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Adaptations (part 1)
280 Plays1 year ago
Mystery is one of the most popular genres of screen adaptations, with Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle providing the source material for many of them. However, there are many other adaptations to enjoy, and in this episode, Brook and Sarah discuss the different formats that mystery adaptations can take.
Correction: Brook refers to Matthew Pritchard as Agatha Christie's son, but he was her grandson.
Discussed in order
The Death of Nancy Sykes (1897)
Baffled (1900)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) Agatha Christie
“The Coming of Mr. Quinn” (1928) Agatha Christie
The Passing of Mr. Quinn (1928) Leslie S. Hiscott and Julius Hagen
Alibi (1931) Leslie S. Hiscott
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express (1934) Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express (2017) Kenneth Branagh
Death on the Nile (2022) Kenneth Branagh
Death on the Nile (1937) Agatha Christie
The Halloween Party (1969) Agatha Christie
A Haunting in Venice (TBD) Kenneth Branagh
The Mousetrap (1952) Agatha Christie
Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchock
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973) Louise Duncan
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Columbia Pictures
The Shadow (1937, 1954)
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939-1950)
Perry Mason (1943-1955)
The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946-1951)
The Red House Mystery (1922) A.A. Milne
The Moonstone (1868) Wilkie Collins
Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017) Warner Bros.
Pretty Little Liars (2006) Sara Shepard
Big Little Lies (2014) Leann Moriarity
Big Little Lies (2017-2019) HBO
House of Cards (1989) Michael Dobbs
House of Cards (2010-2018) Netflix
House of Cards (1990) BBC
The Alienist (1994) Caleb Carr
The Alienist (2018) HBO
Shardlake Series (2003-2023) C.J. Sansom
Shardlake (2012-2021) BBC 15-minute Drama on BBC
Magpie Murders (2016) Anthony Horowitz
Magpie Murders (2022) PBS Masterpiece
The Terminal List (2018) Jack Carr
The Terminal List (2022) Amazon Prime Video
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
Transcript
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Transcript
Celebrating Clued in Mystery's First Anniversary
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Clued in Mystery just turned one year old.
00:00:26
Speaker
I know I had a little cookie to celebrate. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it's such a cool milestone. It's hard to believe that it's been a year, but it's been so fun to put together episodes and talk to you every week.
00:00:44
Speaker
Absolutely. I had the same feeling. I thought it both feels like it went really quick, but at the same time, I feel like this is something we've just done forever. I can't imagine my life without it now. So I guess that's a good thing. Agreed.
Introduction to Mystery Adaptations
00:01:00
Speaker
So today Brooke, we're going to talk about adaptations and I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yes, me too. This is going to be fun. Well, in researching the many adaptations of mystery novels this week, I was reminded of that old saying, you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed. Every novel truly is a seed and authors may license their stories for adaptations on radio or podcasts, television, movies, stage, animation, and all the foreign language editions of all of those above.
00:01:35
Speaker
So, considering the number of mysteries and all the ways that they can be adapted with or without permission, the results are honestly a bit overwhelming. But I'll attempt an overview on the beginnings and high points of mystery adaptations.
Early Crime Fiction Adaptations
00:01:54
Speaker
The invention of the movie camera, known as the Kinetograph, was accomplished in 1892. Right from the beginning, books were the inspiration for many short films. The first Kinetograph project that I would classify as crime fiction was made in 1897 with a short entitled The Death of Nancy Sykes.
00:02:16
Speaker
This was an adaptation of Oliver Twist but focused on the villain's story, an evil thief who murders his girlfriend to prevent the kidnapping of Oliver Twist. In 1900, the first Sherlock Holmes adaptation on film emerged. It was entitled Baffled and directed by Arthur Marvin. It portrayed Arthur Conan Doyle's famous sleuth happening upon a burglary.
00:02:41
Speaker
While it only ran for 30 seconds and had to be hand cranked on a mutoscope machine, it is considered the first detective movie ever.
Agatha Christie's Cinematic Journey
00:02:50
Speaker
Agatha Christie's first book, The Mysterious Afferent Styles, was published in 1920, but it wasn't until 1928 when she'd published seven other books and become wildly popular that the first movie adaptation of her work was produced.
