Anjaly Chacko
17/PELA/034
Clues from Novel to Screen in the Novel Agatha Christie’s
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
Agatha Christie is considered as the Queen of Crime all over the world. Agatha Christie’s novels are related to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. An intelligent and famous investigator, Hercule Poirot is the major character in these Detective stories. Poirot is a French private who is world renown for solving some of the puzzling mysteries. Several films and television adaptations of Christie’s books have been made and several actors have been cast as Hercule Poirot. Starting in 1989, the series of Hercule Poirot produced a total of 70 episodes and its final production, the adaptation of Curtain, was broadcast on November 2013 (IMDB). Fans of the detective genre will agree that clues are a vital aspect of a good detective story. This essay will focus on the adaptation of clues from novel to screen, concentrating on Christie’s novel Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case and the corresponding episodes from the ITV’s series Agatha Christie’s Poirot. The typical detective story generally consists of two key elements: a murder and an investigation. The murder itself is not visible in the novel, it always occurs offstage. Readers know that a murder has been committed because they are confronted with a corpse. The detective
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In his essay “The Typology of Detective Fiction”, Todorov argues that a whodunit essentially contains two stories: “the first – the story of the crime - tells ‘what really happened’, whereas the
A case study of Phryne Fisher from “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” as shown on the Australian Broadcasting Company. Phryne Fisher is a private citizen who returns to Australia from travelling around the world to ensure that her sister’s murderer is not released from prison. Her broad world-view from her travels and intuition gives her insight into helping the local constabulary in solving murders in 1920’s Melbourne. Miss Fisher is an example of a “Private Citizen” crime fighter combined with aspects of a “Private Investigator.”
In the story, Eleanor Abbott invites a total of twelve detectives and
The commencement of the seven days. This all began to be something when a man named Travis Boyette a convicted serial rapist who is responsible for the death of Nicole, finds himself guilty and decides to make his way to the priest for a confession on the first day of this week. Knowing that likely he would be going back to jail and given himself the death penalty. Though he knew this didn’t matter because he was already diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of an egg that was at stage four. Meaning he had no hope.
These fictionalized accounts of a criminal investigation are provided to the public with the intention of gaining financial rewards through the mass production and consumption of entertainment. In appealing to this entertainment factor a myriad of components are considered in the development of crime films and literature. In Old City Hall, Rotenberg’s inclusion of multiple perspectives allows the readers to follow the thought process of the different components that make up the criminal justice system, including legal counsel, police officers, judges, forensic analysists and witnesses. For instance, Rotenberg mentions the techniques often used by both lawyers and detectives in carefully phrasing questions to get a response from a witness or suspect. “He knew what impressed judges and juries most was not a witness who simply read from the notebook, but one who genuinely tried to remember what it was he had seen and heard and felt” (Rotenberg, 2009, p. 247).
The hunt for the Clutters’ killers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, mesmerized the nation and left a lasting impact in Kansas, drawing journalists from across the country to the rural outpost on the Kansas prairie (Huffington Post). An unremarkable New York Times article, which was considerably small and short, at approximately 300 words, grabbed viewers and drew the audience. The column reported the Clutter family murder in the tiny farm town of Holcomb, Kansas on the Great Plains. “Popular headlines surrounding the Clutter family murders were often along the lines of ‘Wealthy Farmer, 3 Of Family Slain” with a photo of Herb Clutter which left residents in shock and dismay that a horrific crime marred the serene and presumably safe landscapes
In Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None there are at least two of the twenty rules from “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” by Van Dine used. These two rules being “The culprit must turn out to be a person who has played a more or less prominent part in the story — that is, a person with whom the reader is familiar and in whom he takes an interest” (Van Dine) and “No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed on the reader other than those played legitimately by the criminal on the detective himself” (Van Dine) In And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie One of the many rules from “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” by Van Dine shown is “The culprit must turn out to be a person who has played a more or less prominent part in the story. . .” (Van Dine).
