See How They Run

Tom George came from television, with a BAFTA for the series This Country; this is his first feature. The starting point was a legal obstacle. Producer Damian Jones was told a stipulation in Agatha Christie’s original contract kept the screen rights to The Mousetrap out of reach, so the obstacle went into the script. The film opens in 1953, at the play’s 100th performance, with the backstage murder of the American director hired for the adaptation. Real figures appear as characters, among them Richard Attenborough, his wife Sheila Sim, the producer John Woolf and Christie herself. Filming ran in London’s West End during the third national lockdown, opening venues otherwise shut to a production, among them the Savoy Hotel, the Old Vic and the Dominion. Its single nomination at the 76th BAFTA Awards, Outstanding British Film, lost to The Banshees of Inisherin. It opened fourth in North America with $3.1 million from 2,404 cinemas, closing at $22 million worldwide. Audiences polled by CinemaScore that opening weekend graded it B minus. A good fit if you want a real rights deadlock turned into the plot of the mystery it blocked. Not for anyone expecting the comedy to stay soft; the BBFC content notes list a strangling with rope, a fatal blow to the head and blood pooling under a body.