00:03:06
Speaker
Surprisingly, the sleuth featured in the film is Dr. Alec Portal from the story, The Passing of Mr. Quinn, not Poirot, as one might assume. In fact, the first Poirot film, Alibi, was not made until 1931. It's based on Christie's novel, The Murder of Roger Aykroyd, as well as an earlier stage adaptation of that book.
00:03:30
Speaker
It is said that the Queen of Crime was never fond of film adaptations of her work. However, in 1937, she did write one television script of her Poirot mystery, The Wasp's Nest. But whether she enjoyed them or not, her work has been adapted for the screen more than any other mystery author, aside from Arthur Conan Doyle.
00:03:52
Speaker
and it's not stopping anytime soon. In 2017, Kenneth Branagh directed, co-produced, and starred in a new movie adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, followed by Death on the Nile in 2022.
Debate on Kenneth Branagh's Adaptations
00:04:08
Speaker
Branagh's next Christie adaptation, A Haunting in Venice, is set to open in September 2023 and is based on Halloween Party.
00:04:18
Speaker
Though so far, Brana has focused on Poirot stories. He is reportedly interested in producing Ms. Marple movies for the big screen as well. I'm wondering if he'll take the starring role in these two, playing the elderly, busy-bodied sleuth himself. Only time will tell.
The Mouse Trap's Stage Success
00:04:36
Speaker
Not a movie, but unequivocally the most successful mystery adaptation ever is Agatha Christie's The Mouse Trap. This stage production began life as a short radio play written by Christie as a birthday present for Queen Mary. It was broadcast on May 30, 1947 under the name Three Blind Mice. The story draws from the real-life case of Dennis O'Neill.
00:05:00
Speaker
The play adaptation opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until March of 2020 when performances were temporarily discontinued due to COVID-19 restrictions. It reopened in May of 2021. As of today, it has been performed over 29,000 times and seen by more than 10 million people.
00:05:25
Speaker
Three famous mystery movies you might not know are adapted from books are Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. It was written by crime writing duo Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narsizek. Primal Fear, starring Richard Geer and Edward Norton, is based on a book written by Gregory Hoblet. And YA cult classic I Know What You Did Last Summer was originally a novel published in 1973 by Louise Duncan, a true pioneer in young adult suspense.
Radio and Podcast Trends in Mystery
00:05:57
Speaker
Moving on to radio adaptations, this medium peaked in popularity in the 1930s to 1950s. The Shadow, the New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Perry Mason are a few examples. One that I enjoyed listening to while learning about hard-boiled detective fiction is The Adventures of Sam Spade, loosely based on Dashiel Hammett's character.
00:06:20
Speaker
It played in the mid 1940s and again in the early 50s, but the allure of radio mysteries continued much later than one might think, even after television took over as the primary method of family entertainment.
00:06:34
Speaker
CBS Radio Mystery Theater broadcast from 1974 to 1982 and later in the early 2000s was replayed by NPR. Now podcasts have taken over the mystery adaptation scene for those who like to listen to stories. Many exist that dramatize mystery classics such as A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, and of course Sherlock Holmes
Video Games as Mystery Adaptations
00:07:01
Speaker
tales.
00:07:01
Speaker
Another 21st century way to adapt mystery stories is by way of video games. Players can interact in the worlds of James Bond, Nancy Drew, Praro, The Hardy Boys, and many more. Although I have not experienced any of these yet, I'm eager to try them out.
00:07:19
Speaker
Okay, Sarah, that was a lot of information and it barely scratches the surface. We definitely have our work cut out for us today. Oh Brooke, that was such a great summary and yeah, I love all of the different kinds of adaptations that you talked about and we could probably do entire episodes devoted to each of them.
Television vs. Books: Fidelity Spectrum
00:07:43
Speaker
But one of the points that kind of struck me, you know, you were talking about movie adaptations and I know there's some popular television shows that were kind of loosely based on
00:08:00
Speaker
books or originally, let's say, originally based on books, I'm thinking of Pretty Little Liars that I'm certain was originally books. And I didn't, you know, I haven't read any of them, but I watched the show.
