In the book the fact that Santonix was dying mattered, and he virtually begged the man not to murder his wife was vital, that the man's mother knew what he was and hated the evil in him. It is one of Christine's darkest novels.
I loved the Ellie ghost scene. It was just too windy. You can see Hayley trying to keep hold of that tree- which was a live human thing to do. Congratulations on the role!
I love the "otherworldly" description of Ellie. Hayley Mills captures it perfectly in the '70's movie. She's genuinely sweet (not mawkish) fragile, childlike and completely trusting. It makes her murder even more heartbreaking and horrific.
Love your reviews! Endless Night is one of the very few Christie books that left me a bit disturbed and shocked. I agree with the interpretation that Mike really did love Ellie and it makes the story even more shocking to me. I like Miss Marple in the adaptation. But there are some moments where she just pops out of the nowhere and feels hilariously out of place 😀
12:37 Ah, the paradox of any media good commenter: when you can recognize the strengths of a work and praise its elements... and still not personally enjoy it overall. No shame in that, it just means you're honest. I've been there, and personal preference can be fickle. CONGRATULATIONS MILES!! How fun! And you'll make an excellent Wadsworth, I'm sure. We'll be waiting when you return.
Spoilers :I've not seen the films, I definitely will, but I feel this story likely works better in the written form. the unreliable narration adds some nice gothic, Poe-esque atmosphere to it. Although it's pretty easy to guess what's happening, even before it happens, especially if you've read a lot of Agatha before, the whole "I'm my own villain/detective /judge" idea is really well executed & interesting. I feel that adding marple would take us away from the main character's psychology.
Congratulation for getting the role! I hope it would be a success. And thank you for sharing your thought about 'Endless Night'. I love that novel. It is beautiful, dreamy, but sad and eerie at the same time. The plot twist worked very well. But since I have known such twist in 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd', the impact for me was not as big. The thing that impacted me the most from 'Endless Night' was Mike's realization that he loved his wife, Ellie. That he could be happy with her. That he lost his chance to be truly happy by exchanging her with a cheap woman like Greta, instead. I think that was why he killed Greta. Not only to eliminate a witness, but also because Mike blamed Greta for persuading him killing Ellie. I agree with you: it is a very important element of the story. Too bad the ITV adaptation lost it.
Great video. I had seen a fair few Agatha Christie TV adaptations over the years, mostly just by virtue of being in my Gran’s house, she loved Christie’s books and the adaptations. But until recently I had never read any Christie books, but I started to recently and this channel is one of the reasons I started. While I enjoy the novels I’ve read, I really love her short stories, particularly Harley Quin. So, thank you. My Gran would be delighted.
Amazing, Congratulations! All the best for the role! And thanks for amazing review. Endless night was one of the first books I read from dame Christie. The suspence and the charachters in the book is brilliant and so I didn't care too much when miss Marple appeared in the movie. But you make me see miss Marple isn't the problem for me, it is the more modern athmosphere in the movie. The older adaptation looks much more of my alley.
How very interesting! I have not read or seen either version, but I see what you're describing as something genuinely tricky to pull off. Here is a cunning murderous monster who genuinely falls in love, but doesn't realize it, doesn't know when he is happy. That is a really compelling idea! But...a tricky series of needle to thread. Many thanks for this!
It is a bit of a coda on DOTN, we never understand Simon psychologically, but in this version we appreciate it more clearly, it is actually a proper advance for Christie as a writer, but unfortunately she started to develop Alzheimer's/ a dementia problem not long after.
In the short story The Caretaker by Agatha Christie this story is solved by Miss Marple. She is confined to bed due to a cold or something and her doctor brings her the problem to keep her occupied. I had seen, and enjoyed, the Hayley Mills version in the 70s or 80s but didn't realise it was a Christie until I read the book in the 2000s. I wasn't entirely happy with the latest adaptation of the story but because I also knew (by then) about the short story I thought putting Miss Marple into the story was an interesting idea. I would still have preferred a straight book adaptation however. I have read everything by Christie and think most of her books without Marple and Poirot are better and I prefer the Marple stories to the Poirot ones.
