Factual error: As Japp and his moustached pal visit the nightclub in search of Major Eustace, the song "Hindustan" is executed. While it is a song perfectly believable for the year (stated as being 1935) since it was written in 1918 and a huge hit, the version played here is quite a bit different, sounding a lot more like the upbeat version heard first in the Rosemary Clooney-Bing Crosby album "Fancy Meeting You Here", which had other classics reworked for the duet formula with added lyrics - exactly like in the back-and-forth heard here between the singer and the band. Said album came out in 1958, though. (00:30:20)
Factual error: This episode happens on the first days of November 1935. During the 5th of November fireworks Hastings, Japp and Poirot walk at night through streets with plants prospering and in full green, and the same happens during the visit to the golf course.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4
Factual error: At the art gallery, Poirot and Hastings are looking at a painting identified as "Man Throwing a Stone at a Bird" by the surrealist Joan Miro. But the painting featured is completely different from the real one. (00:21:50)
Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4
Factual error: Great accuracy went into the dates of this episode - Hastings is following the outcome of the so called "Verity's Match", the 2nd test of the 1934 Ashes series, Australia vs England. The events then should happen between the 22nd and the 25th of June, 1934, compatible with the murder happening on the 16th, and being discovered 3 days after. This however puts it a year before "Murder in the Mews", previous episode where Poirot's dentist was referenced, and that happened in 1935 as stated in the letter to the Chinese laundry.
Factual error: When Poirot leaves customs with Mademoiselle Lyall, one of the supposed Italians asks in that language "What's happening, what is this noise?", which does not make sense in context, especially with the officer just shrugging and showing him the card. (00:32:55)
Factual error: At the end of the report on the findings of the crime scene, the "Italian" inspector tells to his subordinates what literally would translate as "Removes this meddler from here, no more access to the prisoner, that you understand?", which is just wrong in accent, cadence and construct. (00:36:30)
Factual error: Poirot and Lyall speak to people in the street of Rhodes, looking for someone who can tell them about the poison. The people they speak to all shake their heads, but Greeks do not do this to say "no" - they tip their heads back. (00:39:40)
Factual error: Throughout the episode there are sections of dialogue in Greek, which are deliberately left untranslated. The subtitles frequently transcribe the Greek inaccurately. For example, the Greek girl who assists Poirot and Lyall in finding out about the poison says "Elate!" to them, which means "Come!" said to more than one person, but this is transcribed in the subtitles as "Ella!", the form used to a single person. Later on, the girl's grandmother says "Ohi enas Anglos anthras. Mia Anglitha yineka. San esena" ("Not an Englishman. An Englishwoman. Like you"), but this is given in the subtitles as "Ohi enas Anglos anthras, che yenika. Son ethena", which doesn't make sense. (00:40:45)
Factual error: The mysterious venom used to perpetrate the murder comes according to the English coroner from a "Vilitilio Occius", said to be a horn viper. Nothing wrong with artistic liberties making up animal species, but the name itself appears to be pseudo-latin with no real meaning or any closeness to other snakes, so not a particularly believable one.
Factual error: The basis of the blackmail is based on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria because howitzers were supplied to bombard Shanghai. Shanghai is not in Manchuria. (00:35:41)
Factual error: The machine guns on the plane appear to be cannons, which were not introduced until much later.
Factual error: Nick says that she made the will 6 months before the events of the episode, just before her appendix surgery. The surgery happened on February 27th, so it would be the end of August now. But at the beginning of the first episode Hastings was reading a (movie prop) copy of the Daily Express which had on the cover "Perry makes a new record - Champion two years in succession", complete with a picture where he is unmistakably with his rival Gottfried Von Cramm. The photo (and the mention of the 2 years record) is about the Wimbledon final who took place on 5 July 1935. That's almost 2 months earlier than it should be. (00:04:45)
Factual error: Poirot has just suffered "a turned ankle", in his words; he's talking with Hastings and the kind woman who helped him out, when their conversation gets perturbed by the noise of a plane. Which is surprising, since the plane in question is a Volmer VJ .22 Sportsman, a plane from the 50s, way after the 1930s setting of the episodes. (00:06:40)
Factual error: Jim Lazarus drives a Vauxhall DX (14/6 Light Six) Stratford Tourer, a 1936 model. This episode takes place in the summer of 1935. (00:46:20)
Factual error: Poirot is cycling through Wimbledon; he passes by a house which has a definitely non-1930 car in the yard, and a yellow alarm box on the first floor. (00:18:20)
Factual error: To meet The Veiled Lady the second time, Hastings and Poirot go to the Natural History Museum. The establishing shot is the iconic "Dippy the Diplodocus", right in the main hall. But in 1935, Dippy would have been in the reptile hall instead, and with his head and neck mounted differently. (00:37:35)
Factual error: The episode is set at a precise date (it's even a plot point); 8/2/1935. But at the beginning Poirot and Hastings are playing Monopoly, and right there on the board you can distinctly read; "Trade Mark - Pat.app. For Nº 3796-36." As signaled by the last 2 digits, it's a 1936 edition (the UK localization of the game). (00:01:40)
Factual error: In Poirot's study, Lord Pearson shows the big piece of mineral, saying "You're left holding a a nugget of top-grade 24-carat silver." That's a laughable blunder, from a top level banker and investor about to do a massive mining deal even. Silver purity is expressed in millesimal fineness. (00:11:30)
Factual error: One of the two police cars identified as Unit 10, is appropriately enough, a Sunbeam-Talbot Ten. The episode is set in 1935 though (with amazing accuracy for some details, including the poster for the movie "George White's Scandals 1935" shown before the car tailing starts), and that car was manufactured only after 1937. (00:19:55 - 00:22:00)
Factual error: Japp in this episode uses a Humber Snipe, a 1937 model. The story is set in 1935.
Answer: He definitely says "Belgian", but the subtitles get it wrong and show him saying "American."
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