Reviews by Eric Hillis
Screen adaptations of Agatha Christie's mysteries have never gone out of fashion, but in the 1970s and early '80s the author hit the big screen in a quartet of lavish adaptations with all-star casts. Studiocanal has collected all four movies in their 4K UHD/bluray boxset 'The Agatha Christie Collection', all newly restored. The host of extras includes a mix of new and archive material including feature commentaries, interviews, documentaries and making-of featurettes. The boxset comes with a 64-page booklet and four posters featuring new artwork for each movie. Given the talent involved, this set should appeal to fans of both Christie and classic Hollywood stars.
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
With its all-star ensemble, 1974's Murder on the Orient Express set the template for big budget Agatha Christie adaptations. It's directed by no less a luminary than Sidney Lumet (bringing his regular leading man Sean Connery on board), with a script by Goldfinger and Planet of the Apes scribe Paul Dehn.
After some epic shots of Istanbul and introducing its roster of European aristocrats and vulgar Americans by having them sashay down a train platform as though they're on a Milan catwalk, the film settles into a chamber piece aboard the luxury choo choo.
When a wealthy American mogul (Richard Widmark) is stabbed to death in the middle of the night, ace detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) agrees to investigate. With the train snowbound, Poirot grills the passengers, leading to one of the greatest twists in mystery fiction.
Finney's Poirot is an exaggerated cartoonish figure, while everyone else on board plays it straight. This gives the film the feel of a reverse Muppet movie. Indeed, there are some meta jokes that wouldn't be out of place in such a film, like Poirot revealing that he was kept awake by Anthony Perkins' character screaming "Mother!" in his sleep.
For the most part, it's a straightforward Christie adaptation. As a thriller, it doesn't really work because there's never any threat to anyone else's life after the initial murder. The bulk of the narrative sees Poirot interview the various suspects one by one, which makes it a little repetitive. But the movie is enlivened by a game cast, all of whom understand the task at hand, and Lumet continually finds compelling ways to stage and block the drama despite its confined setting.
Death on the Nile (1978)
Fresh off his derided King Kong remake, director John Guillermin may seem like a downgrade on Sidney Lumet, but his looser take on Christie is more entertaining than Lumet's stiffer adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. He's helped greatly by Peter Ustinov, a more natural fit for Poirot than Albert Finney. The all-star cast leans into camp here, which helps to make the 2 hrs 20 mins run time fly by.
As was the standard with '70s ensemble blockbusters, the cast mixes Old Hollywood stars (David Niven, Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury) with rising talent (Mia Farrow, Jane Birkin, Olivia Hussey). They all pile aboard a crowded steamer for a trip down the world's most famous river, only for the getaway to be disrupted by the murder of rich American heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles). Everyone has a possible motive, though some are rather spurious, and Poirot takes it upon himself to solve the case before hitting dock.
You can feel the influence of TV's Columbo here, with Ustinov's Poirot an affable, avuncular figure who lets the suspects believe he's a little dumber than he really is. Niven's Colonel Johnnie Race becomes a Dr. Watson to Ustinov's Poirot, and the two Brits have a charming buddy chemistry. Elsewhere we have the dream bitchy team-up of Davis and Maggie Smith as a rich old coot and her young assistant. Adding well cooked ham to the dish are Lansbury as a drunk author of steamy romance novels and Jack Warden as a controversial German doctor.
Orient Express suffered from a lack of threat after the initial murder, but here we have multiple characters being bumped off, and crucially Poirot is himself targeted. The movie is surprisingly bloody, and one particular killing is especially shocking (and ironic, given the actor involved). Rather than simply filming talking heads in Poirot's interrogations, Guillermin stages both flashbacks and depictions of the detective's theories, which keeps the plot from growing repetitive.
The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
After trips across the Balkans and North Africa, it's back to Blighty for this adaptation of Christie's 1962 novel 'The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side'. Regular James Bond director Guy Hamilton might seem an odd choice to helm a drawing room mystery set in a cosy English village, but he's wise enough to let his ensemble cast take centre stage.
The movie's highlight is its meta opening, in which a pitch perfect recreation of a black and white 1940s murder mystery is revealed to be a film playing at the local church hall in St Mary's Mead. When the film unspools, local busybody Miss Marple (Angela Lansbury) provides her elaborate theory as to who committed the murder at the centre of its plot.
Homicide comes to the village when a young local woman has her drink poisoned at a party thrown by the Hollywood film crew shooting on location in a country manor. It soon becomes clear that the wrong woman died, with the intended target being Marina Gregg (Elizabeth Taylor), a troubled actress coming out of retirement for one last shot at an Oscar hat trick. While everyone's a suspect, nobody seems to have any substantial motive.
Lansbury's performance as Marple caught the attention of the creators of Murder She Wrote, but the filmmakers didn't appear to recognise her value here. With Marple stuck at home with a leg injury for most of the movie, the investigation is instead conducted by her nephew, Scotland Yard Inspector Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox). Watching the wooden Fox interact with the likes of Taylor, Tony Curtis, Geraldine Chaplin, Rock Hudson and Kim Novak, we're left to wonder how much more entertaining the movie might be with Lansbury in his place.
The best scenes are those that feature a Miss Piggy-channelling Novak trading catty barbs with Taylor, and the two actresses are gifted some zingers courtesy of Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler's witty script. Christie's novel was inspired by a real life incident in the life of actress Gene Tierney.
Evil Under the Sun (1982)
This 1982 adaptation of Christie's 1941 novel may not quite have the starry cast of its predecessors, but it's an impressive ensemble nonetheless. Peter Ustinov makes a welcome return as Poirot, who finds himself chasing an insurance scam on a secluded island in the fictional kingdom of Tyrania. While there he is unsurprisingly caught up in a murder, and as is his way, agrees to solve the case before involving the authorities to spare the blushes of the island's hotel owner (Maggie Smith).
As Poirot questions the suspects, it seems they all have a credible alibi. Much of the fun comes from Smith's desperation to wrap up the case as soon as possible, which sees her come up with wild theories that might conveniently implicate her less welcome guests. As with Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak in the previous movie, Smith and Diana Rigg provide some of the highlights with their bitchy catfighting. Rigg is so good as a vamp here that it's a surprise she didn't go on to follow Joan Collins in joining the cast of one of the decade's hugely popular evening soap operas.
After her unconvincing turn in 1978's Death on the Nile, Jane Birkin shows she has improved as an actress in the ensuing four years. Here she's given a bigger role, one which essentially sees her play two parts, and she's surprisingly good. Elsewhere Roddy McDowall camps it up as Smith's gay bestie and James Mason is his uniquely stoic self as a suspect who seems to revel in trying to implicate himself.
Ustinov would reprise the role with diminishing returns in another four movies, but this is his peak Poirot performance. Watching him explain how the murder was pulled off and by whom makes for a thrilling climax, thanks to the actor's legendary skills as an orator, while returning director Guy Hamilton does a good job of visualising Poirot's theories.
The Agatha Christie Collection is on 4K UHD/bluray from November 24th. All four films will also be released individually on the same date.