Drame en trois actes (Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie)

Drame en trois actes (Drama in Three Acts) is the 21st episode of season 2 of the French TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie. It was produced by Escazal Films and France Télévisions, directed by Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss and first aired on France 2 on 31 August 2018. It is an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Three Act Tragedy.

Synopsis
Like the rest of the episodes of season 2 of this series, the original Christie detective characters have been replaced. The lead roles are taken by a French detective Commissaire Swan Laurence assisted by a journalist Alice Avril and Laurence's secretary Marlene. The action is set in Lille in the 1950s. In this episode, Alice cannot afford a vacation and instead joins an acting class. A journalist colleague Léon Verneuil is murdered while attending the same course. This is only the first of a string of poisonings. Laurence suspects Herbert Michel, a guest teacher who looks uncannily like himself whom he takes a dislike to. Things are complicated, however, as Marlene falls in love with the teacher and agrees to marry him.

Plot Summary
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Unable to afford a vacation, Alice Avril takes an acting course at the Cours de theatre Semenoff, an drama school run by the once famous Macha Semenoff, now an alcoholic in the waning years of her career. The rather shabby school is supported financially by her friend and patron, Richard Nobel. It is not all smooth sailing for Alice--also on the course is Léon Verneuil, another journalist from La Voix du Nord. Alice dislikes him intensely for being the editor's spy. Léon harasses Alice constantly and taunts she because she had told her colleagues she was going for a vacation at the beach. At least Macha can pull off some surprises--she has managed to invite as a guest teacher a celebrated actor Herbert Michel. Alice is amazed--Herbert looks exactly like commissaire Laurence.

Of course Laurence doesn't know what Alice is talking about and wants Marlene to call the psychiatric unit, but Alice brings Marlene to meet Herbert. Marlene and Herbert are smitten by each other and Herbert insists that Marlene join the acting course.

At a mixer for the drama students, drinks are being passed around when suddenly Léon falls down dead. Glissant thinks it is death by natural causes at first, as Léon has a heart condition but later confirms that he has been poisoned. At first Laurence homes in on Monique--she has a history of mental illness and has played some pranks on Macha--tying a noose in her office and later stringing up a dead crow. This is to frighten her she admits. But Alice contributes another clue which points elsewhere--she has become romantically involved with Grégoire who tells her he was a schoolmate of Léon. Even in his school days, Léon worked for a rag paper and his specialty was digging up dirt on people.

Meanwhile the relationship between Marlene and Herbert develops and soon they are engaged to be married. Marlene resigns from her job and is replaced by Arlette Carmouille, a uniformed policewoman who is too efficient by half for Laurence. He can't concentrate with all the activity she brings to the office.

Richard organises a party where the students of Macha's school will put up a play. Half way through the performance, Richard who is on stage collapses and dies after taking a drink. Herbert turns up late at the party and Laurence allows him to take the drunken Macha home. Later, under questioning Herbert claims that he was away at a teaching seminar and missed most of the party because of a flat tyre. But he has no one who can provide an alibi.

Tricard on the other hand has his own ideas about the murders. After too much to drink and being depressed because Marlene is getting married, he places Alice under arrest. After all, Alice disliked Leon intensely and Tricard had heard Alice threatening to kill Leon. Grégoire visits Alice in the lock up. He offers to help and suggests that they try some breathing exercises to stimulate the memory. This proves successful and they tell Laurence what they observed at the party: Richard was seen joking with one of his servants dressed as footman. This strikes Grégoire as strange because Richard is normally nasty to his servants.

Macha is late for her interview at the police station. Laurence goes to look for her at her school and finds her dead. She is dressed in her Lucrezia Borgia costume. There is a confession to the other killings written on the mirror. She has died from an overdose of barbiturates in vodka. It looks like a suicide but Laurence wants a detailed autopsy. Sure enough, Glissant finds subcutaneous bruises on the stomach and arms as though someone had been holding her down and preventing her from moving.