00:08:17
Speaker
And I wonder when you're doing like a television show, if there's enough source material to support, I don't know, there was five seasons, I think, of that, maybe even more. So there's obviously going to be a departure. So this is a really long-winded way of me saying that I think there's when
00:08:39
Speaker
When you're watching an adaptation of something that was originally a book, I think there's a bit of a spectrum of things that are very close to the original source material and then things that the adaptation has taken a lot of liberties, whether it's changing the location, changing the time. We see that a lot with
00:09:02
Speaker
Sherlock, right? Where there might be a present day version of Sherlock Holmes, which obviously is inspired by the stories that were written in the late 19th century and set in the late 19th century. Like I know as a viewer, there's sometimes this disappointment if the source material, if it feels like the source material hasn't been honored, right? If they've taken some
Author Involvement in Adaptations
00:09:28
Speaker
real leaps
00:09:30
Speaker
In that that screen adaptation Yeah, and you're right. It is a spectrum and I don't think that I I really reflected that in the in the intro but we have everything from
00:09:45
Speaker
the verbatim story, which you see a lot in, I would say Agatha Christie adaptations, at least the early ones. I'm not sure if the Kenneth Brana ones are that identical, but clear up to just inspired because we talked a lot in the Sherlock Holmes episodes we did.
00:10:03
Speaker
that those characters have been used and reused and put in all sorts of different situations. And I always think about how interesting it would be to be the author of that. I mean, obviously Conan Doyle is gone and so he's not interacting and seeing this. But for instance, if you were
00:10:26
Speaker
writing a novel today. And as you say, it's made into a TV. You sell your rights and they begin making TV episodes. And then maybe four or five seasons later, it's taken your story and your characters in a completely different direction. That would be it would be an interesting experience, I think. Yeah, I agree. And I know authors have kind of different
00:10:57
Speaker
different levels of involvement in production. So sometimes they might actually write the screenplay. And I think sometimes they just sell the rights and allow the screen production team to do whatever it is that they want to do.
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, I don't know. Um, it must be really interesting to see something you've written produced on, on screen. You mentioned, um, pretty little liars and, um, I, uh, not just because the titles are similar, but it reminded me of big little lies, which is by, um, Leanne Moriarty and, um,
00:11:41
Speaker
I looked into that one a little bit because of course the original part of that story is based on her book, big, same title, Big Little Lies. But then I learned that some of the later seasons she had written some novellas. And so it is still based on some of the storylines that she created.
00:12:07
Speaker
But it's what you say. Depending on the contract that an author signs, they could be very involved such as Moriarty was there or sign the rights and the company takes over from there. So a huge spectrum in a lot of different ways.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, and I haven't looked deeply into see if there's any kind of correlation between how involved the author is and how much I've enjoyed an adaptation of something that I've read, right? Because like I said, there can just be a little bit of disappointment if you feel like, man, the book was way better than what I just watched. And so I used to watch
00:12:58
Speaker
I used to love watching something that I'd read and I think I just had too many disappointing experiences and I don't do it so often. I am more likely to watch something that I haven't read because I don't want to feel that disappointment.
Books as Film Adaptation Sources
00:13:20
Speaker
What about you, Brooke?
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's such an interesting situation as somebody who enjoys reading to put yourself in that position because you're equally excited. Whatever the title is, it's coming out as a movie or as a series of episodes, but then you're right. It can be really disappointing.
00:13:45
Speaker
But I will say that I'm interested. I mentioned in the intro that when they first started making films, these little tiny short snippets, they were based on books, which makes a lot of sense because the idea of a screenwriter didn't even exist. Somebody who was hired to actually write films was not a thing. So it seemed obvious that they would use these popular stories. But I am struck by how books are still
00:14:14
Speaker
kind of the most popular thing to convert into into visual medium. I think it's so interesting that movie producers will still like see what the hot read was of the year and then want to adapt it. So I thought that that was actually also hopeful for the world of books.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good point. I think it's probably, if you're a movie producer, you look, like you say, OK, what was really popular for people to read? And can we make that into something that people will watch? And you probably expect that you've got a bit of a built-in audience, because I think there's lots of people who, like you said, get really excited when they hear that there's going to be a screen adaptation.
00:15:04
Speaker
You've created these characters in your head and you want to see what do they look like on screen or how are they going to do this particular scene? And it's probably easier, I don't know, to come up with, just to use something that's already been, that you know has been tested and popular with audiences. It may be easier to find the money to pay for that production.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good point. It's already kind of been through an audience test, so to speak. And I also found it interesting that sometimes it takes a while. House of Cards is a series, of course, a political thriller series. It was originally a book written by Michael Dobbs, and he wrote that book in 1989. And then another one that is very popular is The Alienist.
