Shubhabrata Dutta
For decades, detective stories have reigned in our minds as thrilling experiences, complex in understanding yet attractive. Films have used this fact and adapted novels to help us quench our thirst. Needless to say, English author Agatha Christie’s detective novels are the go-to spots for such adaptations. And in this article, we bring you the best Agatha Christie Movies available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Prime, and Max.
6. Ten Little Indians (1959)
Directed by Paul Bogart, ‘Ten Little Indians’ is based on the author’s 1939 novel. It was made as a TV movie of around an hour. If you want to be transported to that particular era of filmmaking via an Agatha Christie story, this one serves the purpose just fine although you have to be content with the visual quality. However, it does a good job of condensing the novel.
The film follows ten strangers who arrive by invitation to a remote island only to find themselves getting killed one at a time by a mysterious killer. It is upto Detective William Henry Blore to track down the person. Can he? The cast of ‘Ten Little Indians’ includes Nina Foch, Romney Brent, Kenneth Haigh, Peter Bathurst, Barry Jones, Chandler Cowles and Valerie French. You can watch the film on Prime.
5. Innocent Lies (1995)
Loosely adapted from Agatha Christie’s 1944 novel ‘Towards Zero,’ this one follows British Detective Alan Cross who arrives at the French coast for the funeral of his close friend Joe Green who killed himself near a cliff-top mansion, or at least that’s what everyone is saying. Bent on finding out the truth behind Joe’s suicide, he decides to follow the people living in the mansion. This includes Lady Helena Graves, the matriarch connected to the Nazis, her sensuous daughter Celia and her guilt-struck son Jeremy who is coping with the accidental death of his brother for which he is responsible. There is also an American guy whom Celia is soon to marry and a Jewish woman whom Jeremy is married to.
As Cross keeps digging, he realizes that there’s more to Jeremy and Celia than their sibling relationship and it is connected to a dark family secret that might have led to Green’s death/murder. The cast includes Adrian Dunbar, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Dorff, Gabrielle Anwar, Alexis Denisof, Marianne Denicourt, and Keira Knightley (film debut). You can watch the film on Prime.
4. Death on the Nile (1978)
Written by Christie in 1937, this one has famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot looking into a murder case while on vacation onboard the S.S. Karnak on the Nile River. When heiress Linnet Ridgeway is found shot in the head, her husband Simon Doyle’s former lover Jacqueline “Jackie” de Bellefort, who is angry at the newlywed couple, is thought to be the killer. If it could only be that easy. Poirot thus sets off on a shady quest to find out who among the passengers is the culprit as each has a reason to kill Linnet and would benefit from her death one way or another. The 1978 version is directed by John Guillermin and stars Peter Ustinov (Poirot), Lois Chiles, Mia Farrow, Simon MacCorkindale, David Niven, and Bette Davis. You can watch it on Prime.
3. A Haunting in Venice (2023)
The third installment of Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha-Christie adaptation after ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (2017) and ‘‘Death on the Nile’ (2022), ‘A Haunting in Venice’ is based on the author’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party’ and offers a supernatural take on the detective’s investigation. After being an audience to a séance in a palazzo in Venice, Italy, Poirot (Branagh) finds himself in the company of a killer who seems to be beyond the natural. The deaths that occur seem to be connected to the palazzo’s dark past and Poirot has to hurry if he wants to find the killer before the killer gets to him. To find out if the Belgian mastermind can associate reason and logic with the inexplicable events, you can watch the film on Hulu.
The following movies are available on Paramount and Tubi:
2. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Based on Christie’s 1934 novel of the same name, this Sidney Lumet directorial follows famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot who boards the lavish Orient Express that will take him from Istanbul to London where another case awaits. He denies American businessman Samuel Ratchett’s offer to be hired as a bodyguard (Ratchett has received threats in the form of letters) and finds the latter dead the next morning. Among his suspects are the first-class passengers, each of whom, as he soon finds out, has a reason to kill. How Poirot manages to find the murderer is what we get to see.
While Poirot is played by Albert Finney, the rest of the passengers are played by Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Jacqueline Bisset. The film received 6 nominations at the 1975 Academy Awards out of which it won for Best Supporting Actress (Ingrid Bergman). You can watch it on Paramount+.
1. Appointment with Death (1988)
Another Hercule Poirot adaptation, this film is based on Agatha Christie’s 1938 novel of the same name. Directed by Michael Winner, ‘Appointment with Death’ follows the Belgian detective (Peter Ustinov) as he investigates the murder of widowed dominating stepmother Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) in Jerusalem. She was disliked by her three children, Raymond (John Terlesky), Lennox (Nicholas Guest), and Carol (Valerie Richards,) as she wanted to destroy their father’ will wherein he left a hefty amount of money for each of the siblings. This naturally makes them the suspects.
Also within the circle of Poirot’s suspicion, we have MP Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), family lawyer Jefferson Cope (David Soul) who was being blackmailed by Emily to destroy the will, and Lennox’s wife Nadine (Carrie Fisher). To find out who the killer is, you can watch the film on Tubi.
Read More: Best Agatha Christie Style Movies and Shows on Netflix
