Fidelity to text: 5 blunt objects Agatha gets sole writing credit, so you know this is a line-for-line reading of the original play. Quality of movie on its own: 3 blunt objects This never came to life for me. Clarissa is supposed to be the effervescent, unbelievable, manic pixie dream girl. This Clarissa wasn’t it. […]
Fidelity to text: 3 thieves To which version? The 1923 very short story or the 1960 greatly expanded one? And there’s the date change to 1935. Whichever story you choose, the movie remains true to the spirit. Quality of movie on its own: 4 1/2 thieves A charming, clever, good old-fashioned English Christmas with romance, […]
Fidelity to text: 3 hatchet jobs It’s reasonably accurate, particularly since every word comes from Agatha’s memoirs or news reports. But the film glossed over a lot. Quality of movie on its own: 3 hatchet jobs It should have been better since there’s great story material present: romance, death, cheating, fugue states, amnesia, divorce, and […]
Fidelity to text: 3 stranglers Along with the usual changes, Hastings, Miss Lemon, and Japp show up. Miss Lemon works the best, Japp’s way out of his jurisdiction, and Hastings sort of works. Quality of movie on its own: 3 stranglers This dragged. Where was the glamor? The witty repartee? The Cole Porter soundtrack? The […]
Fidelity to real life: 2 hatchet jobs Agatha disappeared for 11 days. That’s a fact. She never discussed it so Doctor Who delivers the answer! No, this didn’t happen, but it’s far more realistic than that dreadful Vanessa Redgrave biopic. Quality of movie on its own: 5 hatchet jobs Give yourself license to laugh and […]
Fidelity to text: 2 1/2 sword canes Despite the title, most of the story came from the 1932 short story “The Mystery of the Bagdad Chest,” with elements from the 1960 rewrite novella The Mystery of the Spanish Chest, plus plot twists dreamed up by scriptwriter Anthony Horowitz. Quality of movie on its own: 4 […]
Fidelity to real life: 1 hatchet job Archie had an affair with Nancy Neele, Agatha disappeared in Harrogate for 11 days, the Christies divorced two years later, and Archie married Nancy afterwards. Everything else? Fiction. Quality of movie on its own: 1 hatchet job But only because the settings, costumes, and a period health spa […]
Fidelity to text: 2 jewel thieves A seven-page story got hugely reworked. Mood, tone, characters all got a make-over, including Poirot. He found a long-lost love and lost his moral compass. Quality of movie on its own: 2 jewel thieves They can’t all be gems. Wholesale changes often improve a nothing story into something suitable […]
This review of “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” (1980) ranks the movie in two categories. Fidelity to text: 5 cliff shoves Practically everything in the book is in the novel, other than explaining how a suspect is identified and turning a boring letter into a dramatic ending. Quality of movie on its own: 3 cliff […]
Fidelity to text: 3 rook rifles An entire rook flock of additions fluttered in, but most of them were suggested by the story itself. Quality of movie on its own: 4 1/2 rook rifles We really enjoyed this one, especially the added innkeeper. He flew in from an entirely different flock, the one that Ariadne […]