00:16:03
Speaker
which I really wish I had HBO because I want to see that show so bad. But it was written in 1994 by Caleb Carr. So yes, I think sometimes it's something that's quite immediate within a year or two. But also some of these things that have been around for 20, 30 years are created and brought back to life. So that's exciting too.
00:16:30
Speaker
Well, and like we're seeing that with Kenneth Branagh adopting Agatha Christie works. And I don't know. I think his films have been pretty polarizing in terms of how they've been received by Agatha Christie fans.
00:16:51
Speaker
And I am going to reserve judgment on the haunting of Venice because I have read the Halloween party and I don't know how that is going to be adapted into something set in Venice. So I'm really curious to see what that ends up looking like.
00:17:15
Speaker
Agreed. I mean, you mentioned the spectrum, Sarah. And to me, I feel like the other two films, while they were not verbatim of the two stories that he's adapted, this one seems like he's really gone to a different end of the spectrum of just using the seed of the story, perhaps, because there's a lot of things just from the trailer that you can tell. Well, hmm, that's not the Halloween party that I remember.
00:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, I had to go back and say like, am I thinking of the right book when I read that this is what he was adapting or that it was based on? So yeah, we'll see. And I think there's probably a lot of people who feel similarly.
00:17:56
Speaker
And you're right though, that, um, set of movies has been quite polarizing. Um, it brings up a lot of topics that adaptations, uh, can be criticized for as far as, um, you know, backstory of characters, um, portrayal of characters. Like you say, we get this image in our mind of who someone is. And I think for really the world, David Suchet has been such
00:18:24
Speaker
a Poirot character for all of us that that's been difficult for audiences to maneuver to the Brana Poirot. And then also because it is a very commercial endeavor.
00:18:39
Speaker
I think there have been some thoughts about how much of a money-making machine this is. Not even to specifically talk about that project or those projects, but all of those things can be issues when you're talking about adapting an author's work.
Audio Adaptations and Radio Drama Nostalgia
00:19:00
Speaker
I think that it's funny to be able to look at that in such an encapsulated way with what's going on with those movies at this point.
00:19:09
Speaker
I like what you said in the introduction about the podcasts and I have listened to a couple of podcasts that were based on books and I think maybe this is why I like audiobooks so much. There's really something about kind of hearing
00:19:31
Speaker
hearing a book and hearing the characters and not having that visual portrayal of it. So BBC did adaptations of CJ Sansom's series, the Shardlake series. And so this is historical mystery set in Tudor times.
00:19:55
Speaker
And I've really enjoyed listening to those. I think I've listened to the first couple of books that were adapted. And I found someone had, I don't know how they do this, but created the episodes. I'm not sure that it would...
00:20:15
Speaker
what I listened to was the BBC version because you hear kind of the first minute of whatever program was originally playing on BBC before the Shardlake series played. So you kind of hear whatever daytime radio show was on. But I think on the BBC website, I think they have the actual
00:20:42
Speaker
a cleaned up version of the recording. But it was, yeah, I enjoyed that. And those are books that I enjoyed reading as well.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah, you've mentioned that to me and that's something that I kind of have on my to listen to list because I'm like you. I love listening to books and you know there's different ways that those can be done. Sometimes they're just literally read like if someone is reading you a book but then the ones that are mildly I would say dramatized are kind of my favorite where you get
00:21:21
Speaker
you know, correct accents and just a little bit of theatrics. It really helps bring the story alive. And I think I find that some of these podcast versions do a lot of that. It hearkens back to me to like the radio days where I was talking about the Sam Spade shows or the shadow or whatever. So that's really great that we continue to have either audio books or podcasts if you'd like to listen to mysteries.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah, I listened to a lot of radio plays when I was growing up. And so I think that's where my I think that's why I enjoy listening to them so much is the reminds me of that. But yeah, I love it. Same thing like I really enjoy an audio book that has kind of a full cast production in a different narrator for each point of view. I enjoy
Success of 'Magpie Murders' Adaptation
00:22:15
Speaker
that.
00:22:15
Speaker
One adaptation that I thought we might talk about, Brooke, is Anthony Horowitz, who I think he comes up almost every episode, and the recent adaptation of Magpie Murders. And they just recently announced that there will be a second season of that adapting Moonflower Murders.
