Teresa Reviews Le Grand Alibi (2008)

Teresa reviews The Great Alibi (2008) and found it surprisingly faithful to the novel, even without Poirot.

(c)2024 by Teresa Peschel

French name: (Le Grand Alibi)

Found how? DVD with English subtitles bought online through eBay. It was hard to find with the English subtitles!

Fidelity to text: 3½ guns

Surprisingly close, even with the added murder of the movie star and removal of Poirot.

Quality of movie: 3½ guns

Another film that needed to be longer to explain Philippe’s alcoholism and how these people are related to each other.

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

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

The Hollow (1946) is one of Agatha’s lesser-known novels. Certainly, I’d never heard of it when we started the Agatha Project. After reading it, it’s one I’d recommend to anyone who wants to see how a genre country house mystery can become much, much more. It’s a complex study of love in all its forms, and how that love when it curdles, destroys.

Some of the complexity is lost in this adaptation, particularly Lucy Angkatell’s mad passion for the entailed estate Ainsworth, soon to pass out her direct line’s grasp if cousin Edward doesn’t marry quickly and produce a male heir. Here, no one cares what happens to the Pages estate. Phillipe (Edward Angkatell) may no longer be a relative, so without that family connection and inheriting the ancestral estate, his choices don’t resonate as much.

I was unsure about the connections between the Pages (Lucy and Henry Angkatell), and their guests Marthe (Midge Hardcastle), Esther (Henrietta Saversnake), Chloé (a gender-swapped David Agnkatell), Phillipe, and Pierre and Claire Collier (John and Gerda Christow). Were they related? Or were they people in Élaine Page’s guestbook, whom she invited to see how the sparks flew?

That’s why she invited actress Léa Mantovani (Veronica Cray) for the same weekend. Élaine knew she and Pierre had enjoyed an intense affair a decade ago and she wanted to see what would happen when they were in the same room again, but this time, with Pierre’s wife, Claire to witness the fireworks. That might be why she also invited Esther, since that put two of Pierre’s lovers in the same room with his unhappy wife. And herself! It’s revealed later that Élaine, too, had enjoyed Pierre’s favors along with a host of women. Considering how promiscuous he was, you can probably add Chloé to the list, but probably not Marthe.

Like in the novel, Marthe pines for Phillipe but he only has eyes for Esther, Pierre’s current and favorite (or so she claims) mistress.

Léa’s part is made larger. She gains a jealous chauffer and all-around dogsbody with whom she’s probably carrying on, when she’s not entertaining other men. To compensate, Owen (Gudgeon), the Pages’ butler gets a smaller part. He doesn’t assist the Pages in covering up the crime by hiding guns or cleaning them carefully when they’re found and replacing them so the police never find anything amiss.

Gerda got some major changes. In the novel, she’s so devoted to her husband that she believes everything he says. She refuses to believe that he, a sainted doctor, would ever cheat on her, like she’d never look at another man. This despite it being made very clear that everyone in their social circle knows her husband is a cheating dog. She’s an adoring acolyte to the point that the novel’s version of Esther sculpts her as a blind worshipper of a demigod.

But Claire? She knows her husband’s been cheating with every woman who’ll say yes. She’s angry. Resentful. When she’s on Henri’s shooting range, you wonder who she’s aiming that pistol at.

But she doesn’t do anything about Pierre’s cheating. That is, not until her late-night walk coincides with Pierre and Léa having hot sex in the pool house. That was the last straw for Claire, leading directly to Pierre’s murder.

Poor stupid Claire whom everyone pities. No one, she thinks, would suspect she’d be smart enough to use two guns, stolen from Henri’s conveniently available collection. She’d be caught with one but ballistics would prove she didn’t fire it. The fatal gun? She tossed it into the hedge for retrieval later.

But she didn’t retrieve it. Esther did. This didn’t make much sense. In the novel, everyone knew at once Gerda shot John and, because she was a relative and he had it coming, they covered up for her. Here, no one has that emotional tie to Claire. Since Pierre doesn’t beg Esther to save his wife, you’ll wonder why Esther shoved the first gun into the pool, or why she searched for, found, and hid the second gun. Why did she care? Her lover was shot dead by his wife over a third woman they both resented! Esther should have been delighted to see Claire go to the guillotine.

Interestingly, because the script made the choice to have Claire know Pierre was a lying cheat, it made sense for her to slash Léa’s throat. She’d shot her husband, so why not shoot his hot cookie? She rightly assumed that no one would suspect poor pitiful Claire.

So when Esther — who falls right into the poor pitiful Claire trap — invites Claire to her studio to give her the statue holding the fatal gun, she’s unprepared for what happens next. Claire wasn’t so stupid after all. Claire knew that Esther was another mistress. If Phillipe didn’t miraculously recover, Esther would have been a dead sculptress and Claire might have gone after Pierre’s legion of mistresses. This is in keeping with Agatha’s writing; anyone can be a murderer and each subsequent murder is easier than the previous ones.

Yet this rewrite didn’t quite work. Claire’s very angry but it doesn’t resonate the way it did in the novel. Gerda believed totally. When she was forced to face the truth, her world was shattered and her adoration turned to hate. Claire has despised her husband for years. She knew what he was long before she shot him. You don’t get a reason why she didn’t leave, other than they had kids.

Phillipe felt underwritten. Why was he having blackouts? I’ll assume it’s alcohol but I’m not sure. He’s successful enough a writer to have gotten a book or two published, yet he’s still drinking himself into a stupor? He pants after Esther, despite knowing she’s Pierre’s mistress and ignores Marthe. She remains the poor relation but why is she at the Pages’ country house? Shoe salesgirls don’t get invited to senators’ house parties unless they’ve got something to offer and drab Marthe doesn’t. Since the entailed estate no longer exists, she also doesn’t have that tie to the family.

You won’t miss Poirot. Agatha never wanted him in this novel. In her autobiography, she thought adding him spoiled the story, although I would disagree. He worked. She had her way with the play, but then she always removed Poirot from plays rather than be subjected to some hack portraying him onstage.

Here, Poirot’s part is split between Lt. Grange, the local inspector, and Phillipe, our struggling writer. Like Lt. Grange, he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing. Poor pitiful Claire was holding the gun but then that wasn’t the right gun? Where is the right gun? Who would hide it when no one in that house party had any reason to protect anyone? He gets sidetracked by Léa and … ends up in bed with her? That’s what Léa said, making him a suspect in her murder, but was it true? It didn’t seem that way because Phillipe ended up at Marthe’s. If they didn’t, then why did Léa lie?

This should have been longer. I enjoyed it, but it could have been better, tighter, more in line with the novel’s exploration of all the ways love can go sour and how wonderful it is when it doesn’t.