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Post by dem bones on Jul 14, 2011 1:21:43 GMT
You can get a book showcasing all of Tom Adams' CHRISTIE clever covers ! It's been around awhile mind , I remember seeing a copy at coillege , but can be got cheaply enough on Amazon. I love the devil worship one with the ram's head and the one with the Halloween skull apple! Kc Agatha Christie - Hallowe'en Party (Fontana, 1972: originally Collins, 1969) Tom Adams inside cover blurb What happened?" said Poirot. His voice was sharp. "We found her in the end — in the library," said Mrs. Oliver. "Someone, you know, someone had shoved her head down into the water with the apples. Shoved her down and held her there so that she was dead, of course. Drowned. Drowned. Just in a galvanised iron bucket nearly full of water. Kneeling there, sticking her head down to bob at an apple. I hate apples," said Mrs. Oliver. "I never want to see an apple again . . ." Poirot looked at her. He stretched out a hand and filled a small glass with cognac. "Drink this," he said. "It will do you good."Perhaps it's some small testimony to Agatha Christie's enduring popularity that it was coming across a stack of her paperbacks for 25p a go on friend back-of-the-van-man's Sunday stall got me interested. The following weekend, encouraged by the responses to this thread, i returned to hoover up as many as two quid would buy and .... not a bleedin' one left! That pristine Needful Things has been there ten years if its a day! anyhow, i got lucky on this one at Spitalfields market yesterday (if you happen to be passing, there's a guy specialises in Penguin originals has a stall there Wednesdays and Sundays, prices mostly in the £2-3 bracket). Hallowe'en Party may have to wait a week before i can get stuck in but even so it's queue-jumped some heavyweight contenders - poor old Sax Rohmer's Brood Of The Witch Queen is livid! Also, if it's not been mentioned yet, there's a decent-ish site for Tom Adams. amazed i never twigged he was the guy provided the cover artwork for Lou Reed's first solo album!
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Post by stuyoung on Jul 18, 2011 7:36:51 GMT
I had a similar experience at the local Barnados. One day they had what seemed like very single Christie book for about 20p each, a few day later they had all gone. Fortunately I managed to snag a couple before they disappeared. I've hardly read any Christie so I'm curious to see what I make of her stuff.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 21, 2011 16:11:07 GMT
same thing stu, though the best i've managed to date is a few chapters of the above - enough to tell me it's worth sticking with. That Hercule Poirot character, though. Rip off of Seabury Quinn's phantom fighter Jules de Grandin or what (he asks, diving behind the couch)? here's another looker (perhaps the person who bought them all up is now bringing them back!) "Terrifying Witching" according to The Spectator. Agatha Christie - The Pale Horse (Fontana, 1964) Tom Adams? Blurb As the priest ended his ministry, the dying woman spoke again. `Stopped ... It must be stopped. You will ...' The priest spoke with reassuring authority. `I will do what is necessary. You can trust me . . ., A doctor and an ambulance arrived simultaneously a little later. Mrs. Coppins received them with gloomy triumph. `Too late as usual!' she said....
Father Gorman did his best, but on the way home he was killed; on his body was discovered a list of names, mysterious in that the people listed had nothing in Common; yet, when Mark Easterbrook came to inquire into the circumstances of the people named, he began to discover a strange connection between them, and an ominous pattern ..
A Murder Inc. Reception Parlour run by three witches with a mixture of black art and psychic malevolence. Spine-chilling ... horribly plausible too.Glasgow Herald
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damien
New Face In Hell
Posts: 5
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Post by damien on Jul 21, 2011 19:01:57 GMT
I recently read "Murder on the Orient Express" by Christie; Of course, very, very good.
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Post by stuyoung on Jul 22, 2011 8:10:27 GMT
The Pale Horse is one of the ones I picked up. Also got Partners in Crime 'cos I remember watching the TV series as a kid.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 28, 2011 20:58:43 GMT
so it's less an Agatha Christie thread, more an appreciation of Tom Adams and his exceptional artwork, but these showed up at the market this morning and no question they belong on here! The Mirror Crack'd ... is my equal favourite to date with After The Funeral. Also landed Martin Jenson's long sought The Echo On The Stairs in same haul plus yet another rotten edition of The Devil Rides Out! Agatha Christie - The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side (Fontana, May 1966) Tom Adams Blurb Dolly Bantry and Miss Marple were discussing the murder at the home of the famous film star, Marina Gregg ... "And then I saw her face!" said Mrs. Bantry dramatically. "Whose?" asked Miss Marple, not unreasonably since Mrs. Bantry hadn't said. "Why, Marina Gregg's. I am sure she hadn't heard a word that was being said. She suddenly looked, sort of ... frozen—staring at the wall opposite, with an—oh, I can't explain--" "Do try, Dolly," said Miss Marple. "It might be important. Think. For instance, what was on the wall?" Mrs. Bantry considered. "Oh, a painting of the Virgin holding up a child ... Do you remember that poem by Tennyson? Well, Marina Gregg's face reminded me of it—you know, the one that goes: The mirror crack'd from side to side: 'The curse is come upon me,' cried The Lady of Shalott. That's how she looked—frozen!" Agatha Christie - Mrs. McGinty's Dead (Fontana,1974) Tom Adams Blurb Mrs. McGinty died after a brutal blow to the head, and the only suspect was her shifty and destitute lodger, James Bentley. Bentley was duly arrested, tried and condemned to death. But even when faced with overwhelming evidence, the policeman who arrested him didn't think Bentley was a murderer ... and called in Hercule Poirot.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 15, 2011 7:23:31 GMT
Agatha Christie - Murder On The Orient Express (Fontana, 1977 [18th impression]: originally Collins, 1934) Blurb The Orient Express stands snowbound in the Balkans, while on board, the passengers are locked in for the night. By morning one of them has been brutally murdered. And Hercule Poirot confronts twelve unlikely suspects ...
