A Christie Compendium: Crooked House & Murder on the Orient Express

So nothing says Christmas like a Agatha Christie adaptation. We had the sumptious And Then There Were None and Witness to the Prosecution. This year we have two cinematic offerings oen shown in the cinema and one put on to channel 5. Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express and Paquet-Brenner's Crooked House. Let's have a quick look and review of both of them shall we.

ABANDON ALL HOPE ALL YE WHO WANT NO SPOILERS HERE

It's no surprise that these two films are based off two of Christie's more interesting ending books. Both of them have an interesting culprit to the murder. So I'm gonna give it a bit of a breakdown. 

THE STORIES

Murder on the Orient Express 

Well I bet the title gives it away. Whilst abroad Poirot (Branagh) gets a ticket to go on the luxurious Orient Express by his friend Mr Bouc (Tom Bateman). Only once on board a gangster (Johnny Depp) is murdered. But it seems like no one could have done it.

Crooked House

This one is a little different. A Patriarch of a wealth family (Gianno Picciano) is murdered and it looks like his ex showgirl second wife Brenda (Christina Hendricks) is to blame. However the whole bizarre family locked in the house under the patriarchs thumb all seem uniquely guilty. It's up to PI Charles Hayward (Max Irons) on instruction from one of the family members to solve the case before it hits the press and rips the family further apart.

THE ENSEMBLE

If there is one thing Christie loved to write it was an ensemble of interesting people to serve as suspects. This makes the books easy to adapt and very easy to get a all star cast as almost everyone gets a go of being just a wee bit nasty.  In Murder on the Orient Express they are confined on the train all of them a very different almost stereotypical character. We have a governess, an accountant, a wealthy aristocrat, a drugged up rich couple, a maid, etc. All of whom played by incredibly famous actors including Daisy Ridley, Dame Judi Dench, Michelle Pfiefer, Olivia Coleman and Josh Gad among others. 

In Crooked House we have a similar confined situation in this case a maze like house filled with nooks and crannies and stuffed to the gills with secrets.  There are several sects of family all vying for attention all of whom uniquely placed in the story to seem evil. We have Amanda Abbingdon as Clemency, a matter of fact botanist. Gillian Anderson eating the screen as an actress past her prime and a woman always putting on an act. Of course the Matriarch of the house is the brilliant Glenn Close as Aunt Edith a gun toting strong woman who steals the screen everytime she turns up.

THE MOTIVES

See this is where I warned for spoilers once again click away now if you don't want to know!!

Crooked House is renowned for its twist and it's possibly the reason it was never adapted sooner. It's nasty brutal and truly scary twist. That it's none of the adults at all it's precocious detective obsessed Josephine. the little girl that said she was Holmes and Hayward was her Watson was the murderer all along all because her Grandfather wouldn't allow her ballet lessons. In fact every horror that befell the house afterwards was her. The adorable child is the psychopath.

The motives for Murder on the Orient Express are a little more standard The Gangster kidnapped murdered a little girl. Thus inspiring the wrath of everyone to the point that they orchestrated the train  to be just them and him to kill him.

THE FINALES

Murder on the Orient Express ends in a way that pulls at the detectives morality and at ours. He decides to let them all go deciding they are already damaged enough. It's best to let the whole thing lie. He leaves disappointed only to be stopped at the station to be told he has to go to Egypt quickly because theres been a death...on the nile!!

Crooked House doesn't have that levity sadly. Aunt Edith is dying and has worked out what Josephine has done so drives the car with the both of them in it into the quarry. Josephine screams as she works out what her fate is going to be, She is suddenly a scared child and it's impossible to see her as the psychopath we know she is . Hayward and Sophie arrive too late to stop it and watch as the car goes up in flames. It's a bleak and horrific ending to a really twisted film.

Both of them are brilliant adaptations. Filled with Christie trademark quirks and beautifully tight plots. I reccomend you watch both because I don't want to choose!!!