Agatha Christie: Adaptation...Or Not? - The Sittaford Mystery
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- A comparison of Agatha Christie's novel, The Sittaford Mystery, to its TV adaptation.
Footage used is from:
-Hercule Poirot's Christmas
-The Sittaford Mystery
-Murder Most Foul
-Sherlock
-Knives Out
-Doctor Who: "Blink"
-The Secret of Chimneys
-The Alphabet Murders
-Mrs. McGinty's Dead
-Death in Paradise
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I love what you're doing on this channel with Christie's works, keep 'em coming!
I second this comment! It's such a unique and underrepresented topic for a channel
This is the content I needed.
👌🏻
Sittaford mystery is the very first Agatha Christie I read as a 14 year old and was completely hooked! When I saw this film version, I was terribly disappointed. And yes, the long lost murdering son was the solution in that Poirot where he spends Christmas at some man's house. The one who had made his fortune in South Africa (can't remember the title now). Anyway, this adaptation left me cold.
✨Thank you, very interesting!✨
I just listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. Some scenes sounded familiar, but it wasn't until the end that I thought the film-with-skis that I'd seen many years ago might have been based upon this book. Thank you for clearing things up. I thought naively that the films were roughly the same as the books, apart from omissions of course.
A pseudo-adaption indeed. I don't like to be misled this way. Why not give the film a different name?
I enjoyed the book story a hundred times more than the film story.
I don't know which addiction is worse, alcoholism or gambling + theft.
And I didn't see a girl/girl relationship in the film, just two friends who wanted to enjoy themselves without men for a while. But I suppose that's open to our own interpretation, which I think is nice.
I would be very appreciative if you covered Murder On The Links! When I watched the episode with David Suchet, all the comments on the video were about how surprised they were that they were able to make the main story work with so many characters changed. I believe they actually wrote OUT a twin character in the BBC adaptation. I would love to watch a deeper analysis of the episode/book!
They did write out a twin and changed Isabel (Bella) to a singer. In the book she and her twin Dulcie (who meets Hastings on a train and calls herself Cinderella) are stage acrobats, letting Dulcie prevent the attempted murder at the end by getting into a locked room from the outside. Hastings thinks her sister is an invention and fears Dulcie is the killer until Bella shows up to confess in court. The book has a neater ending, with Jack's and Bella's each self-sacrificing for the other bringing them back together and Hastings getting his Cinderella. I don't know why the Suchet series opted to portray the Hastings marriage specifically as rocky; the books are noncommittal until Curtain, in which Hastings' devotion to the dead Cinders is so essential.
The needs of television (or cinema) drama almost always require significant adaptations even when attempting to recount the story faithfully. However the insertion of Miss Marple into Christie works in which she did not appear pushes the boundaries way beyond that. Occasionally it's worked, as in _The Pale Horse._ But more often it has not and _The Sittaford Mystery_ must surely count as one of the worst examples.
One can understand why Granada and WGBH Boston in producing this series wanted to hitch it to the Miss Marple name - made all the more famous to television audiences by Joan Hickson, two decades previously. But with this you really do feel that the writer - Stephen Churchett - was determined to do anything rather than let a glimpse of Christie through. It really would have felt more honest to have commissioned a "new" Miss Marple story than butcher one that is a perfectly fine tale on it's own merits.
So I agree, this is not an adaptation. It's pastiche. And a pretty poor one at that. I rated it 4/10★ on IMDB and at least 3½ of those were for the production values.
I have been watching the most recent iteration on PBS and find them suffering when compared with the earlier Joan Hickson series. Radical changes in plot structure and sleepy direction mark these newer adaptations; I even nodded off while watching them. I agree with your comments above and hope that some day the Joan Hickson will surface.
I have very mixed feeling about about the Marple episodes not based on Marple stories. Some I really like (Pale Horse did a good job of slotting her in, probably because she fits so well into Ariadne Oliver's place) some not so much (Why Didn't they Ask Evans was a little much for me. much prefer Hugh Laurie's new miniseries).
BTW saw your reply, I'm super excited you're going to take my request and do an episode on Taken at the Flood XD
I don't thing the ending was meant to imply a gay romance, just a girls' vacation to get over crappy relationships
You're probably right about that. And I am excited to see the Hugh Laurie version!