Nat Cohen presents for EMI Film Distributors Ltd. Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Richard Widmark and Michael York in Murder on the Orient Express. Screenplay by Paul Dehn. Produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin. Directed by Sidney Lumet.Another day, another as yet unread Agatha Christie Fontana to post, and a question. In all the tv and movie adaptations of her work, has anyone dared the unthinkable and outed a different murderer to the one Christie identifies in the original novel?
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Post by andydecker on Sept 15, 2011 16:07:18 GMT
Agatha Christie - Murder On The Orient Express (Fontana, 1977 [18th impression]: originally Collins, 1934) Blurb The Orient Express stands snowbound in the Balkans, while on board, the passengers are locked in for the night. By morning one of them has been brutally murdered. And Hercule Poirot confronts twelve unlikely suspects ...
Nat Cohen presents for EMI Film Distributors Ltd. Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Richard Widmark and Michael York in Murder on the Orient Express. Screenplay by Paul Dehn. Produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin. Directed by Sidney Lumet.Another day, another as yet unread Agatha Christie Fontana to post, and a question. In all the tv and movie adaptations of her work, has anyone dared the unthinkable and outed a different murderer to the one Christie identifies in the original novel? Not to my knowledge. There are of course variations of some of the supporting cast, mostly with Poirot and his people and/or the background of some of the murderers. I dearly love this movie. Actorwise it is the Ocean 11 of its time, and even if they all act so over the top, it is just fun to watch. I am a staunch supporter of the idea that David Suchet has made the character of Poirot his own, but in this one case Finney beats them all. Like I already wrote, it is kind of ironic that no movie-version follows the original end scenario. In the novel it is very anti-climactic.
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Post by pulphack on Sept 16, 2011 8:00:03 GMT
not sure that anyone has ever had the audacity to adapt and change the killer's identity, but as rightly pointed out there have been a few liberties with denouments to make them a bit more dramatic.
dame ag hated margaret rutherford as miss marple, and much as i love 'em i can see why, as they are basically just the wonderful margaret being herself. for instance, sidekick mr stringer is her hubby stringer davies who she got into most of her later movies in bit parts. in murder, she said (the 4.50 from paddington) miss marple investigates on the spot which the old dear farmed out to a younger sidekick in the book.
but most oddly - and the reason for mentioning all this - is that murder most foul is a resonable adaptation of Mrs McGintys Dead, which would be ok if not for the fact that the detective in that one is... Poirot!
are there any more adaptations that have done that? i can't think of any off hand, but perhaps craig's brother can assist?
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Post by andydecker on Sept 16, 2011 8:26:36 GMT
but most oddly - and the reason for mentioning all this - is that murder most foul is a resonable adaptation of Mrs McGintys Dead, which would be ok if not for the fact that the detective in that one is... Poirot! are there any more adaptations that have done that? i can't think of any off hand, but perhaps craig's brother can assist? Most of the Rutherfords done that. Murder at the galopp is basically After the Funeral, also a Poirot. Well, and Murder ahoy is mostly an original story. So I guess that doesn´t count. ;D
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Post by andydecker on Sept 16, 2011 8:40:20 GMT
(the 4.50 from paddington) miss marple investigates on the spot which the old dear farmed out to a younger sidekick in the book. I think I saw at least 3 different adaptions of that. The Rutherford, the Joan Hickson one and the Geraldine McEwan one. The last two were both period pieces. I read on the Net that McEwan is quite controversial as Marple. I bought this on Dvd and can understand why. The writing was sometimes a bit dodgy. Also her Marple always strikes one as not entirely sane and creepy, you wonder if not she herself has put the poison in the tea just to mess with the natives. While Hickson always is a nice old lady. But great production values on the McEwans. And it is fun to spot the actors. I mean, it is quite a shock to see Piranha 3D and then the Moving Finger and realize its both times Kelly Brook
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Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2011 20:23:19 GMT
first, another Tom Adams cover for the gallery ... Agatha Christie - Nemesis (Fontana, 1974) Tom Adams Blurb A letter from a dead friend promises Miss Marple a large reward for investigating a crime —without telling her who was involved, or when it happened!'
