A tale of two Christies

Detectives, murders and mysteries make for compelling cinema

Towards the end of 2017 a lavish, star-studded adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel released with much fanfare. Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot, the cast of Murder On The Orient Express also included Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe and Judi Dench, amongst many others. While Branagh’s elegant steam engine huffed and puffed its way through the Alps and told a well-known tale in an old fashioned manner, a far superior Christie adaptation twinkled on to screens the world over around the same time.

While the Branagh film was set in 1934, Crooked House , Christie’s 1949 novel, is set in 1947. French filmmaker Gilles Paquet-Brenner ( Pretty Things, Dark Places ) resets the action in the late 1950s when London was just beginning to swing. The protagonist is private detective Charles Hayward (Max Irons), a former diplomat whose ex-girlfriend Sophia Leonides (Stefanie Martini) asks him to investigate the death of her billionaire grandfather. This leads Hayward to the titular crooked house in the countryside where the denizens are a nasty bunch of entitled people. One of the chief pleasures of Crooked House is that Hayward is not a gifted and subtle detective like Poirot. His blunt and sometimes flailing ways are an effective way for the audience to feel part of the investigation and get to know the antagonists, for, almost everyone here is an antagonist. Though the cast may not be as stellar as on the Orient Express, there is enough wattage to dazzle. It includes Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Julian Sands, Terence Stamp, Christina Hendricks and Amada Abbington, each of them clearly relishing their roles.

What makes

Crooked House immeasurably superior to several Christie adaptations is the writing. The writing team led by Julian Fellowes adds to Christie’s complex novel (one she rated as one of her best) with some fine detailing and zingy dialogue. Fellowes is no stranger to murder in a country house, having written the masterpiece that is

Gosford Park (2001). He is also a well-known chronicler of the English upper classes with the series

Downton Abbey and the novels

Snobs, Past Imperfect and

Belgravia.

While Branagh chose to go grand for his Orient Express, Paquet-Brenner opts for the atmospheric and clearly has great fun with it. Each person or family in the house has a separate suite of rooms and production designer Simon Bowles gives each of these a distinct look, tailored to suit the characters’ personalities. The identity of the murderer, for those who don’t remember the book, is a shocker, but a pleasing one nevertheless.

The Agatha Christie revival began with And Then There Were None on the BBC in 2015. There are seven more television adaptations due. The first one, Ordeal By Innocence , was supposed to air over Christmas, but has been shelved because its star Ed Westwick faces sexual assault charges. Ben Affleck is developing a film adaptation of The Witness For The Prosecution . And at the end of Murder On The Orient Express , it is teased that Poirot will be back with A Death On The Nile .