If Mike truly had no feelings he wouldn't have been haunted by Ellie's ghost. The only reason he would see her ghost was if on some level he DID regret
I like the film adaptation very much, it captured Mike's POV and his downfall. I didn't like the tv adaptation for the same reason you did. It took out the emotional center of the book and the arc of Mike's character.
Yes. This is the only one of the Marple insertions that actually seemed to work and avoid giving offence. Silly not to name the house Gypsy Acre as the association with curses and clairvoyance, both of which have been attributed to gypsies, plays an important part in the plot. That’s how Agatha Christie wrote it. The past is the past - a foreign country - they do things differently there! NB The actresses playing Ellie and Greta in the older film look oddly similar, like sisters!
Yes; Mike was still the main character, and Marple works in that it's more of a tragic friendship. She likes him and he likes her.....but he's still a cold blooded killer and sociopath. Unlike many summations she's just sad rather than angry or triumphant
I think Endless Night as the almost perfect Christie book. I hated the Marple version and it's the way that Michael is played. In the book, I felt that Michael had a tiny conscience, that if he had allowed Ellie to properly nurture, could have made him a good man, but by taking the wrong path drives him mad. The Michael in the movie was a sociopath, who would have happily murder the entire village, then sit down to a seven course dinner, with a fine cognac.
I enjoy watching your reviews of Agatha Christie novels. I was wondering if you could review a Poirot novel - The Mystery of the Blue Train? I would’ve viewed this story as Murder on the Orient Express Lite
One thing I liked is that Mike probably DOES genuinely like Marple.....but would still kill her if she got in his way. Marple truly liked him and thought him a nice young man, which made it a real gutpunch for her to learn what he truly was......and she also likes Ellie, which makes her angry at what he did.
The one thing that took me out of the story was that they changed the usual format. They wanted to keep the unreliable narrator twist, when Marple usually doesn’t have a narrator, so it stood out like a sore thumb. Other than that her re-addition was perfectly fine in my book. Hi realisation that he truly loved Ellie sounds like a Greek tragedy on paper - but he is supposed to be a character who has “endless night” in his heart. He’s missing basic human qualities. Are we really supposed to believe that he was capable of love all of a sudden? Maybe he regretted his acts because he realised that his life with Greta wasn’t going to be as wonderful as he had imagined, but his remorse rings hollow. It’s not truly aimed at Ellie, he never contemplates what he’s taken from her. It’s only about what he has lost, what he could’ve had. So, Miss Marple pointing out that that’s not actually love didn’t offend me. Christie was very fond of the trope: man really loved the plainer (original) woman all along, not the siren who stole him from her. We’ve seen it in a variety of stories, from Death on the Nile to Evil Under the Sun, and it appears she pulled it out of her hat one more time here, but I’m not really buying it.
I watched this first so my impression is probably biased but I liked it a great deal; Mike still felt like the main character, and the tragic friendship between Marple and Mike is well done. Marple honestly thinks he's a nice young man and the actor sells how charming he can seem, so the reveal that he's actually a stone cold sociopath is utterly devastating for her.
I didn’t know that one of the words in Gipsy’s Acre is now considered to be a slur on “Romanic people”. Obviously there was no agreement on that at the time Christie wrote the novel.
It's cool that you think that way, but the Romani people themselves consider it a slur, at least when referring to them. We can assume "Gypsy's Acre" referred to such people living in Britain at the time, or even if you don't assume that, it's still better to err on the side of caution and be respectful of the wishes of minorities.
@@amazingtheatre1262 Okay, well, a sizeable portion of the Romani population do, and they voted unanimously on the matter at an international forum over 50 years ago.
@@amazingtheatre1262 The First World Romani Congress, in 1971, which took place while the Romani people continued to face genocidal acts (especially in Europe) such as forced sterilization.
