6 Great Agatha Christie Movies That Don't Feature Hercule Poirot

Published Sep 25, 2026, 6:30 PM EDT Sky Blanton is a Movie Contributor at ScreenRant with professional experience covering movies, television, and pop culture. Her published work spans news, interviews, features, and opinion pieces, with a focus on film, franchise storytelling, and the entertainment industry. She earned her bachelor's degree in Communications with a concentration in Professional Writing and a minor in Business Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Agatha Christie is one of the most influential mystery writers in history, with her stories inspiring countless movies, television shows, and stage productions. Known for intricate plots, elaborate murder schemes, and unforgettable detectives, Christie helped define the modern murder mystery. Her work has remained remarkably adaptable, with filmmakers returning to her stories for decades and reimagining them for new generations. When it comes to Christie's movies, however, one character tends to dominate the conversation. Hercule Poirot. The meticulous Belgian detective has appeared in numerous film adaptations, including Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and A Haunting in Venice. Poirot's popularity has made him one of the most recognizable faces of Christie's projects, but he represents only one part of her enormous body of work. Christie created plenty of mysteries that don't involve Poirot at all, and filmmakers have brought many of them to the big screen. From isolated murder mysteries to explosive family dramas, these movies show just how much variety there is in Christie's work beyond her most famous detective. 6 And Then There Were None (1945) Directed by René Clair There is something especially fun about watching a mystery where almost everyone has something to hide. And Then There Were None drops ten strangers onto an isolated island, where they soon discover that their host has gathered them there for a very specific reason. As the accusations begin and the body count rises, the group has to figure out who among them is responsible before there is no one left to accuse. The 1945 film, directed by René Clair, was one of the first major movie adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novel and features a cast including Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, and June Duprez. Rather than bringing in Hercule Poirot to investigate, the movie leaves the characters trapped on the island with each other, forcing them to figure out what is happening as the situation gets worse. The movie does not follow the novel exactly. Christie’s original ending was changed for the 1945 adaptation, which gives the film a different resolution while keeping the while sticking to the novel's basic premise. Keeping all the characters together on the island makes the mystery extremely tense. There is no Poirot arriving to sort through the evidence or explain the killer’s plan. Instead, the audience is stuck on the island with the same suspects as the characters, watching the group try to work out what is happening before the next murder. 5 The Mirror Crack'd (1980) If The Mirror Crack'd had been made a few decades later, its cast would probably be the first thing people talked about. The 1980 mystery stars Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, and Kim Novak also appearing in major roles. It is based on Christie's 1962 novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, which gives Miss Marple another murder to investigate in the fictional village of St. Mary Mead. The movie begins when a local woman dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail at a party held by movie star Marina Rudd. Since Marina was the apparent target of the poisoning, the police have to figure out why someone would want her dead. Miss Marple, meanwhile, starts looking into the people surrounding Marina and the events that took place before the murder. Lansbury makes Miss Marple her own. She brings more energy to the role than some versions of the character, while the movie surrounds her with a cast of actors who were major Hollywood stars at the time. The murder eventually turns out to be connected to Marina's past, which gives the investigation a much more personal angle than the opening scene suggests. Lansbury's Miss Marple has to work through that history while the police focus on the immediate suspects. 4 Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Agatha Christie did not need a country estate or an isolated village to build a great mystery. Witness for the Prosecution takes most of its story into a courtroom, where the question is not just who committed a murder, but whether the man accused of it actually did. Billy Wilder's 1957 adaptation stars Charles Laughton as Sir Wilfrid Robarts, a barrister who agrees to defend Leonard Vole, played by Tyrone Power, after Vole is accused of murdering a wealthy widow. Marlene Dietrich plays Vole's wife, Christine, whose testimony becomes increasingly important as the trial gets underway. Sir Wilfrid has to deal with conflicting accounts of what happened, while the prosecution builds a case that could send his client to prison for the rest of his life. The courtroom setting gives Christie a different way to play with the idea of who can be trusted, especially when the people testifying under oath may not be telling the whole truth. Laughton gives Sir Wilfrid a sharp sense of humor and plenty of personality, particularly in the courtroom scenes. The film was also a major awards contender, picking up six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Laughton. Unlike many of Christie's better-known adaptations, there is no famous detective at the center of Witness for the Prosecution. The story instead depends on the lawyers, witnesses, and accused man in the courtroom, with each new piece of testimony changing what the audience thinks it knows about the case. 3 Crooked House (2017) A wealthy family with more secrets than anyone wants to admit is pretty much the perfect setup for an Agatha Christie mystery. Crooked House follows Charles Hayward, a private detective who becomes involved with the Leonides family after its wealthy patriarch, Aristide, dies under suspicious circumstances. The problem is that nearly everyone in the family has a reason to resent him, and several of them could have wanted him dead. Gilles Paquet-Brenner's 2017 adaptation features Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Christina Hendricks, Max Irons, and Terence Stamp in a cast full of characters who are not particularly interested in helping Charles solve the case. Charles also has a personal connection to the family, since he was once engaged to Aristide's granddaughter, Sophia. That makes the investigation more complicated than just questioning a group of strangers. The movie is based on one of Christie's later novels, published in 1949, and it has a very different setup from her Poirot stories. Charles is not some legendary detective who can immediately spot the smallest detail. He is an outsider trying to figure out which members of the family are lying to him, while the family itself seems determined to keep its problems behind closed doors. The result is a Christie mystery where the family drama is almost as important as the murder. 2 The Secret of Chimneys (2010) The Secret of Chimneys is a bit of an oddball compared with the other movies on this list. The 2010 TV movie follows Anne Beddingfeld, a young woman who takes a job as a secretary and quickly gets pulled into an international mystery. Her new job brings her to Chimneys, an English country estate filled with wealthy guests, political connections, and more secrets than Anne expected to find. Based on Christie's 1925 novel, the movie stars Julie Graham as Anne, with Edward Fox and Matthew Macfadyen in supporting roles. Anne is not a professional detective, and she has no idea what she has gotten herself into when the mystery starts unfolding around her. She has to piece things together while the people around her seem to know far more than they are willing to say. 1 The Pale Horse (1997) Things get strange pretty quickly in The Pale Horse. The 1997 TV adaptation follows Mark Easterbrook after he hears about a group of women who are rumored to be witches. Several people connected to them have died under suspicious circumstances, and Mark starts wondering if there is actually a connection between the deaths. His investigation eventually leads him to the Pale Horse, an inn with an unsettling reputation. Colin Buchanan plays Mark, with Jean Marsh, Julia Sawalha, and Andy Serkis also appearing in the cast. Since there is no Poirot or Miss Marple here, Mark has to work out the mystery himself. And there is a lot for him to figure out, especially when the possibility of witchcraft starts to seem less ridiculous than it initially sounds. The movie is based on the 1961 Agatha Christie novel, which is one of her more unusual mysteries. The story keeps bouncing between a perfectly ordinary explanation and the possibility that something supernatural is going on, and that uncertainty hangs over the investigation for most of the movie. Release Date December 17, 1957 Runtime 116 Minutes Director Billy Wilder