Agatha Christie on Screen (eBook)

Dr Mark Aldridge is a senior lecturer in Film and Television at Southampton Solent University, UK, specialising in film and television history. Previous publications include The Birth of British Television, also published by Palgrave Macmillan. He has been a fan of Agatha Christie since he first saw Agatha Christie’s Poirot when he was seven.                                               

Dedication 6
Foreword 7
Acknowledgements 9
Contents 11
Introduction 15
Notes 19
Part I: Finding the Agatha Christie Film Form, 1928–37 20
Chapter 1: The Silent Adventures 21
The Passing of Mr Quinn (1928) 22
Die Abenteuer GmbH [The Secret Adversary] (1929) 26
Notes 29
Chapter 2: Poirot Comes to the Silver Screen 31
Alibi (1931) 31
Black Coffee (1931) 34
Lord Edgware Dies (1934) 35
Love from a Stranger (1937) 38
Notes 42
Part II: Experiments in Television, 1937–62 45
Chapter 3: The Early Television Adaptations 46
Christie’s Early Relationship with the BBC 46
The Wasp’s Nest (1937) 49
Love from a Stranger (1938) 51
Three Blind Mice (1947) 53
1949 in Television 56
Notes 59
Chapter 4: New Prospects and Problems in Television 63
Christie on American Television in the 1950s 63
Christie on British Television in the 1950s 73
Christie on 1960s Television 77
Notes 82
Part III: Agatha Christie Films, 1945–65 86
Chapter 5: Christie Films Make an Impact 87
And Then There Were None (1945) 87
Love from a Stranger (1947) 91
Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 93
The Spider’s Web (1960) 98
Notes 100
Chapter 6: Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple 103
Murder She Said (1961) 103
Murder at the Gallop (1963) 107
Murder Most Foul (1963) 110
Murder Ahoy (1964) 111
The Alphabet Murders (1965) 113
Notes 116
Part IV: Prestige Films and Beyond, 1965–87 118
Chapter 7: A New Era on Screen 119
Endless Night (1972) 124
Murder on the Orient Express (1974) 128
Ten Little Indians (1974) 135
Notes 139
Chapter 8: Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot 144
Death on the Nile (1978) 146
Agatha (1979) 149
The Mirror Crack’d (1980) 151
Evil Under the Sun (1982) 154
Ustinov’s Poirot Moves to Television 156
Appointment with Death (1988) 162
Notes 165
Part V: Rethinking Agatha Christie Adaptations, 1979–95 167
Chapter 9: Christie Comes Back to Television 168
The Agatha Christie Hour (1982) 174
Tommy and Tuppence on Television 176
Murder by the Book and The Last Seance (1986) 181
Notes 184
Chapter 10: New Approaches 186
Murder is Easy (1982), Sparkling Cyanide (1983) and Witness for the Prosecution (1982) 187
Helen Hayes as Miss Marple 194
Ordeal by Innocence (1985) 199
The Man in the Brown Suit (1989) 205
Ten Little Indians (1989) 206
Innocent Lies (1995) 208
Notes 210
Part VI: Televising the Canon, 1984–2013 212
Chapter 11: Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple 213
The Mystery of Crooked House 215
Spider’s Web (1982) 218
The Beginnings of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1984–92) 219
Miss Marple Goes Back to the Beginning 231
Completing the Canon 236
Notes 241
Chapter 12: Agatha Christie’s Poirot 245
The Return of Poirot 253
A Change of Pace for Poirot 260
Poirot’s Hiatus and Return 267
A Change of Style for Poirot 270
Poirot’s Final Curtain 279
Notes 283
Part VII: International Adaptations 287
Chapter 13: European Adaptations 288
Germany 288
France 292
Other European Countries 298
Notes 299
Chapter 14: Adaptations in the Rest of the World 300
India 300
Russia 303
Japan 307
Notes 310
Part VIII: Remaking and Reworking, 1999– 312
Chapter 15: Christie with a Twist 313
Agatha Christie: Marple 318
McEwan Returns as Marple 322
Julia McKenzie as Marple 326
The End of Marple 329
Notes 330
Chapter 16: Looking to the Future 332
Partners in Crime 335
And Then There Were None 338
The Future 340
Notes 342
Bibliography 344
Index 346