like and it talks. I love I love when Poirot is carving the chicken Yes.
Mark:And then and
Sarah:the parrot screams. Meanwhile, Hastings is about to drive a race car and gets caught.
Mark:Totally almost gets away with it. He's playful, which I love.
Sarah:Are you interested in the car?
Mark:Yes. Of course, I am.
Sarah:Jap comes up to him, mister Loewen, I'm sorry. And then he takes the goggles off. He's like, it's you.
Mark:I think he thinks Hastings is gonna buy the car.
Sarah:Yeah. I think that's what Lowen thinks. But in reality, the guy who's interested in buying it is somebody else. Yes. But Hastings is like, sure.
Sarah:I'm the one. Yeah.
Mark:And the next race car sequence, Pathway, is there.
Sarah:Mhmm. British Pathway is an old newsreel company. They have an we've mentioned it before. They have an amazing YouTube channel. You should go check it out.
Mark:The guy who does the voice shows up in a later episode of Poirot.
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:And he's actually one of the producers of the show.
Sarah:Yeah. Today at the race.
Mark:You know? Poirot mentions litmus test here. The so the litmus test is to see whether or not something's a base or an acid.
Sarah:Yeah. It's a pH test.
Mark:From your
Sarah:Everybody did it in chemistry
Mark:Everyone did it in chemistry class. Do you know where it's from? No. It's actually the word litmus is based off of a old Norse word, which is used which is for moss used for dying. And they've been doing litmus tests as early as 1300.
Sarah:So that's after vike that's like Chaucer? Yeah. But I'm now I'm I'm thinking about Vikings dipping their beards. Something. You know?
Sarah:Yeah. Or Eric, your your beard is very acidic today.
Mark:Make it a pretty pink or that
Sarah:nice Yeah. Blue that it is. That's what berserkers were doing. Yes. It wasn't mushrooms or something.
Sarah:They were just dipping their beards and moss juice.
Mark:In the moss juice. The
Sarah:parrot's there. Hastings is there. Poirot says, don't fraternize with that creature.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And Poirot and Hastings says, it's just a parrot. And Poirot says, I was talking to the parrots. Talking
Mark:to the parrot.
Sarah:He's telling the parrot not to fraternize with Hastings. I'm still training him.
Mark:And poor and poor Hastings, Plauero says, I have a little experiment for you, dude. And this experiment is crazy. Yeah. So I want you to take a hammer and a chisel.
Sarah:Yeah. Put them in your pocket. Nobody will notice.
Mark:Go back to the other house.
Sarah:And break into the safe.
Mark:And try to break into the safe.
Sarah:He's got this big chisel and hammer in his the breast pocket the inside breast pocket of his jacket. He would have looked like a mutant, first of all.
Mark:Totally.
Sarah:It would have added all kinds of bulk, and it would have been like clang clang clang clang clang clang. He could have at least had them wrapped in a handkerchief or something.
Mark:He's like, oh, I'm just doing a
Sarah:little experiment. Well, he initially, he's being very careful, like, trying to keep the noise down. But then he quickly loses patience and just starts whacking at it.
Mark:It's just destroying property all
Sarah:over. So do you think so Davenheim put the marks in the safe initially, which for some reason nobody notices for a week. Yes. Why the police didn't say
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:Do you have a safe? Is it secure? Like, they'd wanna know.
Mark:Yeah. I would think so.
Sarah:I don't think Davenheim actually broke into his own safe. I think he just damaged it to make it look like somebody did. And then he opened it and took the stuff.
Mark:Totally. Well, then there's the damage that Hastings caused.
Sarah:Yeah. But Hastings is not getting anywhere. He was not gonna get that safe open.
Mark:No. The day of the race, we find that Davenheim in his criminal disguise steals Chap's wallet. Yeah. That's the worst choice ever.
Sarah:Big mistake there. I understand going to the track to pickpockets. If you want to get caught, it's a really good place to do it. But what are the chances that he would steal a policeman's wallet? Yeah.
Sarah:And the policeman investigating his own disappearance. That's just triple dumb. Triple, triple dumb.
