Teresa Reviews Riddle of the Cheap Flat (2005)

Teresa reviews Riddle of the Cheap Flat (2005) and thought they neatly inserted Maybelle and her quest to be a detective into the story.

(c)2025 by Teresa Peschel

Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.

Also, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movie on her podcast.

Fidelity to text: 3 spies

The plot must make room for Maybelle to revamp her life, starting with a visit to her great aunt, Miss Marple.

Quality of movie: 3 spies

More telling instead of showing gives room to accommodate Maybelle’s bid for independence.

Like the 1990 Poirot episode, all references to Japanese spies stealing submarine plans were removed.

The second episode continues Maybelle’s quest to become a private detective. She flees her boarding school and heads to St. Mary Mead to visit her dear great aunt, Miss Jane Marple. Miss Marple gives Maybelle advice and encouragement so she heads to London to hit up Poirot for a job. How? Maybe by finding lost pets, she says.

He refuses. A 16-year-old girl in this dangerous line of work? He turns her away. Maybelle refuses to give up but London turns out to not be as easy to handle as she thought. She’s rudely turned away by the landlady at the cheap flat. Worse, she sees another couple immediately and warmly accepted for no reason she can tell.
Luckily, she and Oliver meet Hastings in the park. He’s willing to listen to her tale of woe and finds the flat story odd. She ends up sleeping in the hallway outside Poirot’s door, to be discovered by Miss Lemon in the morning.

Meanwhile, Poirot has become interested in the cheap flat because he knows something we don’t. Vital naval plans had been stolen in Washington by a known spy and adventuress. A man with Mafia ties was murdered. Could there be a connection between the suspiciously cheap flat, the Robinsons, and the stolen plans? Poirot rents a flat in the building to see who visits the apartment. Maybelle offers to take part in the stakeout. She can keep watch while Hastings sleeps, so Poirot agrees. Oliver proves his worth­iness as a sidekick and quacks the alarm. Poirot and Hastings arrives in time to thwart a Mafia assassination attempt.

Afterwards, Maybelle moves in with Miss Lemon and gets her first case: finding a lost dog.