Agatha *** (1979, Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Dalton) – Classic Movie Review 10,936

Director Michael Apted’s 1979 imaginative British biopic Agatha is based on a film story by Kathleen Tynan, and stars Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and Timothy Dalton. It is helpfully advertised as ‘a fictional solution to the real mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance’.

Agatha Christie’’s 11-day vanishing in December 1926 just as she was carving out a successful literary career forms the springboard for this curious but stylish romantic mystery thriller, a fictional speculation on true-life events.

Redgrave is truly remarkable as the troubled Agatha who registers at a Yorkshire health spa under the name of Mrs Neele, her husband Archie (Dalton)’s mistress, Nancy Neele (Celia Gregory). But Hoffman as Wally Stanton, an investigating newsman from America, seems to have wandered in from another more boisterous film, and apparently had his role re-written for him nightly during filming. The tall Redgrave and short Hoffman make an odd couple, particularly when dancing together and he only comes up to her shoulders.

An extremely polished and glossy film is shot amid impeccable 1920s artefacts, sets and locations in beautifully muted colours by ace Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, with lovely production and costume designs by Shirley Russell, who was bot Oscar and Bafta nominated for Best Costume Design.

It is thoroughly enjoyable but it is a pity though that the surface of the film is more impressive than its heart and brain.

The screenplay is by Kathleen Tynan and Arthur Hopcraft.

RIP Michael Apted, Coal Miner’s Daughter and Up series director, dead at 79 in January 2021.

Also in the cast are Helen Morse, Timothy West, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Celia Gregory, Paul Brooke, Carolyn Pickles, Robert Longden, Donald Nithsdale, Yvonne Gilan, Sandra Voe, Barry Hart, Tim Seely, David Hargreaves, Jill Summers, Christopher Fairbank, Liz Smith, Peter Arne, D Geoff Tomlinson, John Joyce, Irene Sutcliffe, Ann Francis, Tony Haygarth and Stan Richards.

Allegedly, the film ran over budget and schedule, and it was taken out of uncredited producer Dustin Hoffman’s control but Apted convinced Hoffman to complete it.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,936

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