by Charles L. P. Silet

Agatha Christie's novels, short stories, and plays have proved a rich source of cinematic material from the silent movie era to the present. The first Christie feature film ever made was Die Abenteuer G.m.b.H. (Adventure INC.), a 1928 German silent movie based on her 1922 novel The Secret Adversary featuring the jazz-age sleuths Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley. A second silent film, The Passing of Mr. Quinn, was shot in Great Britain, also in 1928. This movie was based on a short story, The Coming of Mr. Quin which introduced Mr. Harley Quin, one of Christie's own favorite characters, somewhat modeled after the Harlequin figure from the commedia dell'arte theatrical tradition.

After these early beginnings Agatha Christie's characters appeared on the big screen in fairly consistent fashion: four films in the 1930s, two in the 1940s, only one in the 1950s, and then seven in the 1960s, four in the 1970s and five in the 1980s. These figures do not include the many television movies and series which have appeared over the years.

Probably the two most critically successful films based on Christie's work are And Then There Were None (the 1945 version) and Witness for the Prosecution, made in 1957 from her celebrated courtroom drama of the same name. In both ventures Christie's plots were exceedingly well served by first-rate directors, solid casts, and skillful screenwriters.

When And Then There Were None was first brought to the screen in 1945, it was directed by the celebrated French director Rene Clair, then living in Hollywood, with a script by the distinguished writer Dudley Nichols. In this clever 'country house' style mystery, ten characters are gathered on an isolated island and then murdered one by one. The international cast featured Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, C. Aubrey Smith, and Judith Anderson among others. Christie was equally fortunate when Witness for the Prosecution was filmed in 1957. Billy Wilder directed, with a screenplay by Wilder and Harry Kurnitz, and the film employed the stellar cast of Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, John Williams, and Henry Daniell with Charles Laughton playing the barrister Sir Wilfred Robarts and his real-life spouse, Elsa Lanchester, playing his nurse. Wilder's direction made good use of Laughton and Lanchester's comic turns while creating a suspenseful drama.

Of course, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are the most famous of Christie's sleuths to appear on screen, and movie audiences have been treated to a wide variety of character interpretations for both. Poirot has been played by a disparate series of actors: Austin Trevor (the original Poirot and certainly the youngest and most handsome), Tony Randall (perhaps the oddest), Albert Finney (probably the best on the large screen), and Peter Ustinov (the funniest). Miss Marple has been portrayed by Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, and in made-for-television movies by Helen Hayes. All of these accomplished actresses brought out different sides to the character. Margaret Rutherford played on her seeming distractedness; Angela Lansbury developed the rational side; and Helen Hayes accentuated her sweetness, but Rutherford's characterization was probably most beloved by audiences, perhaps both for her amusing quirkiness and for the fact that she most resembled the public's perception of Dame Agatha herself. Interestingly, Christie disliked all of these interpretations of her spinster sleuth, especially Rutherford's performances.

By all critical reckoning, however, the most gratifying portrayals of Poirot and Marple have been in the hugely popular television productions. It is unfortunate that Dame Agatha did not live long enough to witness, at last, a satisfactory realization of her characters on the screen.

Clearly, there are plenty of Agatha Christie stories yet to be filmed. Perhaps the most sought after Agatha Christie screen property is The Mousetrap, which opened in London in 1952 and is now the longest-running play in history. According to the contract given to the theatrical producers, however, no film of The Mousetrap can appear until six months after the play closes and who can say when that will be?