I disagree in only one point: It's not a big plot twist. As soon as Greta comes up I knew she and Michael were in cahoots. It's a very obvious story line and ending. Same with the richest girl character... as soon as she said she's fabulously rich I thought "well, she's dead". Not my favourite TBH. But the adaptation was good, I enjoyed it.
Noticed you didn't mention the lead actor in the film Endless Night. Hywel Bennett was the wonderful Welsh actor and it was wrong of you not to mention him. Maybe you were unable to pronounce his name? Not good!
You're right, I should've mentioned him. My apologies. Is his name pronounced "hyool"? Like Hugh but with an L at the end? I'm Welsh on my mom's side, so I like trying to pronounce Welsh names and words.
@@MysteryMiles it's pronounced as...Hugh as in Hugh Grant with an el so Hughel ,in Wales, but often pronounced Howel by the English which is also acceptable. Thanks for your interesting take on Endless Night, one of my favourite AC novels as it's a departure from her norm. Thanks for trying with your Welsh. 👍
I was very disappointed in this adaption. I felt it was horribly miscast all the way around. Ellie was not lovable or sweet (she was bossy and annoying), Mike did not have a bad boy vibe (he was too low energy, too much like a college professor in training, and never laughed), Greta looked exactly like Cora's younger twin and had zero believability as someone Mike was mad for, and the obligatory manipulation of a character to introduce same secs into the plot was disappointing. In the novel, Ellie's frank admission that she knows what Mike is really like is important, but it was lost in this adaption. Mike's obsession with his house is lost. The house just happens. Mike's realization that he went the wrong way, his final inevitable transformation into a brutal hands-on killer followed by utter emptiness and his immediate descent into insanity (the true impact of his journey into Endless Night) is lost. Although the 70's version wasn't as beautifully costumed and filmed, it was more faithful in delivering the story - the story of a soul that could have attained happiness and joy, but instead reached out for Endless Night. Thank you for giving this place to say this :) I think Endless Night is the best Agatha Christie story, and I have the full library. I remember my shock at the onset of the ending the first time I read it. I think my hair actually stood on end! So my expectations of any adaption are high.
I hate this adaptation. Miss Marple was so dramatic and pathetic. It's like a soap opera with triller elements. I was surprised to learn, that there are people, who like it.
In some cases it worked in others it didn't. This one was more mixed; I liked her and Mike's tragic friendship, and the chemistry the actors shared was great
Why? @jmarie9997 The adaptation was a way for one of Agatha Christie's better yet typically ignored stories to reach a new audience. And honestly the resulting adaptation is very good, in my opinion, regardless of the changes it makes. The book is still there, though, untouched, and you can just skip the adaptation if you're a purist.
In the book the fact that Santonix was dying mattered, and he virtually begged the man not to murder his wife was vital, that the man's mother knew what he was and hated the evil in him. It is one of Christine's darkest novels.
Wadsworth!! Congratulations!! I bet that will be so much fun!
I loved the Ellie ghost scene. It was just too windy. You can see Hayley trying to keep hold of that tree- which was a live human thing to do. Congratulations on the role!
The 1970s version with the moving floor over the swimming pool was so rad!
I love the "otherworldly" description of Ellie. Hayley Mills captures it perfectly in the '70's movie. She's genuinely sweet (not mawkish) fragile, childlike and completely trusting. It makes her murder even more heartbreaking and horrific.
Love your reviews! Endless Night is one of the very few Christie books that left me a bit disturbed and shocked. I agree with the interpretation that Mike really did love Ellie and it makes the story even more shocking to me. I like Miss Marple in the adaptation. But there are some moments where she just pops out of the nowhere and feels hilariously out of place 😀
It’s Christie’s only book I’ve only read once. I found is so disturbing and sad. Elllie was the only Christie victim I really cared for.
12:37 Ah, the paradox of any media good commenter: when you can recognize the strengths of a work and praise its elements... and still not personally enjoy it overall. No shame in that, it just means you're honest. I've been there, and personal preference can be fickle.
CONGRATULATIONS MILES!! How fun! And you'll make an excellent Wadsworth, I'm sure. We'll be waiting when you return.
