L'Étrange Enlèvement du petit Bruno (Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie)

L'Étrange Enlèvement du petit Bruno (The Strange Kidnapping of Little Bruno) is the 12th 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 Eric Woreth and first aired on France 2 on 26 August 2016. It is an adaptation of the Agatha Christie short story The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly.

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. This episode opens with the funeral of commissaire Laurence and the plot rewinds to events which began 8 days earlier when he was called to protect the son of famous novelist Eloïse Zennefort. Zennefort had received a strange note which stated that her son would be kidnapped at a given time and day.

Plot Summary
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) The episode opens with the funeral of commissaire Laurence attended by Marlene, Alice, Tricard and many other the police officers in Lille. The plot then rewinds to what happened eight days earlier.

Commissaire Laurence calls on the famous crime novelist Eloïse Zennefort and her husband Hadrien Debaer. They have received a series of strange notes, threatening to kidnap their son Bruno unless a ransom is paid. The notes have a motif of a headless bird and are signed by "Greg Atlas", the detective character in Eloïse's novels.

At the same time, Alice is also called to conduct an interview of Eloïse. When she arrives it turns out the call was faked. No one had called her. But Eloïse shows how erratic she is, leading Alice to conclude that she is "nuts". She gives the interview anyway, in which she tells Alice how she doesn't like motherhood at all, she is not worried about her son, doesn't intend to pay the ransom and prefers to talk about her return to her writing career, interrupted when she got married and bore her (second) son Bruno.

There are a number of interludes mainly injected for humour. Alice and Laurence clash over various things--Alice steals some evidence, tries to publish a story even though Laurence says that will only give the kidnapper what he wants--pubicity. Alice is sent off the grounds but crawls back in through a hole in the wall she found, Laurence catches her and locks her up. But Marlene springs her from jail and Alice comes back anyway, in time to see the kidnapping take place.

The kidnapping takes place much as in the original novel. Régine Bouchon, Bruno's governess walks the grounds and discovers a headless bird. She is then dismissed because she should have been with Bruno at all times. There is a final note warning that the kidnap will take place at a given time. Laurence has Bruno and Hadrien sealed up in Eloïse's study. Near the time of the kidnap, the police in the grounds catch a tramp--he's the diversion. Everyone rushes to the scene, leaving Bruno in the study. Minutes later, they see a car driving off with a boy inside. Laurence tries to chase but someone has slit his tires. Back to the study and they find that Bruno has disappeared, although there is only one door out and two policemen have been there all the time.

While wandering the grounds, Alice had earlier encountered Gaspard, a creepy boy who is Eloïse's first son from a previous marriage. He claims to hate his step-father. Alice tells Laurence and he pulls him in. Gaspard admits to the whole crime but it is soon clear he is making it all up probably to feel important.

Back to the crime scene, Laurence picks up a toy soldier's pike from the floor and finds a box of love letters to Eloïse. There's also strange inscriptions on panels on the walls, which he photographs with his minox.

The police locate Régine Bouchon who is staying at a townhouse with her sister but she has an alibi for the time of the kidnapping. Next Alice and Marlene discover that the type on the threatening notes has a deformed letter "o". This matches correspondence from the typewriter of Gilles Vanberten, Eloïse's secretary. Note only that, he was the one who wrote the love letters to Eloïse. Dr Maillol also reports that the headless bird, Laurence's tires both had been cut with a special knife. Vanberten admits he owns such a knife but had lost it. Meanwhile, the police have found the car used in the kidnapping. There's a black wig in it. Marlene finds a strand of hair in the wig. Laurence tells her to get samples of hair from all the suspects for comparison. Next Marlene, a fan of Eloïse's novels, discovers the mention of a headless bird in one of her stories. Laurence pulls Eloïse in as another suspect. He thinks she kidnapped her own son as a publicity stunt to promote her forthcoming return to a writing career.

Alice receives a note from "Greg Atlas" asking to meet her at an abandoned factory. There, a labrador dog turns up with a package in his mouth--it is a ransom demand and Alice is to publish it on the front page of her paper. This time, Eloïse agrees to pay up and Hadrien drives to a cemetery to plant the suitcase with the ransom money. Laurence and his policemen stake out the place but the kidnapper never turns up. Laurence checks the suitcase--it's empty!

Then Gilles the secretary crashes his car and dies. He lost control of the car after being stung by a wasp, triggering an allergic reaction. some of the ransom money is found in the car as are some casino chips. Laurence had earlier taken many photos of strange inscriptions on the walls of the chateau. Dr Malliol tells Laurence that these are theban letters and used by sorcerers to hide the secrets of their spells. She gives him the French transliterations. Alice, Laurence and Marlene play with the letters and try to form a word. Laurence then realises perhaps they shouldn't be thinking of words in French but in Latin. Alice says no one knows Latin it's a dead language and cheekily suggests that Laurence ask his pathologist. But Dr Malliol really does know Latin! And she forms the word "occulta sacerdo", a priest's hole. Very common in neo-gothic chateaux and that chateau is neo-gothic. There's a final "s" missing but Laurence thinks he knows where it is, and rushes off.

