Crooked House (2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crooked House is a murder mystery based on a novel by Agatha Christie. Here is some basic information about this mystery movie which premiered in 2017:

 

** Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

** Screenplay written by Julian Fellowes & Tim Rose Price

** Based on a novel by Agatha Christie

** Released on DVD in 2018

** Run time: 115 minutes

 

The cast includes the following:

 

The first group

** Christina Hendricks as Brenda

** Gillian Anderson as Magda

** Honor Kneafsey as Josephine

** Glenn Close as Lady Edith

** Stefanie Martini as Sophia de Haviland

** Julian Sands as Philip Leonides

** Amanda Abbington as Clemency Leonides

** Christian McKay as Roger Leonides

 

The second group

** Preston Nyman as Eustace Leonides

** Max Irons as Charles Hayward – a private detective

** Terence Stamp as Chief Inspector Taverner

** Jenny Galloway as the nanny

** John Hefferman as Laurence Brown – the tutor

 

I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. This is why I am not going to say too much about what happens in this mystery movie.

 

All I can say is a murder has been committed. An old man has been murdered. He was rich and ruthless. All members of his family are suspects.

 

Charles Hayward, a private detective, is invited to solve the crime. Can he do this? Who is responsible? I am not going to say more than this.

 

What do reviewers say about it?

 

Here are some results:

 

54 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

58 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

59 percent = Meta

63 percent = IMDb

 

Agatha Christie is a famous author and the cast includes several famous movie stars, but as you can see, the ratings are not impressive. They hover somewhere between three and four stars.

 

I understand why.

 

Crooked House is not one of Agatha Christie’s best novels, although it seems that she herself regarded it as one of her most successful books, and this adaption is not one of the best adaptions of a novel by Agatha Christie.

 

What is wrong?

 

Here are some answers:

 

# 1. The gallery of characters is too large. It takes forever just to present them to the audience.

# 2. The plot drags along. It is too slow, and since there are so many characters, we forget who is who and how they are related to each other.

 

In my opinion, the average rating on Meta is very appropriate. I think this mystery movie deserves a rating of three stars (60 percent).

 

PS. The novel Crooked House was first published in 1949. The story is set in 1947. In this movie the story is moved ten years forward, from 1947 to 1957.

 

This date fits with the car that Charles Hayward is driving: a Bristol 405 from 1955. But some of the records that are played on a gramophone do not fit this date:

 

The teenager Eustace plays the famous song Shakin’ All Over by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, which was released in 1960. This song was not available in 1957.

 

*****

Crooked House

A murder mystery

by Agatha Christie

(first published in 1949)

 

*****

 

The famous British author

Agatha Christie

(1890-1976)

 

*****