When she accepts, she is given a reservation for a coach tour of historic homes and gardens. She has fifteen fellow-passengers — and one of them must know a murderers' secret...
"Remarkably inventive, quite worthy of the Picasso of the detective story." -Maurice Richardson, Observer
"She is truly a phenomenon! At the age of 81 she produces a whodunit which for mystery and neat unravelling is up to the standard of her very best." Evening Standard.... second, i finally made a start on one of the later Poirot's, Halloween Party from 1969. Even were the novel undated, you could probably guess the decade from Mrs. Butler's take on teenage parties. "There's always someone undesirable, or who brings an undesirable friend. You know the sort of thing. Peculiar drugs and - what do they call it? - Flower Pot or Purple Hemp or L.S.D., which I always have thought just meant money, but apparently it doesn't." So we are at The Apple Trees, Woodleigh Common, thirty-to-forty miles from London, for Mrs. Rowenda Drake's Halloween party, except it is actually what she announces as an "Eleven-plus party" for local children in the ten-seventeen age bracket. Among the adult helpers, the aforementioned Mrs Butler and her friend, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the brilliant, if scatty, author of several crime novels featuring Finnish detective Sven Hjerson (sample title, The Dying Goldfish). Joyce, a girl of about thirteen with a big chest, has read one, thought it was quite good, but not bloody enough. Joyce claims to have witnessed a murder once, except she didn't realise it until much later. The other kids laugh, accuse her of making it up - she really is such a show off. The party ends, the kids depart with the prizes they've won in spooky contests, but Joyce's parents are agitated. Where has their daughter got to? In the library is the answer to that one, drowned, her head forced down into the bucket as though she were still bobbing for apples. A panicked Mrs. Oliver calls on her old friend, Hercule Poirot, in London. Poirot is at something of a loss so welcomes the opportunity to go nosey-parkering in the country, and his first port of call is on his old friend, Superintendent Spence, long retired from the force to tend his roses. Spence and his sister Elspeth live on Woodleigh Common and, the Super intimates, Elspeth could give even Piorot lessons in the art of snooping on one's neighbours. Five chapters down and if we have any suspects, i can't say as though i've noticed.
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Post by pulphack on Oct 29, 2011 6:25:49 GMT
now then, i've never read Nemesis or Halloween Party, but i have seen the tv versions of both...
interesting what you say about Halloween Party, as it ws shifted back to the usual interwar period for the adaptation, and i would never have thought it was written any other time. it seems to suit that era so much better. i have a soft spot for the wonderfully absurd ariadne oliver, who seems to crop up quite often in Poirot novels and usually gets it wrong! she seems to be mostly AC satirising herself, though i suspect her occassional self-importance may be a dig at Dorothy Sayers (well, i'd like it to be), who was appallingly pompous at times. when you read AC you know it's a whodunnit and it serves its main purpose. DLS had a terrible habit of wishing she was writing serious novels when she was doing a Peter Wimsey, with the result that often the books are neither fish nor fowl - for every Murder Must Advertise that's sleek and pointed, there are two Busman's Holidays or Gaudy Nights, that waffle and lose the attention, the plot seeming intrusive when it suddenly returns a hundred pages later.
Nemesis i've always meant to read, as the Joan Hickson tv adaptation is quite wonderful... so much so, that the book might be a let down. 'she look like a sweet little old lady, but she has a mind like a steel trap (...) and can be quite ruthless'. excellent.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 29, 2011 7:25:26 GMT
Five chapters down and if we have any suspects, i can't say as though i've noticed. This one is considered flawed because of, among other things, a clue that is too obvious. It really stares you in the face. I, of course, missed it too.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 29, 2011 8:43:55 GMT
. DLS had a terrible habit of wishing she was writing serious novels when she was doing a Peter Wimsey Heh, I read those a looong time ago, but after a joke on Frasier - where the cop-father who wanted to wear a Sherlock Holmes costume but got Lord Peter instead said "Well, I'm not going anywhere where I have to tell people my name's "Wimsey! - I could never take them earnestly again . Nemesis i've always meant to read, as the Joan Hickson tv adaptation is quite wonderful... so much so, that the book might be a let down. 'she look like a sweet little old lady, but she has a mind like a steel trap (...) and can be quite ruthless'. excellent. I only saw the McEwan adaption which is according to Wikipedia (I know, I know *g) is quite fundamentally rewritten. Now, the same goes for Halloween Party which I also saw only on Poirot. (Wonderfully done, btw) I am really keen on your following review, dem, as so far the story follows it correctly.
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