AllMovie

Le Coffret de Laque (Lackered Box) was based on Agatha Christie's Black Coffee, previously filmed in England in 1931. Gaston Dupray stars as Christie's insufferably brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, here depicted along more comic lines than usual. The story gets under way at a weekend house party where a scientist is murdered and his secret papers stolen. Putting his "little grey cells" in action, Poirot methodically pieces together the clues, revealing the culprit to be -- you guessed it -- the Least Likely Suspect. Sixteen-year-old Danielle Darrieux plays the traditional ingenue.