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.