Meanwhile Marlene notices a face of an actor Gérard Kerner in a film magazine. It's the tramp! Alice arranges a fake interview with him with Marlene posing as a reporter. When the interview is over, Alice follows Kerner and he goes into Régine Bouchon's townhouse. He then reappears with a labrador dog. This time Alice is sure Kerner is somehow involved in the kidnapping.

Laurence steals into the chateau through the gap in the wall. In Eloïse's study, he finds a panel with the letter "s" and touches it. The bookcase swings open revealing the priest's hole. But there's someone in it--a person with a gun and wearing the mask of an ape-like monster (it's a gift to Eloïse from a fan). The masked man forces Laurence to drive to a cemetery, shoots him and then disappears.

Laurence pretends to die but fortunately, a cigarette case and a brandy flask has stopped the bullet. He gets Marlene to organise a funeral--murderers sometimes liked attend the funerals of their victims to crow over them. Partway through the proceedings, Laurence appears. Hadrien stands up! He knows it is all up and tries take Gaspard hostage but Gaspard and Laurence disarm him and he is arrested.

At the townhouse, Kerner and Régine are arrested and Bruno freed. Eloïse is there to greet her son and appears to appreciate and love him now. Laurence reconstructs the crime for all concerned. Hadrien had become bored with his marriage and had taken up gambling and had run up huge debts. Eloïse would have found out soon enough and would certainly have refused to pay up so he concocted this kidnap scheme, recruiting Kerner and Régine to assist. At the appointed time, Hadrien hid Bruno in the priest's hole until the police had gone away. Régine had been fired in the morning but crept back into the chateau through the hole in the wall and then drove off in a car wearing a black wig--the boy in the car was not Bruno but her nephew. There were two suitcases in Hadrien's car when he went to plant the ransom money. At putting the money into one, Hadrien drove to the cemetery and planted the other suitcase which was empty. But Gilles had seen the switch and tried to blackmail him. So hHadrien planted a wasp in Gilles' car which then led to his death--this last murder was also a plot element in another of Eloïse's books.

Some time later, Eloïse presents Laurence with a gift--she has gone back to writing and has wasted no time, coming out with her new book, entitled "L'étrange enlèvement du petit Bruno"! Laurence is her new detective character and Marlene is also featured as his secretary! Alice wonders if she is in the book--well, there is a mention of April showers.

Comparison with the original story
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
 * The motive for the kidnapping is different--here, it is because Hadrien Debaer had gambling debts. Alice also suggests that Hadrien might be having an affair with the nurse Régine Bouchon but this is never confirmed one way or another and plays no further role in the plot.
 * There is a motif of a headless bird, which Dr Maillol identifies as a omen according to ancient tribes in Bolivia. Marlene later identifies a headless bird as a plot element in one of Eloïse's novels. The notes threatening kidnap are signed "Greg Atlas", Eloïse's detective character. Finally, Gilles Vanberten is killed by having a wasp (whose stings he is allergic to) planted in his car. This also is a plot element in another of her novels. These are all efforts by Hadrien Debaer to incriminate Eloïse. In the original story, Waverly does not try to incriminate his wife.
 * The tramp and the nurse play a much more active role in the crime than in the original. The precise mechanism of the kidnapping is slightly different. See the article on Régine Bouchon for details. The secretary also has a larger role than in the original.
 * There is an entire sideplot devoted to a demand for ransom which is then paid. This is totally missing from the original.
 * The priest hole is discovered through cryptic inscriptions on the walls of the chateau.

Cast

 * Samuel Labarthe as Commissaire Swan Laurence
 * Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril
 * Elodie Frenck as Marlène Leroy
 * Natacha Lindinger as Dr Euphrasie Maillol
 * Dominique Thomas as Ernest Tricard
 * Valérie de Dietrich as Eloïse Zennefort
 * Fabio Zenoni as Hadrien Debaer
 * Vincent de Bouard as Gilles Vanberten
 * Victor Le Blond as Gaspard
 * Serge Dubois as Gérard Kerner
 * Marylise Doctobre as Régine Bouchon
 * James Leblanc as Bruno Zennefort
 * Dominique Thomas as Tricard
 * François Godart as Robert Jourdeuil
 * Eric Beauchamps as Flic Martin (as Eric Beauchamp)
 * Thomas Baelde as Raoul Gredin
 * Jacques Herlin as the priest
 * Marie-Pierre Feringue as the concierge
 * Domestic staff at the Zennefort chateau, all uncredited:
 * Denis Carot
 * Armande Ténier
 * Solange Masurel
 * Gabrielle Hénin
 * Edmond Touchard

Mentioned but not cast

 * Roland

Filming locations

 * Antoing Castle, Belgium - the Zennefort chateau
 * rue de la Gâité, Lille - house where Bruno is kept

Research notes

 * Dr Maillol is able to identify the type of knife used to cut up the headless bird (not clear how) as an Opinel No. 10 carbon. This was first marketed in 1955 and is an authentic period touch.
 * It is not clear if anything comes out of Marlene's mission to obtain hair samples from key suspects to compare with the hair found in the wig. But Dr Maillol comes in with a report and following that, Eloïse is arrested, so the hair might have matched Eloïse but this is not explicitly stated.