Agatha

"On December 4th, 1926, Agatha Christie, the world's most famous mystery writer, disappeared. What may have happened during the next eleven days is far more suspenseful than anything she ever wrote."

1979 1h 39m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 68

DramaMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

England, 1926. An American journalist looks for mystery writer Agatha Christie when she suddenly disappears without explanation, leaving no trace.

“On December 4th, 1926, Agatha Christie, the world's most famous mystery writer, disappeared. What may have happened during the next eleven days is far more suspenseful than anything she ever wrote.”

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Cast

Dustin Hoffman
Wally Stanton
Vanessa Redgrave
Agatha Christie
Timothy Dalton
Archie Christie
Helen Morse
Evelyn
Celia Gregory
Nancy Neele
Paul Brooke
John Foster
Carolyn Pickles
Charlotte Fisher
Timothy West
Kenward

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michael Apted
Writers: Arthur Hopcraft, Kathleen Tynan, Kathleen Tynan
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michael Apted, shot by Vittorio Storaro. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Johnny Mandel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jim Clark shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Dalton carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "On December 4th, 1926, Agatha Christie, the world's most famous mystery writer, disappeared. What may have happened during the next eleven days is far more suspenseful than anything she ever wrote.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michael Apted directs. Vittorio Storaro behind the camera. Johnny Mandel scores. Jim Clark cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
247 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Directed by Michael Apted, shot by Vittorio Storaro. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Johnny Mandel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Jim Clark shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Dalton carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "On December 4th, 1926, Agatha Christie, the world's most famous mystery writer, disappeared. What may have happened during the next eleven days is far more suspenseful than anything she ever wrote.".
9IMDB entry: tt0078736 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 68 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
11Classified under 10 themes, including "journalist", "husband wife relationship", "england", "historical figure".

The technical file

Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro
Original score: Johnny Mandel
Editing: Jim Clark
Production design: Shirley Russell
Costume design: Shirley Russell
Makeup / hair: Wally Schneiderman
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,500,000
Box office: $7,500,000
Return: 214% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Agatha (1979)

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Michael Apted

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-06-09
★ 6/10
Distraught that her husband (Timothy Dalton) has asked her for a divorce, renowned author Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) takes off from her home in the dead of night without telling anyone where she is going. She doesn’t get so far before a car accident puts her afoot and has the police trying to track her down. She, meantime, takes up residence under a pseudonym in an hotel where it looks like she is researching for a future novel that might use electricity and water as tools of the trade! Meantime, her husband is proving to be a bit of a pain for the police (Timothy West) who are trying to establish if she is even still alive. American journalist “Stanton” (Dustin Hoffman) was supposed to have been given an interview with Mrs. Christie and irked that that is now in a abeyance determines to try to piece together the clues himself and see if he can’t track her down. He’s quite persuasive and charming and so it would seem to only be a matter of time before she is discovered. What will he find, though, and will she want anything to do with him if he is successful? It’s all a rather sterile affair this, and Redgrave’s usually passive style of acting does little to enliven the pedestrian pace of this lacklustre affair. Hoffman, likewise, seems to be merely going through the motions and though the entire thing has seen some considerable effort from the production designers and the costumiers the story just never really ignites. It’s obviously all speculative about what did really happen when she absconded, but surely Michael Apted and Kathleen Tynan could have been a little more imaginative and relied less on the aesthetic of the thing. It’s disappointing, sadly.

Production companies