La Maison du péril (Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie)

La Maison du péril (The house of peril) is the 4th episode of season 1 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 6 November 2009. It is an adaptation of the novel Peril at End House.

Synopsis
July 1936. A magnificent family house located on the edge of a huge beach. Jo, a young stylist with devastating charm, who turns the heads of all men, has gathered friends and family for the summer. Jo is the target of a mysterious killer. After having escaped several attempted murders, she begs Commissioner Larosière to protect her. Larosière falls madly in love with the young woman and for once, loses all her means. Lampion, meanwhile, was hired as a servant at Jo's. But the killer redoubles his daring and, during the fireworks of July 14, Jo's cousin receives a bullet in full heart, by mistake ...

Comparison with the original story
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
 * The basic premise of the original novel is retained. Josephine plots to kill her cousin and makes it look like she herself is the intended victim. Just like in the original where Nick Buckley specifically targets Poirot as an "expert witness", Josephine here targets Larosière.
 * The setting is changed to a country house in the north of France.
 * The fake murder attempts staged by Josephine are different in this adaptation. In this episode the first incident is a falling wall lamp that almost crushed Josephine instead of a bullet hole in Nick's hat from the original novel. A second incident is a poisoned cup of milk. There is no brake failure although Josephine does drive a fancy car.
 * Of the main characters, Paul Lazare is fairly similar to Jim Lazarus in the original. George Challenger might be equated to Simon Liebman. There is no sideplot of drug smuggling here. There is also Abel, Josephine's brother who is an amateur photographer. Suzanne is another houseguest, a friend of Abel. She can be considered a parallel of Freddie Rice but there is a significant difference here as Josephine dislikes her. There is no sideplot of Suzanne's ex-husband.
 * Some characters are eliminated, like garden William Wilson that has no parallel. Here Ellen Wilson (here, Madeleine) has a son Maurice who is much older than the original ten year old Alfred Wilson. There is also no Mr and Mrs Croft sideplot.
 * The motive for the killings is slightly altered. Eleonore, the cousin, is wealthy in her own right. She had been financing Josephine and Abel's activities but was going to stop. However she did have a will which left a large sum to Josephine. Eleonore is secretly pregnant with the baby of the pilot Guillaume Saint-Langis. He is about to divorce his wife to marry Eleonore. In this adaptation, the pilot does not die. He is still married, and he did not make a will to benefit Eleonore. The entire plot device of exploiting a similarity between the names of the killer and the cousin to inherit from the pilot's will is missing here.
 * Here Madeleine's son Maurice is responsible for the murders of Suzanne and Eleonore, but the mastermind behind the crimes is Josephine. Maurice is later is shot to death, and Josephine commits suicide by jumping off a cliff instead of a cocaine overdose.
 * Josephine is sent to a convent (as opposed to a nursing home) but there is no attempt on her life there.
 * There is no plot device of a seance or a secret compartment with a gun in it. Josephine does not fake a death here as part of a plan to expose the killer.
 * The plot device of a shawl is used and it is red here as well. Josephine does lend Eleonore her shawl, leading people to think that she was the intended target.

Cast
Mentioned
 * Antoine Duléry as Larosière
 * Marius Colucci as Èmile Lampion
 * Elsa Kikoine as Joséphine de Vilmarais
 * Gilian Petrovski as Abel de Vilmarais
 * Juliette Coulon as Suzanne
 * Éric Naggar as Paul Lazar
 * Josiane Lévêque as Madeleine
 * Clémentine Poidatz as Eléonore
 * Stefan Kollmuss as Simon Liebman
 * Julien Lucas as Maurice
 * Édith Le Merdy as owner of Kiki
 * Laure Sirieix as Madame de Saint-Langis
 * Gérard Pinteau as Maître Bouisset
 * François Godart as forensic pathologist
 * Alexandre Carrière as Louis
 * Michel Masiero as Inspector with Lampion at the convent
 * Damien Deltour as policeman on guard
 * Emmanuel Rausenberger as policeman at the police station
 * Mathilde Braure as nun
 * Bruno Tuchszer as bald man
 * Pascale Pouzadoux as hotel receptionist
 * Antonine Ray as Lucienne
 * Sandrine Delye as Lampion's landlady
 * Uncredited actor as Guillaume de Saint-Langis
 * Théophile de Vilmarais

Filming locations

 * Ault - the cliffs.
 * Le Crotoy - Larosière opening beach scene. The Hotel les Tourelles can be seen in the background.
 * Le Crotoy station, with the Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme steam train - arrival of Lampion.
 * Cayeux-sur-Mer - scene/location unidentified.
 * Quend - likely to be the beach where Larosière meets Josephine and her house guests.
 * Chateau du Vert Bois, Bondues - where Larosière meets Madame Saint-Langis.
 * Hopital Marguerite de Flandres, Seclin - police firefight with Maurice
 * Ponthoile
 * Rue
 * Berck-sur-Mer
 * Douvrin
 * Cobrieux
 * Genech
 * Parc du Marquenterre

Trivia
One of the minor characters of this adaptation was played by Francois Godart, who plays Jourdeuil throughout most of the episodes of the second season of Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.