My mysterious plans for Autumn in August

As some of you may know, I tend to make late summer staycation plans on my blog and this year is no exception.

So, for Autumn in August(where I watch and review movies that give off that feeling of the fall season nicely), this time around, an air of mystery seemed to be very suitable with a blend of two English authors whose works keep being adapted to screens small and large on a regular basis.

First up is Agatha Christie with the 1978 version of  Death on the Nile, starring Peter Ustinov as Inspector Poirot(my favorite take on this character) who finds himself on a cruise down the famed Egyptian river with quite the cast of potentially murderous travelers.

Such a great selection of actors for this film with the likes of Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Mia Farrow and the dynamic duo of Bette Davis and Maggie Smith who play an aging countess and her cynical companion that take great delight in tormenting each other. 

You get a lot of fun bitchy drama  just from those two alone even before the murder happens, which is such a sinister sweet treat indeed:

After, more Peter Ustinov Poirot adventures with 1982’s Evil Under the Sun, where our detective attempts to rest his “little grey cells “ at a remote island resort.

 Naturally, the assorted guests such as Diana Rigg, Roddy McDowell, Maggie Snith(again!) and James Mason find themselves in the midst of murder with only Poirot to lead the way towards finding the killer among them.

I do enjoy Ustinov’s sly humor as Poirot but he never becomes a totally comical character. Rather, he cleverly uses his amiable nature as a sharp tool in his detective kit to ferret out the true suspects in any case, something that other crime solvers such as Columbo  also employed as well, following in his fictional footsteps so to speak:

Yes, we do have one more Agatha Christie movie but this time, it’s Miss Marple up at bat.

The Mirror Cracked from 1980 stars Angela Lansbury as Jane Marple(which many say lead to her iconic Murder She Wrote TV series) who has no choice but to look into the strange death that occurred at the welcome party for actress Marina Gregg(Elizabeth Taylor) from the sidelines due to an unrelated injury.

Nevertheless, with the help of her police inspector nephew, Jane deduces that Marina might have been the real target of the killer as the poisoned drink that took out a local woman was originally meant for her. That only increases the number of suspects, particularly such Hollywood rivals as Lola Brewster(Kim Novak) and Marty Fenn(Tony Curtis).

This film is what got me interested in Agatha Christie in the first place (also the first Christie book that I ever read) so going back to it is as comfortable as snuggling into your well worn but coziest sweater there:

Finally, what’s a fall

film selection without a bit of Jane Austen? “But she didn’t write mysteries!” you might say and yet, one of her books did toy with the concept of taking fandom a little too far.

The 2007 adaptation of  Northanger Abbey does justice to the novel, where young  country girl Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones) takes her knowledge of the wider world from the gothic books that she and her new friend Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan) eagerly devour while visiting the great city of Bath.

Being charmed by Henry Tilney (J.J. Fielding), Catherine agrees to visit his ominous family home but is everything really as it seems? Or is Catherine’s imagination the most dangerous element in this situation?

I use to encourage teen book buyers to try Northanger Abbey as Austen’s version of Scream(hey, if Clueless gets kids to read , why not this?). So, if you’re new to NA, just think of it as the Regency version of Scream minus the body count:

So, I do hope that many of you will join me this August for some early autumn chills and thrills with this Agatha and Austen blend of cinematic tea.

Ensemble stories of suspense like these never truly go out of style; they just stand ready in the back of the pop culture wardrobe to be taken out and revived when need be. 

The Knives Out films certainly prove that to be the case for one, and hopefully others will pave that  storytelling way forward by looking back to the past properly as inspiration for newer tales to tell: