December 14 - A Life In Pictures

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on December 14. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

A LIFE IN PICTURES            

The story is told through two sets of flashbacks. In 1962 at a party for the twentieth anniversary of her play The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie talks about herself. The second is while she is seeing a psychologist in 1927 trying to resolve her amnesia. Agatha Miller grew up in a happy home and never planned to be a writer. She dreamed about growing up and getting married. Then her father died and she worried her mother might die also. In 1912 she met Archie Christie, who was a Royal Air Force pilot. After breaking up and reuniting several times, they finally wed at Christmastime, 1914. While Archie was in combat during the war Agatha was a volunteer nurse and later became a pharmacist. After the war, the Christies had a daughter and Agatha wrote her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, basing her detective Hercule Poirot on the Belgian refugees she had met during the war. In June, 1926 her novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was her breakout work.  This period from the end of the war to the publication of this book were considered by Agatha to be her halcyon days. Then her mother died. Agatha went to clean out her house. While he was alone in London, Archie Christie started an adulterous affair with Nancy Neele, which he confessed to Agatha. Agatha left her house suddenly one evening. She crashed her car, and ended up in a spa hotel in Harrowgate, calling herself Teresa Neele. The police launched a search for her in the area where her car was found.  She is eventually recognized at the hotel. Archie goes to the hotel and identifies her on December 14, 1926 [1:08:33 to 1:11:41]. She goes through therapy and she and Archie later divorce. Agatha goes to Iraq as a guest of the famous British archeologist, Sir Leonard Wooley. There she met his assistant Max Mallowan, who she later married. For years she worked as his assistant, while writing her novels.  

An interesting biopic. However, the narrative style is a bit choppy. The use of two different ‘presents’ as the hook for the flashbacks is rather confusing at times. A straight forward approach might have worked better.

Duchess of Death by Peter Hack (Phoenix Books, Beverly Hills, CA, 2009) at pages Xxxii, 110-111 gives the date Archie arrived at the hotel

Producer – Collette Flight                   

Director – Richard Curson Smith                        

Screenplay – Richard Curson Smith                    

Runtime - 1 hour 30 minutes

Released - September 22, 2004

Starring –

Olivia Williams as adult Agatha Christie

Bonnie Wright as child Agatha Christie

Anna Massey as older Agatha Christie

Raymond Coulthard as Archie Christie

Stephen Boxer as Psychologist

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.