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)
Answer: He definitely says "Belgian", but the subtitles get it wrong and show him saying "American."
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