I hated the shoe-horning in of Miss Marple into Endless Night, the whole point of Endless Night is the reduced down number of characters, which contributes to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the novel.
Much much better than Murder Us Easy, Secret of Chimneys, and Poirot's Murder on the Orient Express and Appointment With Death.
I love your Christie adaptations reviews! Thank you ❤
Brilliant cast. Lots of our favourite British actors.
This would not have worked in the first season, but the McEwan series had already played the cute trick of killer-swapping in The Body in the Library (I remember watching it and being puzzled over Mark's being given an alibi for the crucial time). I like the name-mashing in this one, though it did seem to stretch the changes a bit too far.
Great video! I think this film was one of the better ones from this series. It was very uneven in quality...
Would love to see an episode (or a couple) on films that improved Agatha Christie's originals. Personally, I think "Cat Among the Pigeons" is a good example.
Interesting idea!
its also my favourite episode of that particular series.
I largely hate adaptations as Christie's stories are so well-known, written & crafted.
Not that Christie is perfect, and some things have to be changed for the screen, but the authors being better writers overall than her is highly, highly unlikely. Some want to change the stories just to make their mark on it, it seems.
😄😅 "every other episode of Death in Paradise"
So true, now I understand why it's feels so familiar 😀
Great explanation!
Full disclosure I've read almost all of Agatha Christie's books and I've watched the television series multiple times with all of the different Miss marples but only truly touché as Perot and I don't care what they do or how they do it I enjoy them all for themselves and have a good time and just don't ask too many questions
I really loved the recentish adaptation Then there were none (Christie's original title too awkward for these times, but it's one of the nursery rhyme ones). So often Christie is made into camp, and the genuine sorrow and sinister nature of her stories neglected. This one just nailed it! Highly recommend!
Whenever an adaptation of one of Christie's non-series works has a 'first tier' detective (i.e. Poirot or Marple) shoehorned into it, it's always appalling. Christie liked occasionally to have some fun with other detectives, many of whom are delightful creations. Why can't the producers of these adaptations respect her creativity and follow suit?
the sittaford mystery is a great "pseudo"-adaptation(?) from that show and a perfect wintertime hot chocolate/blanket movie.
I like the term "pseudo-adaptation." Do you mind if I use it?
@@MysteryMiles ofcourse you can use it. thanks for your kindness.
Hmmm. I finallly watched this, and agree it is disjointed. Many of the changes I did not mind very much but thought pretty much none of them were set up to form a coherent whole.
This commentary and critique was very well presented. I agree with your opinions on.this adaptation. Even though it strayed from the book's plot I enjoyed this one. I'd give it a B minus.
Why is a "Sherlock" clip there? Just for a wink?
spoilers [don't read unless you know all Poirot & Marple, ATTWN and Mousetrap]
When I saw The Mousetrap in London, I went "this is where they got the plot of the Sittaford Mystery episode". I was flabbergasted because they're so insistent on keeping The Mousetrap solution under wraps and it had been spoiled for me by this rather mediocre piece of licensed TV.
And, that other similar ending you're hinting at there at the end, would be "Hercule Poirot's Christmas". Right? 🙂
Have you ever read Bluestone? He wrote about adaptation theory and his conclusions fit yours very well. As long as you stick to the, "emotional core," of the story, it doesn't matter what you change.
I haven't heard of him, but I'll have to check him out now!
@@MysteryMiles He's steered me through some of my very best term papers.
The ITV Marple adaptation of Why Didn't They Ask Evans. That was...a lot 😅
Also, among other things, I reckon Violet's name is a clue to whether the two girls end up together. If you know you know
Great video, great analysis! This incarnation of Miss Marple is not the best by far, wasting two great actresses (Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie). The scripts are looking for the political correctness, forgetting the mysterious correctness. Keep up the good work, each video is a delight!!
Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie are the only Miss marple that are any good
P
I enjoyed this episode up until the ending. It was unnecessary and patronizing.
Dame Agatha would be appalled by this sexist and racist modern adaptation of her work. Read the original story, much better.