Mark:I think what he wants to do is frame Lowen. Yeah. And so he sets him up self up for the identity parade and everything.
Sarah:But the thing is is and to your point, a while back, If he had just disappeared, Lowen's already framed for his murder Yeah. Because he was the only person who would have passed him on the road. Yes. If anybody had a chance to kill him,
Mark:it was Lowen. Convicted, he would be suspected of it for years.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. It would be a smear on his reputation. Yeah. He had a he had a motive.
Sarah:He had opportunity. He could have done it.
Mark:Yeah. Absolutely. So asked for 2 things. What did they sleep together, and what was in their bathroom?
Sarah:Medicine cabinet, and did they share a room?
Mark:There's 3 more pages. That identity parade is the least safe identity parade ever. Yeah. Yeah. It's this guy.
Mark:He was right here. No wonder Lowell is so pissed.
Sarah:Oh, Lowen is justifiably very mad. Why they don't recognize Davenheim?
Mark:Right away.
Sarah:It's just a beard. I'm sorry. If you shaved your beard, I would still know who you are. Yeah. If you put a bigger beard on, I would still know who you are.
Sarah:Yeah. And so would most of your friends and acquaintances.
Mark:I would hope so.
Sarah:But, you know, it's the magic of illusion.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:A little beard makes you into somebody else.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Why anybody thought a blind man at a car race wasn't suspicious? I don't
Mark:know. It's it's weird. The bank collapses. Everybody's money's out, so it's safe. And then they're like, okay.
Sarah:Damn you, you Belgian. Yes.
Mark:There's the identity parade, and his wife shows up, and he tries to run away.
Sarah:Yeah. He's in the police station and he tries to run away. Where are you going? Was he gonna run to his cell?
Mark:Yeah. So his wife immediately
Sarah:recognizes it. Thank goodness. If she didn't, I would just say, I'm sorry. This is broken. Yeah.
Sarah:That is beyond belief.
Mark:So we have the reenactment, and what was in the bathroom that was so horrible was razor blades because he would would have to keep shaving.
Sarah:It proves that his beard is fake. Yep. How do you grow a fake beard?
Mark:With the squatching and screechings. You like it's it's all stagecraft. Right?
Sarah:You just have stages of beard?
Mark:No. No. Like, he went away to South Africa supposedly clean shaven and then came back with a beard.
Sarah:So he has grown a real beard and purchased a fake beard that looks just like his real beard. So he could shave his real beard off, replace it with the fake beard.
Mark:No. I think he showed up with the fake beard.
Sarah:Oh, so he came back from prison with a fake beard on?
Mark:Yes. Because it takes 3 months to grow a beard.
Sarah:Oh, does it?
Mark:About that. Yeah. For most humans.
Sarah:Not you.
Mark:Not me.
Sarah:You can grow a beard in an afternoon if you concentrate. Sarah
Mark:Sarah's cut my hair, and the next day I've needed a haircut. My hair grows incredibly fast.
Sarah:We we missed the
Mark:scene. A 55 year old man who needs constant haircuts. Yes. It's a rare thing, but I'm pleased about it.
Sarah:We missed the scene where Poirot's cooking, and Hastings tastes it and likes it, and it turns out to be bird food. Yes.
Mark:He thinks of bird food.
Sarah:It's like so it can cuttlefish.
Mark:But that, like, wouldn't you make that cold? I kept going why is he heating that up?
Sarah:Maybe to melt the lard, melt the suet that you put the seeds in and then you cool it, and then the
Mark:bird can peck at it.
Sarah:Maybe. I guess. Clearly, Poirot is committed to bird maintenance now. But I get into it.
Mark:Again, that's all added stuff to the episode that makes it so rich.
Sarah:Poirot's never changed in the newspaper in that cage. No. That has gotta be miss Lemon doing that.
Mark:Yeah. Miss Lemon, can you change the newspaper?
Sarah:He's not dealing with that.
Mark:He's making some cutting some pussy in half in the back.
Sarah:The shadow hussies getting cut up. Oh, he does tear newspaper and put it back together again.