Alfred Hitchcock successfully performs suspense and shock in a number of ways. One way was when he reveals that the cop is following her, making us think that he found out concerning the money she stole. Another way is when we see Norman staring through the hole, examining her as if he is waiting to make his move. The last technique that Hitchcock constructed suspense is when we identify a shadowy character gazing at her take a shower, making us wonder who it could
A crime that reaches Sherlock Holmes is not just a broken law, but a mystery. Trivia locates patterns to form functional solutions, while Doyle creates a world of disguises, drugs, and intrigue, in which the answer is never the obvious or expected. The facts presented are not the definite, or even likely, conclusion. This is apparent in the story’s mystery, in which the wife of Neville St. Clair witnessed what appeared to be her husband’s murder, leading to the arrest of a beggar, Hugh Boone, who was found at the scene of the crime. However, Sherlock Holmes deduces that Boone and St. Clair are the same man, revealing that St. Clair had been commuting to the city to beg rather than work and had allowed his own arrest to protect his ruse.
Witness for the Prosecution “The ultimate mystery is one’s own self” (Sammy Davis Jr.). Mysteries have an allure that keep audiences intrigued and engaged on what will happen next. “Witness for the prosecution”, originally written by Agatha Christie, is no different in the sense that both the short story and visual adaption keep the audience on the edge of their seat as the apprehensive story unfolds. Although the storyline for the short story and movie adaptions both follow the same repertoire, there are a vast number of significant differences that keep the audience entertained and in suspense of what is to come next.
Chandler produces the classic detective novel through his use of conniving criminals, corrupt police, and characters that are slighted by the actions of those in their lives. The novels chief detective, Philip Marlowe, is unable to eliminate every criminal that crosses his path, much to his dismay. Although most of the offenders are apparent from the beginning of the novel, some are not revealed until towards the end. Consider mob boss Eddie Mars; well known by the police officers, along with his hitman Canino, yet no one seems to do anything about it. The absence of action is not a result of ineptitude; it is merely from the mob having control over everything, spanning from bootlegging to covering up murders.
These mystery stories are apart from the reality. The Realists, unlike the Intuitionists, presents the text as realistic as possible, Dorothy L. Sayers, an English author is one of the most famous writers of this sub-genre and wrote ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ and another eleven novels and two sets of the short stories. The Realist works with the physical evidence such as footprints, bullet holes, and other forensic or measurable evidence, however, the Intuitionists with the exercise of minds. Therefore, Crime Fiction is not static, each of these sub-genres within The Golden Age holds its basic conventions of the establishment.
Murder in Final-Pall Manor Lord and Lady Mortuary lived all their married lives in Final-Pall Manor until someone violently ended his life at 75 by pushing him off his own balcony. He was a pompous man who made several enemies in his little village in Essex. He was never very close to his family and he disagreed with many of his servants too. So why was he killed in such an impulsive way?
Hitchcock creates the “big” suspense in the film. Let the audience guess when the other will discover the murders and watch the murders how to hide their crime during the time of the party. While Mrs. Wilson is tidying up the “table”, a scene keeps showing a chest on the left-hand side. After that, Mrs. Wilson wants to put the books back to the chest after she has tidied up. Hitchcock designs, these settings in the sequence to increase the tension between the chest and Mrs. Wilson.
It is tradition of the genre to have an uncommonly smart detective as protagonist, alongside a mediocre partner who often articulates the mystery. It is made apparent to the readers that the narrator possesses no significant intellect, as in the Murders in the Rue Morgue, when asked his opinion on the murders; he says “I could merely agree with all Paris in considering them an insoluble mystery. I saw no means by which it would be possible to trace the
H. Auden, in an essay The Guilty Vicarage, describes how the detective novels depict not just one guilty criminal, but, by putting the of suspicion on each and every member of the closed society, marks each and every member as such. The detective, by identifying the criminal and purging them from the society absolves the guilt of the entire society. According to Auden, the detective absolves not just the suspects of their guilt, but provides the same absolution/salvation to the readers of detective fiction also. Auden thus, points out some of the more unwitting functions of detective fiction, that is, to work as a literary embodiment of a mechanism which assumes everybody to be guilty and thereby the need of subjecting all to confession. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, once the confessions from all major characters is extracted, the most significant of all confessions still remains -- that of the murderer.