I'd classify myself as a mild Agatha Christie fan. I read some of her books when I was young and I've seen many of the films based on her books although I've never watched the Marple or Poirot BBC series. In the end, I realize I'm not a huge fan of ensemble pieces. I like them well enough but they can become a bit taxing, you know. So many characters to remember. So much drama.
With that said, I did attend a murder mystery party not long ago, hosted by the awesome Kristin. It's pretty much a Christie ensemble murder story with lots of booze. This was great fun topped off by the fact that my randomly-chosen character was the co-murderer with Beth's randomly-chosen character! Art imitating life? Well, not unless the victim is a bottle of champagne. In that case, lock us up - we're serial killers!
Can you tell we are all trying to stay in character for the photo?
Agatha Christie led a pretty interesting life - her family believed her mother had "second sight" and was psychic, she had a rather bohemian childhood and traveled a great deal which became the basis of many of her stories. She divorced Colonel Christie in the late 1920's after he confessed to being in love with another woman. This is when she famously went missing and lost her memories for 10 days. I'd LOVE to know what really happened - she was famous enough at this point that there was a country-wide search for her - but she always maintained she had no recollection of what happened before turning up in a Harrogate hotel. Fascinating. My favorite bit of trivia about this is that Arthur Conan Doyle gave one of Christie's gloves to a "spirit medium" to help find her. Like the spirit medium was a bloodhound or something. Nice, dude.
Here is how my Agatha Christie journey progressed:
Three-ish weeks ago:
Murder on the Orient Express - released in 2017
I felt like watching a movie one Friday night and this was in the Amazon Prime lineup, so I chose it.
If I were to rename it, I'd call it Mustache on the Orient Express because:
Hercule Poirot being overtaken by his facial hair.
I'm having a deja vu moment about this film. I feel like I've either written about it before or written about Kenneth Branagh before (well, I did in my Harry Potter post ages ago) but maybe it's just because after I see a film he is in, all I think about is how much he must love himself and what a dope he was to leave Emma Thompson.
In all seriousness, he's a good director and a good actor. I generally enjoy his films and this is no exception although IMHO his best film was Dead Again. The cast was great - Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odum, Jr, Olivia Colman, Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Josh Gad...so many that hardly anyone got much screen time. Another drawback of ensemble casts.
Branagh plays Poirot, who is a complete egomaniac but really good at his job, so I feel like with the exception of his fake French accent and that atrocious mustache he's pretty much playing himself.
(My drink pairing for this is a glass of Raki - Turkey's version of Ouzo. Don't breathe near any flames!!)
Last Sunday, 3pm:
Doctor Who, Season 4 Ep 7 "The Unicorn and the Wasp"
I had just finished listening to a really great book - Kate Atkinson's Life After Life - and as I was researching the reader (who I enjoyed very much) I found out she played Agatha Christie in a Doctor Who episode. I kind of remembered it, but decided to watch it again.
It's a really fun episode that takes place right before she goes missing so she hadn't written many of her books yet and she certainly didn't know that she would become the best-selling author of all time. There are a ton of subtle and not-so-subtle references to her characters and books which are fun to identify.
It has an ensemble cast (that very much mirrors Clue, actually) but it also has a giant alien wasp, so it's all good.
(My drink pairing for this is a Bee's Knees. A 1920's based cocktail made with gin and honey. Delightful and sting-y!)
The TARDIS makes an appearance.
Last Sunday, 7pm:
Crooked House - released in 2017
After watching some more Doctor Who, I decided (again) that I was in a movie mood. Crooked House looked interesting and I didn't realize it was based on a Christie novel until I read the description on Amazon.
Our protagonist is a PI named Charles Hayward so we aren't getting the Christie usual detectives (Poirot or Marple). Charles is younger and previously had an affair with the woman who hired him. This makes it a bit more "noir" to me and a bit seedier than I expect from Agatha.
Anyway, it's about a fucked up family so...guess what...ensemble cast. This has Glen Close, Terence Stamp, Christina Hendricks and Gillian Anderson to name a few.
A note on Gillian - in the ensuing years since X-Files, Gillian Anderson has lost weight and gained acting chops (she was great in American Gods). She also, oddly, has gained a permanent British accent, a-la Madonna. I looked it up (because seriously!) and apparently she lived in England for a bit when she was young so now she has an accent that "changes depending on who she's talking to".
Is there an eye roll emoji? Oh yes, there is! 
(My drink pairing for this is whatever your favorite HOUSE cocktail is...get what I did there??)
My takeaways:
#1 - Maybe my favorite ensemble film is Murder by Death.
#2 - Did anyone know that Agatha Christie wrote "romances" under a pseudonym? According to her daughter, while they are all about love in one form or another, they are not traditional romances because none have a happy ending.
xoxo...hashtagSueslife
