The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Factual error: Poirot reads a fake copy of the Daily Express with a big article about the mystery disappearance. What makes it a not so believable fake, besides the odd artwork instead of a picture (a clash of style with the real Express first pages), is that you can make out of the words of the article closest to the camera, and like it happens to other props used this season, it mentions the Abyssinian crisis...but saying that "Mr. Churchill himself made the only speech." Churchill was not in office in the 30s. (00:17:05)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Factual error: At Poirot's, Hastings browses a copy of Speed magazine - but it's the August 1936 issue. The story is set in mid-October 1935 (not just for consistency with the rest of the season, but also because the newspaper brought by Hastings towards the end mentions Duff Cooper as Financial Secretary for the treasury, which is a position held in that year before the elections - which are also mentioned). (00:18:30 - 00:43:40)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Other mistake: Lowen allows Hastings inside his Bugatti, but then leaves to join a member of his staff who beckoned him. We actually see him in front of the staffer and the person with him. Cue Japp, who has then a little comical interlude with Hastings for about 20 seconds. Cut then to Lowen who.is just now being introduced to the guy he came over to greet. Surely he has not been standing in awkward silence all that time. And even if we assume that this conversation is supposed to happen simultaneously to the Hastings and Japp show, it is half as short, meaning it would have cut into their antics when he ends it by yelling at them. (00:23:15)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Continuity mistake: During the conversation between Lowen, Hastings and Japp through the car window, in his close-ups Tony Mathews moves his torso closer to the window and then back towards the wheel, several times. That is not always reflected accurately in the reverse shot with just the shoulder visible. For instance, right at the end of the scene, he leans in saying "Good God, you don't think you can keep a thing like that secret, surely", but his body is exactly in the same spot in the shots before and after. (00:24:20 - 00:25:10)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Plot hole: The safe is behind a painting that acts like a real door. When Mrs Davenheim spots it, it's wide open. But Japp questioned her in the same room and the painting was in place back then. It really makes no sense that with a story depicted as being so big (it makes the first page of the national newspapers) and with an investigation in place, nobody in a week has checked the safe at all. (00:27:50)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Continuity mistake: The race is presented through actual footage of the era, with a cameraman from Pathe shown, saying that Lowen's car is number 3. But the car shown in the stock footage is different from the one Lowen is driving, which does not even have the number in the same position. (00:33:10 - 00:33:45)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Other mistake: When Japp and the bobby arrest the pickpocketer, the dialogue says "It was only last week that we put him inside for three months" which obviously does not make sense. In the original story he did the 3 months of jail the year before, and this has to be a flub in the lines of this TV version (it is specified also that he did those in the winter, so the Sergeant can't possibly mean that he was released last week). (00:35:00)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Continuity mistake: When Poirot's castle collapses, the cards are all in perfect order, but become scattered after the cut to Japp. (00:35:40)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Continuity mistake: Carving the distant relative of his parrot for dinner, Poirot slices one side in the close-up, which turns out to be the exact opposite side in the wider shot. (00:38:35)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Continuity mistake: When Poirot at dinner asks the first question (the bathroom one), he does not have his large napkin in his vest. When he asks the second one (the bedroom one), the napkin he had for all the rest of the scene is back. (00:40:15)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Continuity mistake: When Poirot does the newspaper trick for Miss Lemon, the final reveal has him present the newspaper holding it between index and thumb in the front view, index and middle with the thumb sticking out in the back view. (00:42:10)
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - S2-E5
Plot hole: The killer has a perfect (in movie logic at least) plan but he amplifies its risks to 1000000% getting caught on purpose with an incriminating item that links him to his secret identity and that is amazingly likely to have him questioned and face the wife of the deceased (who recognizes him in 0.5 seconds) and other witnesses. Even without Poirot it is impossible to imagine a trial happening without him having to appear in some capacity. And in this TV dramatization, the motive of Lowen to hate Davenheim is obvious, but not the other way around, so it appears even more baffling that he'd utterly ruin his perfect escape just to mess with a rival apparently he had a upper hand on. Moreover, the dramatization makes his plan even more absurd, as instead of pawning the valuable ring like in the original and being only marginally involved, here he has it days after the murder, and robs the Inspector chief! Any bobby would do. Finally, here he also wears prosthetics, again drawing attention.
Double Sin - S2-E6
Continuity mistake: Madame Durrant is showing the niece the medallions she is supposed to sell. In close-up you can see her holding the suspension ring with her right hand, and her left hand too, on the side, with the thumb on it. But in the wider shot, she is using merely the side and back of the left hand for support, the thumb being at distance from the jewel. (00:08:20)
Double Sin - S2-E6
Continuity mistake: Poirot has just been 'beastly' with Japp, in Hastings' words. In the establishing shot of the town square before the bus, a woman in orange (Miss Durant as we'll learn) pass by the ice cream cart. That same woman passes again the same spot as the camera is behind the cart, following the policeman and then getting Poirot and Hastings in frame. The driver and the man he was talking to are also in a different spot as that happens. (00:11:10)
Double Sin - S2-E6
Continuity mistake: In the car chase, when the woman turns to check the police behind them, the close-up on the steering wheel does not match the position of her hands before and after. Similarly her passenger has the right hand visible when it shouldn't be. (00:28:45)
Double Sin - S2-E6
Continuity mistake: When Hastings storms out of the antique store claiming to have solved the case, Poirot follows him until he turns into an alley. In the view from the back of the alley, there's a man with a hat who walks all the way past Poirot and turns the corner into the main road. In the reverse angle, the guy is still walking down the alley in front of Poirot. (00:42:30)
Double Sin - S2-E6
Continuity mistake: At the end of the episode, Hastings flips the cutting, having the left palm on the back of it. Next shot, and he's holding it by a corner. (00:50:45)
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat - S2-E7
Continuity mistake: Hastings, Japp (for some reason) and Poirot are at the movies; when the camera pans through the room, there's a guy sitting behind Hastings, while behind Poirot there are a red haired woman and a man, as confirmed by the close-ups. When the music stops and Hastings tells Poirot that he can open his eyes, the couple have moved behind Hastings. (00:02:50)
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat - S2-E7
Continuity mistake: During the party, the establishing shot shows everyone in the small circle Poirot is a part of having a glass of champagne. That includes Mr. Robinson. As Poirot puts on the tray his own glass, someone's hand reaches over for another - it can only be Mr. Robinson's, as his wife is wearing gloves, but he never put down his own glass. (00:06:05)
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat - S2-E7
Continuity mistake: In the first scene with the 'G-Man', the room in the shots with the camera roughly by his shoulder is lit in a different way, with his body fully in the 'sun'. Especially visible when he picks up the phone and starts spouting yankee-isms going all "Yeah yeah so what yeah." (00:09:00)
