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Agatha Christie movies have been in demand since the advent of Hollywood cinema. She published over 125 written works, including 74 novels, selling more than two billion copies, making her the second best-selling fiction author ever. The first Agatha Christie movie came in 1928 with the first non-English language adaptation coming a year later. Foreign filmmakers have taken a particular liking to Christie's work. Of more than 30 film adaptations, 14 are non-English adaptations.

Even today, Christie's mystery novels remain popular among readers worldwide. They are still being adapted into television series and movies, whether they're stand-alone stories or part of the mysteries solved by Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. While miniseries and special presentations on television tend to be more common than movies, new Agatha Christie movies also continue to be released. However, the best Agatha Christie movies appeal to fans of the novels as much as they do those who have never read her works.

Universal’s explosion of the horror genre in the 1930s gave us two legendary actors in Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Lugosi, who I’ve covered before in this column, was the leading-man type in that whomever he played, he was still pretty much Bela Lugosi (arguments could be made either way as to whether this was to his benefit or his detriment). Karloff, however, often had a tendency to get lost in his roles. Granted, part of this was done via the magic of FX. In movies like Frankenstein and The Mummy, Jack Pierce covered Karloff in enough prosthetics to make him unrecognizable. But credit must also be given to Karloff’s performances. Few people could pull off his take as Frankenstein’s monster where even with his face completely covered, and not a word of dialogue in script, he still managed to make this hulking monster come across as sympathetic.

How could England have won the war without him? Horatio Smith sneaks about in Nazi Germany, liberating concentration camp inmates right under the noses of the Gestapo. Leslie Howard directed and stars in this wartime escapist spy thriller, as a witty professor too passive to be suspected as the mystery spy.

‘Pimpernel’ Smith

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 121 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Morris, Allan Jeayes, Peter Gawthorne, Hugh McDermott, David Tomlinson, Raymond Huntley, Sebastian Cabot, Irene Handl, Ronald Howard, Michael Rennie.

Cinematography Mutz Greenbaum

Camera Operators Guy Green, Jack Hildyard

Film Editor Douglas Myers

Original Music John Greenwood

Written by Anatole de Grunwald, Roland Pertwee, A.G. Macdonell, Wolfgang Wilhelm based on a character by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Produced by Leslie Howard, Harold Huth

Directed by Leslie Howard

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

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