Mark:So he does a trick at the end or he tries to, but miss Lemon is not impressed.
Sarah:Oh my gosh. Her face. I've got a photo of it. Yep. She makes a face.
Sarah:The other 2 are like, oh, Poirot. Oh. And she's like,
Mark:he needs to leave the house
Sarah:now. Can I have a day off now?
Mark:Yeah. Had
Sarah:enough of you. Her face, it's priceless. Less.
Mark:And gets paid with the biggest banknotes of all time.
Sarah:That money was just too big. It was way too big. It was like half a sheet of paper. Yeah. For £5.
Sarah:Yeah. Which actually was kind of a lot for Jap.
Mark:It was for Jap. So that is mister Davinsheim. There's no best corpse because there's no corpse.
Sarah:No. So he's definitely going to jail Yeah. If we're doing after the credits. Yeah. I kinda think that Charlotte and Lohan could get together.
Mark:She's gotta do something because right now,
Sarah:she has broke.
Mark:She has no money and a husband who was a fraud Yeah. Who was gonna leave her.
Sarah:Well, she is a grown up. She could get a job, you know, and, like, support herself.
Mark:She could.
Sarah:She's not stuck with just the nearest man. No. No. No. But just to be clear Yeah.
Sarah:Well, she's gotta do something. Well, no. She's gotta hook up with the gardener if she has to.
Mark:It's not that I think she has to do something. It's I just think that she's in trouble right now.
Sarah:Awfully, polite to him, and, he clearly appreciates her.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I thought Yeah. Even when he's leaving and he's like, well, if this is how your husband treats everybody, I can see, you know
Mark:Do you think the parent makes it to the next back to the commander?
Sarah:Yes. Okay. Parents live
Mark:a long time. They do. I know.
Sarah:But And Poirot is clearly taking good care of it. Yes. And would be mortified if somebody's pet died in this area.
Mark:Space Hastings to the pet store to get Get another parrot. Parrot that looks like that parrot.
Sarah:He invites the captain over, for dinner when he gets back from his trip, and they have partridge or chicken or something. He's like, I I need to tell you about the parrot.
Mark:Oh, you mean this one that looks almost like my parrot?
Sarah:Or the one that we're eating.
Mark:I don't know if parrot would be all that good. No. I don't think so.
Sarah:No. They don't have any meat, especially one that doesn't fly. It has no breast muscle. Yeah. It's not it's not building up.
Sarah:But
Mark:that doesn't work because well, chickens are, of course
Sarah:They flap a lot. They're blur they're bread bread to have Bread to have big breasts.
Mark:Big breasts. Breasts. This is
Sarah:Like those turkeys that can barely stand up because their breasts are so big. Yeah. They fall forward. Yeah. Oh, the strange topics that come up in our conversation.
Sarah:That is the disappearance of mister Davenheim. Hine.
Mark:It's no horrible movie because there's, like, 5 people in this episode.
Sarah:And they've all been in the midsummer, so we've talked about them.
Mark:Or Star Wars. So if
Sarah:they if they had a horrible movie, we would have mentioned it already.
Mark:We would have. Well, that was the disappearance of mister Davenheim.
Sarah:You've got 2 weeks to come up with your answer for the next question.
Mark:Our next episode is double sin Mhmm. Season 2 episode 6 and will be released on 12th August.
Sarah:At which time, we will talk again about dream murder methods for future Midsummer episodes. If you have answers, which I'm sure you do, send them in. Yep. We'll have ours ready. Yes.
Sarah:And we can compare just how freaky we all are. And that'll be fun because we're all maniacs.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Until next time.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:Don't fraternize with that creature. I'm still training him. I don't know what that accent was. It wasn't raining. Me?
Sarah:I think it was Romanian or something. It's the Olympics. I blame the Olympics.
Mark:Bye, maniacs. Of the night. I am training them. They are Paris.
Sarah:Bye, maniacs.
Mark:Bye, maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:Do you wanna record something to put at the beginning? No. Because it's real easy to mix in.
