Teresa Reviews “Agatha and the Truth of Murder” (2018)

Teresa reviews “Agatha and the Truth of Murder” (2018) and enjoyed very much the mix of the real Agatha with a fictional murder case.

Fidelity to life: 2½ hatchets

A surprising amount of reality mixed into a Christie-esque murder mystery.

Quality of movie on its own: 4 hatchets

Much better than it had any right to be and far, far better than what I was afraid of.

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

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

There’s an amazing amount of reality mixed into “Agatha and the Truth of Murder.” Agatha did disappear for eleven days in late 1926 but she never discussed it, claiming she didn’t remember.

Virtually the entire British police force mobilized to search England for her, tying up resources needed for local law enforcement. Newspapers around the world provided panting, inflammatory coverage.

Archie was conducting an affair with his secretary, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. Agatha didn’t like golf but she knew how to play. They did have one child, Rosalind, and Agatha’s longtime secretary and friend was named Carlo Fisher. Beginning in 1930, Agatha wrote novels as Mary Westmacott, a penname she hid behind for over twenty years.

While they probably never met, Arthur Conan Doyle really did hold a séance — using one of Agatha’s gloves — seeking knowledge from the astral plane about her disappearance.

Most of all, Florence Nightingale Shore, Florence Nightingale’s goddaughter, really was bludgeoned to death in a train compartment in 1920 and her murder was never solved. She really was a highly regarded, skilled nurse who devoted her entire life to her patients, including French-African soldiers during the war. She really did have a longtime dearest companion, Mabel Rogers, who strove mightily to find out who murdered Florence.

There really were newspaper headlines about a suspicious “Man in a Brown Suit” wanted for questioning in connection with Shore’s murder. It was the biggest story of the day in 1920 and it’s so forgotten today that Shore doesn’t rate a Wikipedia page. Agatha would, naturally, have read all about it and probably had an opinion on whodunnit.

Agatha did not, however, get asked to solve Shore’s murder nor did she disappear for eleven days to do so. Even so, this little gem is much closer to her real story and character than the dreadful Vanessa Redgrave/Dustin Hoffman hatchet job.

Because of that film, I expected to hate this one; suffering through it for the sake of you, dear reader, so you don’t have to. And, I’m astonished to say, it’s a fun movie. It’s respectful to Agatha, Conan Doyle, writers in general, and it’s a functioning mystery.

I didn’t expect that either.

So let’s visit a parallel universe, much like our own. Although she’s famous for her mystery novels, Agatha’s struggling with her writing. Her marriage has collapsed but she’s holding out against Archie’s wish for a divorce. Archie’s so ready to divorce Agatha and marry Nancy the 24-year-old cookie that he’s introduced her to daughter Rosalind.

She visits Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for advice and they chat about writing over golf, including dealing with the public and writer’s block. Sir Arthur suggests she design a golf course. It would stimulate her creativity without involving detectives or writing. Desperate, Agatha does some research, gets rebuffed by a well-known golf course designer (women couldn’t possibly understand the complexity of golf courses), and designs one anyway. She builds a scale model in her office large enough to take up two dining room tables.

Archie admires the golf course model and instantly assumes that Agatha designed it as a gift for him. Naturally, it needs his improvements and oh, by the way, let’s call a truce even though he’s still divorcing her and marrying the cookie.

At about the same time, as Agatha’s ready to pull her hair out, Nurse Mabel Rogers shows up and begs for help from the famous mystery writer. It’s been six years since Nurse Rogers’ dearest friend (and lover) Florence Nightingale Shore was bludgeoned to death on the train. Scotland Yard is no closer to solving Florence’s murder than they were six years ago when she was discovered, her head bashed in and clinging to life. Nurse Rogers is at the end of her rope and desperate.

Agatha looks over Nurse Rogers’ folder and gets interested. She makes plans with Nurse Rogers and (offscreen) with Carlo, her faithful secretary. They invite the six main suspects to a remote country house to interrogate them and discover the truth as to which person bludgeoned Florence.

Why would six strangers show up at a remote country house? Because they have a chance of inheriting the mysterious Mr. Dower’s enormous fortune. He had no living relatives so the lawyers handling his estate — represented by Agatha disguised as Mary Westmacott in a severe suit and prim hair and glasses — found them, brought them together, and is interviewing them to figure out degree of consanguinity to Mr. Dower and moral fitness to inherit.

Agatha and Nurse Rogers assumed correctly with their plot. It’s amazing how cooperative people can be if they think they’ll inherit big money.

Except they don’t get six suspects. They get seven. Daphne Miller’s father, Wade, comes along for the ride. He’s a nasty piece of work and gets shot and thrown out a second-story window. His murder — possibly related to Florence’s six years ago? — means the police must be called in.

This was not a development either Agatha or Nurse Rogers wanted since there is no Mr. Dower or megabucks inheritance. Detective Inspector Dicks arrives, constable in tow, and complains vociferously about being shorthanded because virtually every policeman in England is searching for that Christie woman.

Which Agatha, isolated in the country house interviewing suspicious heirs, did not know. But it very nicely sets up why DI Dicks is stuck in the isolated country house full of suspects when he wants to escort everyone down to the stationhouse for interrogation.

There are some wonderful scenes where Agatha the writer learns that real-life murder is nothing like a book. It’s not nearly as neat or tidy. It’s not a game. The obvious suspect is often the guilty party (see the murder of Wade Miller). Unlike Agatha, DI Dicks saw through that one at once. There’s plenty of real blood, passion, and obsession involved.

You, dear reader, watching along, will be fooled along with Agatha. While it’s true that any of the six people assembled could have murdered Florence and they all had motives of one kind or another, only one murderer had the obvious brains to plan a crime that couldn’t be easily solved and courtesy of a willing, equally motivated accomplice could be in two places at once and knew Florence’s train schedule. DI Dicks is able to understand the answer very quickly when Agatha presents it. It makes you wonder why Scotland Yard didn’t except that they never had this particular suspect on their radar at all.

Respectability makes wonderful camouflage.

Agatha the detective grows in confidence. You can almost see her thinking about how she’d write future mysteries based on what’s happening around her. She’ll be able to write a strangling scene with real conviction after this!

This was fun. The mystery played fair with viewers; every clue is there onscreen. It also played fair with Agatha, making her human instead of an icon stored on a plinth in the niche in the corner.