I love this adaptation. It's soooo much better than the other ones with Miss Marple added
I liked Marple's friendship with Mike, which makes it harder when she learns his true nature
Spoilers :I've not seen the films, I definitely will, but I feel this story likely works better in the written form. the unreliable narration adds some nice gothic, Poe-esque atmosphere to it. Although it's pretty easy to guess what's happening, even before it happens, especially if you've read a lot of Agatha before, the whole "I'm my own villain/detective /judge" idea is really well executed & interesting. I feel that adding marple would take us away from the main character's psychology.
Congratulation for getting the role! I hope it would be a success. And thank you for sharing your thought about 'Endless Night'. I love that novel. It is beautiful, dreamy, but sad and eerie at the same time. The plot twist worked very well. But since I have known such twist in 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd', the impact for me was not as big. The thing that impacted me the most from 'Endless Night' was Mike's realization that he loved his wife, Ellie. That he could be happy with her. That he lost his chance to be truly happy by exchanging her with a cheap woman like Greta, instead. I think that was why he killed Greta. Not only to eliminate a witness, but also because Mike blamed Greta for persuading him killing Ellie. I agree with you: it is a very important element of the story. Too bad the ITV adaptation lost it.
Great video. I had seen a fair few Agatha Christie TV adaptations over the years, mostly just by virtue of being in my Gran’s house, she loved Christie’s books and the adaptations. But until recently I had never read any Christie books, but I started to recently and this channel is one of the reasons I started. While I enjoy the novels I’ve read, I really love her short stories, particularly Harley Quin. So, thank you. My Gran would be delighted.
Ooh, hopefully we get to see a recording of the play, I want to see how good your acting is! 😊
Amazing, Congratulations! All the best for the role! And thanks for amazing review. Endless night was one of the first books I read from dame Christie. The suspence and the charachters in the book is brilliant and so I didn't care too much when miss Marple appeared in the movie. But you make me see miss Marple isn't the problem for me, it is the more modern athmosphere in the movie. The older adaptation looks much more of my alley.
How very interesting! I have not read or seen either version, but I see what you're describing as something genuinely tricky to pull off. Here is a cunning murderous monster who genuinely falls in love, but doesn't realize it, doesn't know when he is happy. That is a really compelling idea! But...a tricky series of needle to thread. Many thanks for this!
Congratulations on the casting. :) I hope you enjoy it in the moment.
Congrats on the casting as Wadsworth. Who knows, maybe The Rocky Horror Picture Show could be next?!?
Fantastic review! I have never seen the film but Mill and Sanders, that's yes in my book.
Congratulations! Clue is such a clever story.
Saw this video awhile back - and as a result finally saw the Halley Mill's version; wow, what an excellent movie. Thanks!
Congrats on getting cast!
Hope you have a great time with the show
Great review about one of my favourite Agatha Christie books, I wasn't too fond of the 2013 adaption either. Congrats too!!
I felt it worked well; Marple and Mike's friendship really sold it and it was sad or her to learn his true nature.
Congratulations!! Love Clue. Wadsworth will be a fun character to play.
I enjoyed the book but the twists felt like a rehash of Roger Ackroyd and Death on the Nile
It is a bit of a coda on DOTN, we never understand Simon psychologically, but in this version we appreciate it more clearly, it is actually a proper advance for Christie as a writer, but unfortunately she started to develop Alzheimer's/ a dementia problem not long after.
Wow this is an old version, Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett? Oh my 60's heart be still
In the short story The Caretaker by Agatha Christie this story is solved by Miss Marple. She is confined to bed due to a cold or something and her doctor brings her the problem to keep her occupied. I had seen, and enjoyed, the Hayley Mills version in the 70s or 80s but didn't realise it was a Christie until I read the book in the 2000s. I wasn't entirely happy with the latest adaptation of the story but because I also knew (by then) about the short story I thought putting Miss Marple into the story was an interesting idea. I would still have preferred a straight book adaptation however. I have read everything by Christie and think most of her books without Marple and Poirot are better and I prefer the Marple stories to the Poirot ones.