00:22:39
Speaker
And I thought that adaptation of Magpie Murders was done really, really well. This is an example of one that I had read the book and really enjoyed the book. And the screen adaptation was every bit as good, in my opinion. So I'm really looking forward to the next series.
00:23:00
Speaker
And that would be an example of an adaptation with a lot of influence from the author. If I'm correct, I believe that Horowitz was really involved in that. Is that right? I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
Um, I agree. I thought it was done really well. And he got his start, I think in writing for television. So, uh, foils war. Um, and I think he also wrote a lot of Midsomer murders. So he would have a really good grounding in how, you know, how to write for first screen.
00:23:42
Speaker
Interesting. Yes. And because the screen version of that is actually quite different than the book, it's told in a way that works for television. And so that's super interesting that he already had that background and he knew, I'm going to have to do this differently than I did on the page. And
00:24:02
Speaker
It was very successful. I thought it was great. And some cute little additions that he did by having characters play, excuse me, having actors play some of the same characters in the story. I thought that was just genius. I loved it.
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, I will admit that I wasn't sure how the adaptation was going to work because of the way that the book is structured. But yeah, he did it really well. And actually, I listened to an interview with him where he kind of talks about how that evolved and that decision to use actors in multiple roles.
00:24:51
Speaker
That's great. But that brings up a really good point, Sarah. There are definitely books that lend themselves to adaptations more than others, or styles of books, I guess you would say.
Challenges in Adapting Complex Narratives
00:25:04
Speaker
I think that even certain points of view work and don't work, or rather they would have to really be massaged and changed in order to make it work on the screen.
00:25:17
Speaker
you know, my brain doesn't work that way. I think about like, how would you do this? How would you portray this, especially if you have something that needs a lot of internal monologue, you know, you're kind of in your character's heads. But, you know, that's, that's for a different kind of artist to figure out. And many times they do, but, but to me as a reader, I was thinking, how would you do this?
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I think in our episode, the episode that we recently released about other spies, I talked about Jack Carr's book, The Terminalist. And in the introduction to that book, he talks about how when he was writing it, he wrote it thinking about the screen adaptation and thinking about who he wanted to play.
00:26:07
Speaker
in the screen adaptation, which yeah, I thought was really interesting to kind of have that vision from the time you start putting words down on the page and then seeing that through is pretty impressive. Yeah, that intention that you expect or you envision this to go in that direction down the road.
00:26:32
Speaker
I'm thinking that there are some of the Golden Age stories that authors also did the same thing, knowing that they were going to eventually have it be a play.
The Mouse Trap's Legal and Historical Aspects
00:26:42
Speaker
I have some other interesting details about the mouse trap, which is by far the most famous adaptation ever. When Christie wrote the mouse trap, she gave the rights of it to her son, Matthew Pritchard, as a birthday present.
00:27:00
Speaker
And part of the rules is that in the UK, only one production of the play, in addition to the West End production, can be performed annually. And under the contract terms of the play, no film adaptation can be produced until the West End production has been closed for at least six months.
00:27:22
Speaker
And that didn't include what happened during COVID because actually it hadn't closed. They were just on suspension. So looks like we won't be seeing a movie version of The Mouse Trap for some time. That's really interesting. I didn't know that, Brooke. But I recently watched See How They Run and The Mouse Trap features in that film, but it's not an adaptation of the play.
00:27:51
Speaker
Oh, that's very neat. That sounds great. Yeah, I definitely plan to see that one. Another interesting tidbit I found about the mouse trap.
Trivia and Legacy of The Mouse Trap
00:28:00
Speaker
The radio bulletin recording that plays during the play is still the same voice, the same recording since opening night.
00:28:09
Speaker
So Derek Gullier is still in the play. He has been all 70 years and one prop has also survived the set changes and in all of the productions and that's the clock that sits on the mantle. Fascinating. I know. We need to go someday Sarah.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I agree. Let's do it. Brooke, this has been so much fun to talk about adaptations. And I'm sure this is something that we will revisit at some point because there are just so many examples that we could talk about.
00:28:53
Speaker
Absolutely. I look forward to it, Sarah. But for today, thank you all for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:29:06
Speaker
Clued in Mystery is produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers at Silvermansound.com. Visit us online at cluedinmystery.com or social media at Clued in Mystery. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or telling your friends.