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After The Funeral
''After the Funeral'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1953 under the title of ''Funerals are Fatal'' and in UK by the Collins Crime Club on 18 May of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6). A 1963 UK paperback issued by Fontana Books changed the title to ''Murder at the Gallop'' to tie in with the film version. The book features the author's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, but the ''Murder at the Gallop'' film adaptation instead featured her amateur sleuth, Miss Marple. A wealthy man dies at home. His relatives gather after his funeral for the reading of his will, during which his sister states that he was murdered. The next day, she herself is found murdered. Poirot is called in to solve the mystery. Plot summary Following the funeral of Richard Abernethie, his family assemble at Enderby Hall for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery ''The Mousetrap'', which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. ''Guinness World Records'' lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper middle class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rationing In The United Kingdom During And After World War II
Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war. At the start of the Second World War in 1939, the United Kingdom was importing 20 million long tons of food per year, including about 70% of its cheese and sugar, almost 80% of fruit and about 70% of cereals and fats. The UK also imported more than half of its meat and relied on imported feed to support its domestic meat production. The civilian population of the country was about 50 million. It was one of the principal strategies of the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic to attack shipping bound for Britain, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission. To deal with sometimes extreme shortages, the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. To buy most rationed items, each person had to register at chosen shops and was provided with a ration book containing coupons. The shopkeeper was provide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Born in Heidelberg and raised in Killarney, Fassbender made his feature film debut as a Spartan warrior in the fantasy war epic '' 300'' (2006). His earlier roles included various stage productions, as well as starring roles on television such as in the HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers'' (2001) and the Sky One fantasy drama '' Hex'' (2004–05). He first came to prominence for his role as IRA volunteer Bobby Sands in ''Hunger'' (2008), for which he won a British Independent Film Award. Subsequent roles include the independent film ''Fish Tank'' (2009), as a Royal Marines lieutenant in ''Inglourious Basterds'' (2009), as Edward Rochester in the 2011 film adaptation of ''Jane Eyre'', as Carl Jung in '' A D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Christie's Poirot
''Poirot'' (also known as ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'') is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet starred as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Hercule Poirot. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. The series also aired on VisionTV in Canada and on PBS and A&E in the United States. The programme ran for 13 series and 70 episodes in total; each episode was adapted from a novel or short story by Christie that featured Poirot, and consequently in each episode Poirot is both the main detective in charge of the investigation of a crime (usually murder) and the protagonist who is at the centre of most of the episode's action. At the programme's conclusion, which finished with " Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" (based on the 1975 novel ''Curtain'', the final Poirot novel), every major literary work by Christie that featured the title character had been adapte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Suchet
Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenheimer'' (1980) and received the RTS and BPG awards for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in the British serial ''The Way We Live Now'' (2001). International acclaim and recognition followed his performance as Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot in ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'' (1989–2013), for which he received a 1991 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination."The Actor Behind Popular 'Poirot" '' |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stringer Davis
James Buckley Stringer Davis, generally known as Stringer Davis (4 June 1899 – 29 August 1973), was an English character actor on the stage and in films, and a British army officer who served in both world wars. He was married to actress Margaret Rutherford. Early life Stringer Davis was born on 4 June 1899 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, son of Bank of England clerk George William Davis (1871–1948) and Ethel, daughter of J. Buckley Deakin, of Prince's Park, Liverpool. The Davis family were landed gentry, of Well Close, Brockworth, Gloucestershire; his first cousin was Admiral William Davis, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff from 1954 to 1957. The name "Stringer" came from a paternal great-grandfather, Miles Stringer, of Effingham Hill, Surrey, whose daughter Adelaide married William Davis, of Well Close. Davis attended the independent Uppingham School and received military basic training there. In August 1918, he volunteered for military service and was sent to the front in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, television and film. She came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's '' Blithe Spirit'', and Oscar Wilde's ''The Importance of Being Earnest''. She won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role as the Duchess of Brighton in '' The V.I.P.s'' (1963). In the early 1960s, she starred as Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple in a series of four George Pollock films. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 and a Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967. Early life Rutherford's early life was overshadowed by tragedies involving both of her parents. Her father, journalist and poet William Rutherford Benn, married Florence Nicholson on 16 December 1882 in Wandsworth, South London. One month after the marriage, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was admitted to Bethnal House Lunatic Asylum. Released ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the original inspiration comes from a scene featuring tomatoes in the Canadian film ''Léolo'' (1992). Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster, which was in turn acquired by Warner Bros in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. History Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12, 1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His objective in creating Rotten Tomatoes was "to create a site where people can get access to reviews from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Pollock (director)
George Pollock (27 March 1907 – 22 December 1979) was a British people, British film director, best known for bringing Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie's detective Miss Marple to the big screen for the first time, starring Margaret Rutherford. Life and work Born in Leicester, England in 1907, Pollock began his professional career as an assistant director, assistant film director in 1936. He collaborated in the 1940s with David Lean on such films as ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), ''Great Expectations (1946 film), Great Expectations'' (1946), and ''Oliver Twist (1948 film), Oliver Twist'' (1948). His first film as director was ''Stranger in Town (1957 film), Stranger in Town'' in 1957. However, he is best remembered for bringing the Agatha Christie character Miss Marple to the big screen for the first time in 1961 with ''Murder She Said''. He directed three more Miss Marple adaptations: ''Murder at the Gallop'' (1963), ''Murder Most Foul (film), Murder Most Foul'' (1964), and ''Murde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder At The Gallop
''Murder at the Gallop'' (1963) is the second of four Miss Marple films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was based on the 1953 novel '' After the Funeral'' by Agatha Christie, and starred Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Charles "Bud" Tingwell as Inspector Craddock and Stringer Davis (Rutherford's husband) as Jane Marple's friend Mr Stringer. The film changes both the action and the characters. The original novel featured Hercule Poirot rather than Miss Marple, and Christie's trademark suspense was enhanced by light comedy. The film also stars Robert Morley and Flora Robson and was directed by George Pollock, with James P. Cavanagh credited with the adaptation. The music was by Ron Goodwin. The film's location shots included Amersham, Little Marlow and Hilfield Castle.Reel Street This is a sequel to '' Murder, She Said'' and was followed by '' Murder Most Foul'' and ''Murder Ahoy!'', all with Rutherford returning in the same role. Plot While Miss Marple (Margaret Ruthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to topics some consider taboo such as disability, sex, excretion, or death in a polite way. Etymology ''Euphemism'' comes from the Greek word () which refers to the use of 'words of good omen'; it is a compound of (), meaning 'good, well', and (), meaning 'prophetic speech; rumour, talk'. '' Eupheme'' is a reference to the female Greek spirit of words of praise and positivity, etc. The term ''euphemism'' itself was used as a euphemism by the ancient Greeks; with the meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at all). Purpose Avoidance Reasons for using euphemisms vary by context and intent. Commonly, euphemisms are used to avoid directly addressing sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