Don't be gone too long! Break a leg!
Great review. I think I have to disagree with you. I like the idea of Mike as a sociopath. Oh! And congrats on the getting Wadsworth!😊
If Mike truly had no feelings he wouldn't have been haunted by Ellie's ghost. The only reason he would see her ghost was if on some level he DID regret
9:24 what in the french toast is that kissing he is doing??
I like the film adaptation very much, it captured Mike's POV and his downfall. I didn't like the tv adaptation for the same reason you did. It took out the emotional center of the book and the arc of Mike's character.
Yes. This is the only one of the Marple insertions that actually seemed to work and avoid giving offence.
Silly not to name the house Gypsy Acre as the association with curses and clairvoyance, both of which have been attributed to gypsies, plays an important part in the plot. That’s how Agatha Christie wrote it. The past is the past - a foreign country - they do things differently there!
NB The actresses playing Ellie and Greta in the older film look oddly similar, like sisters!
Yes; Mike was still the main character, and Marple works in that it's more of a tragic friendship. She likes him and he likes her.....but he's still a cold blooded killer and sociopath. Unlike many summations she's just sad rather than angry or triumphant
I think Endless Night as the almost perfect Christie book. I hated the Marple version and it's the way that Michael is played. In the book, I felt that Michael had a tiny conscience, that if he had allowed Ellie to properly nurture, could have made him a good man, but by taking the wrong path drives him mad.
The Michael in the movie was a sociopath, who would have happily murder the entire village, then sit down to a seven course dinner, with a fine cognac.
I found the friendship between Marple and Michael rather tragic.
I enjoy watching your reviews of Agatha Christie novels. I was wondering if you could review a Poirot novel - The Mystery of the Blue Train?
I would’ve viewed this story as Murder on the Orient Express Lite
Blue Train is on the list!
One thing I liked is that Mike probably DOES genuinely like Marple.....but would still kill her if she got in his way. Marple truly liked him and thought him a nice young man, which made it a real gutpunch for her to learn what he truly was......and she also likes Ellie, which makes her angry at what he did.
The one thing that took me out of the story was that they changed the usual format. They wanted to keep the unreliable narrator twist, when Marple usually doesn’t have a narrator, so it stood out like a sore thumb. Other than that her re-addition was perfectly fine in my book.
Hi realisation that he truly loved Ellie sounds like a Greek tragedy on paper - but he is supposed to be a character who has “endless night” in his heart. He’s missing basic human qualities. Are we really supposed to believe that he was capable of love all of a sudden? Maybe he regretted his acts because he realised that his life with Greta wasn’t going to be as wonderful as he had imagined, but his remorse rings hollow. It’s not truly aimed at Ellie, he never contemplates what he’s taken from her. It’s only about what he has lost, what he could’ve had. So, Miss Marple pointing out that that’s not actually love didn’t offend me.
Christie was very fond of the trope: man really loved the plainer (original) woman all along, not the siren who stole him from her. We’ve seen it in a variety of stories, from Death on the Nile to Evil Under the Sun, and it appears she pulled it out of her hat one more time here, but I’m not really buying it.
I watched this first so my impression is probably biased but I liked it a great deal; Mike still felt like the main character, and the tragic friendship between Marple and Mike is well done. Marple honestly thinks he's a nice young man and the actor sells how charming he can seem, so the reveal that he's actually a stone cold sociopath is utterly devastating for her.
Congratulations. Wadsworth is the best role. Are you doing all the alternative endings in one performance or a different ending every performance?
Thank you! I believe the stage play version contains multiple endings, though they might be slightly different from the ones in the movie.
Good luck with you!
Wadsworth?! Congratulations! That's worth a bit of a delay.
Can you do one for poirot Sad Cypress?
Not sure when it'll happen, but most definitely. :)
Thank You Miles Ledoux 😊
I didn’t know that one of the words in Gipsy’s Acre is now considered to be a slur on “Romanic people”. Obviously there was no agreement on that at the time Christie wrote the novel.
