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expendablemudge 's review for:
The Secret Adversary
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 3* of five for both book and movie
The Publisher Says: After WW1, childhood pals Tommy Beresford and "Tuppence" Prudence Cowley, lack money and prospects, become adventurers for the British Government. Rich American Julius P. Hersheimmer, powerful Mr Whittington, and an evil mastermind's conspiracy all seek Jane Finn, given papers vital to peace by an agent at the sinking of the Luisitania. Kidnaps, escapes.
My Review: The novel is a dated piece, lots of hoopla about Bolsheviks and the General Strike and Socialism!! Socialism!! Tuppence is a right little minx. Tommy is a public school boy in the most English sense of those words. It was, I suppose, delicious in 1922 for a mere woman to be the instigator of an adventurous life for the borning couple on the other side of the law; that she doesn't have to Pay Dearly For It is truly eyebrow-raising.
Sixty years later, along comes Francesca Annis to embody Tuppence, and speak the faithfully adapted words Dame Agatha wrote. Annis is just lovely. She does a marvelous job of scheming behind a melting smile. But all the to-ing and fro-ing! Just-missed-'em and who-said-what moments galore. It creaks, in other words, to more savvy modern ears, very much the way Mary Roberts Rinehart's books do, or Georgette Heyer's mysteries do.
All that said, however, I didn't hurl the book aside or stop the film. Because in the end, it was fun. Just a bit silly, but still fun, and to me that's worth a lot. But the Big Reveal is just so durned obvious! And the American character so, so buffoonish! Oh well, autres temps autres moeurs. It doesn't do to apply too much modern sensibility to olden days. But I will say this to modern audiences: Either medium, go in expecting a relaxed pace (the film is 2 hours!) and you'll be better off by the end.
The chase scene with a 1915 Rolls-Royce amazed me.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: After WW1, childhood pals Tommy Beresford and "Tuppence" Prudence Cowley, lack money and prospects, become adventurers for the British Government. Rich American Julius P. Hersheimmer, powerful Mr Whittington, and an evil mastermind's conspiracy all seek Jane Finn, given papers vital to peace by an agent at the sinking of the Luisitania. Kidnaps, escapes.
My Review: The novel is a dated piece, lots of hoopla about Bolsheviks and the General Strike and Socialism!! Socialism!! Tuppence is a right little minx. Tommy is a public school boy in the most English sense of those words. It was, I suppose, delicious in 1922 for a mere woman to be the instigator of an adventurous life for the borning couple on the other side of the law; that she doesn't have to Pay Dearly For It is truly eyebrow-raising.
Sixty years later, along comes Francesca Annis to embody Tuppence, and speak the faithfully adapted words Dame Agatha wrote. Annis is just lovely. She does a marvelous job of scheming behind a melting smile. But all the to-ing and fro-ing! Just-missed-'em and who-said-what moments galore. It creaks, in other words, to more savvy modern ears, very much the way Mary Roberts Rinehart's books do, or Georgette Heyer's mysteries do.
All that said, however, I didn't hurl the book aside or stop the film. Because in the end, it was fun. Just a bit silly, but still fun, and to me that's worth a lot. But the Big Reveal is just so durned obvious! And the American character so, so buffoonish! Oh well, autres temps autres moeurs. It doesn't do to apply too much modern sensibility to olden days. But I will say this to modern audiences: Either medium, go in expecting a relaxed pace (the film is 2 hours!) and you'll be better off by the end.
The chase scene with a 1915 Rolls-Royce amazed me.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.