Everyone else has been invited to the church for Marlene's wedding she has dropped Laurence from her list because she was angry with him for harassing Herbert. Undeterred, Laurence works on the lead provided by Glissant and goes back to Macha's room for a more thorough search. Taped under a drawer he finds a ring.

Laurence reaches the church just in time to stop the wedding. He shows Herbert the ring which has Macha and Herbet's name on it. They were married in 1932. Laurence accuses Herbert of the murders. He doesn't deny it but tells Marlene he did it for her. As Laurence sums up, Macha was married to Herbert and refused to give him a divorce. He had to get rid of her but the problem as the logistics. Richard knew about the marriage and was loyal to Macha so he had to go before her. The footman that Richard was joking with at the party which Alice saw was actually Herbert in disguise. As for Leon, he had been poking about into the backgrounds of Richard, Herbert and Macha, and he had already found out that Herbert was married. With what he knew, he would eventually figure out Herbert's plan, so he had to be killed first.

Herbert is arrested and the wedding is off. Alice and Laurence try to console Marlene that at least she avoided being married to a murderer. Marlene takes it stoicaly. Shortly there would only be one of Laurence, which is probably just as well.

Comparison with original story
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
 * As usually happens, these adaptations are spun in such a way that the main characters become parallels of the originals. In this case, Marlene is the parallel of Egg. Herbert Michel who looks like Laurence and also played by Samuel Labarthe is Sir Charles Cartwright.
 * The theme of theatre is retained. Sir Charles Cartwright and Herbert Michel are both well known stage actors.
 * The first murder, that of Léon, is not a rehearsal. He is killed because he is nosy and would soon figure out the truth. But if so, Herbert's plan was risky. He does pass out the drinks one by one personally (unlike in the original) but Alice actually intercepts the glass meant for Leon. Only by chance did she give it back to Leon.
 * The second murder takes place at a party hosted by the Sir Bartholomew Strange parallel, Richard Nobel who also dies after drinking something. Here he is not a doctor but does know that Herbert is married to Macha. Like in the original Herbert was also on scene disguised as a waiter. However there is no plot device of the strawberry mark on the hand.
 * Unlike the original, Macha Semenoff, the parallel of Mrs Mugg does show up and has a significant part in the plot. She is not insane or in an asylum. In the book, Cartwright never planned to kill his wife but in this adaptation she was the ultimate victim. After killing her, Herbert actually frames her for the previous murders.
 * The theme of insanity does however occur in a small way, as Laurence discovers that one of the drama class students has a mental history.
 * The plot device of switching the glass is also used but Laurence figures this out almost immediately.
 * There are no parallels of Milray, Muriel Wills.
 * Neither the Egg or Charles Cartwright help in the investigation in anyway in this adaptation.

Cast

 * Samuel Labarthe as Commissaire Swan Laurence
 * Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril
 * Élodie Frenck as Marlène Leroy
 * Dominique Reymond as Macha Semenoff
 * Nicolas Marié as Richard Nobel
 * Cyril Gueï as Timothée Glissant
 * Dominique Thomas as Ernest Tricard
 * Marie Berto as Arlette Carmouille
 * Tristan Robin as Grégoire
 * Alexandre Philip as Léon Verneuil
 * Alban Casterman as Jean Ollivier
 * Samira Mameche as Monique (as Samira Maméche)
 * Juliette Barry as Lydia
 * Eric Bleuzé as Priest
 * Eric Beauchamp as Flic Martin
 * Loïc van de Rosieren as Double of Laurence / Herbert Michel (parallel of Sir Charles Cartwright)

Filming locations

 * Église Saint-Vaast, Béthune - church where Marlene is going to get married
 * Parc du Musée, Tournai - scenes in the park. The band stand can be seen.
 * Chateau du Vert-Bois, Bondues - Richard Nobel's chateau, also likely to be the location of the performance.