It's cool that you think that way, but the Romani people themselves consider it a slur, at least when referring to them. We can assume "Gypsy's Acre" referred to such people living in Britain at the time, or even if you don't assume that, it's still better to err on the side of caution and be respectful of the wishes of minorities.
Ok but the Romani people I know don’t consider it derogatory at all
@@amazingtheatre1262 Okay, well, a sizeable portion of the Romani population do, and they voted unanimously on the matter at an international forum over 50 years ago.
@@BowieZ what forum was that?
@@amazingtheatre1262 The First World Romani Congress, in 1971, which took place while the Romani people continued to face genocidal acts (especially in Europe) such as forced sterilization.
You aren’t in the minority as regards Endless Night. Far from it
Why is Gypsy's Acre a slur?
now.org/blog/the-g-word-isnt-for-you-how-gypsy-erases-romani-women/
I disagree in only one point: It's not a big plot twist. As soon as Greta comes up I knew she and Michael were in cahoots. It's a very obvious story line and ending. Same with the richest girl character... as soon as she said she's fabulously rich I thought "well, she's dead". Not my favourite TBH. But the adaptation was good, I enjoyed it.
Noticed you didn't mention the lead actor in the film Endless Night. Hywel Bennett was the wonderful Welsh actor and it was wrong of you not to mention him. Maybe you were unable to pronounce his name? Not good!
You're right, I should've mentioned him. My apologies. Is his name pronounced "hyool"? Like Hugh but with an L at the end? I'm Welsh on my mom's side, so I like trying to pronounce Welsh names and words.
@@MysteryMiles it's pronounced as...Hugh as in Hugh Grant with an el so Hughel ,in Wales, but often pronounced Howel by the English which is also acceptable. Thanks for your interesting take on Endless Night, one of my favourite AC novels as it's a departure from her norm. Thanks for trying with your Welsh. 👍
I was very disappointed in this adaption. I felt it was horribly miscast all the way around. Ellie was not lovable or sweet (she was bossy and annoying), Mike did not have a bad boy vibe (he was too low energy, too much like a college professor in training, and never laughed), Greta looked exactly like Cora's younger twin and had zero believability as someone Mike was mad for, and the obligatory manipulation of a character to introduce same secs into the plot was disappointing. In the novel, Ellie's frank admission that she knows what Mike is really like is important, but it was lost in this adaption. Mike's obsession with his house is lost. The house just happens. Mike's realization that he went the wrong way, his final inevitable transformation into a brutal hands-on killer followed by utter emptiness and his immediate descent into insanity (the true impact of his journey into Endless Night) is lost. Although the 70's version wasn't as beautifully costumed and filmed, it was more faithful in delivering the story - the story of a soul that could have attained happiness and joy, but instead reached out for Endless Night.
Thank you for giving this place to say this :) I think Endless Night is the best Agatha Christie story, and I have the full library. I remember my shock at the onset of the ending the first time I read it. I think my hair actually stood on end! So my expectations of any adaption are high.
Mr marple even didnt appear in the endless night book, i dont think put her in the live action film is good idea, its screwing originality
I wasn't as bothered; Mike's still the star and the actors have GREAT chemistry
I hate this adaptation. Miss Marple was so dramatic and pathetic. It's like a soap opera with triller elements. I was surprised to learn, that there are people, who like it.
I liked it overall; Mike's still the star of the show and Marple works as the old woman who likes him and is heartbroken to see what he really is.
I really hate how Miss Marple was shoehorned into so many non-Marple stories.
In some cases it worked in others it didn't. This one was more mixed; I liked her and Mike's tragic friendship, and the chemistry the actors shared was great
Why? @jmarie9997 The adaptation was a way for one of Agatha Christie's better yet typically ignored stories to reach a new audience. And honestly the resulting adaptation is very good, in my opinion, regardless of the changes it makes. The book is still there, though, untouched, and you can just skip the adaptation if you're a purist.
this was excellent---break a leg!!🔦🗡🪦🗝