You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)

In 1922, Adam Dyer (Tony Curtis) futilely bailed water from his sinking ship.  The Achilles was a small vessel, hardly more than a rowboat with a mast.  Luckily, he spotted a passing ship and climbed aboard.  Josh Corey (Charles Bronson) demanded payment for the rescue at the point of a revolver.  Looking back at the Achilles as it vanished into the Aegean Sea, Adam had no choice.  He paid 500 in gold to be allowed aboard the Cybele.  Exhausted, he fell asleep in the wheelhouse.  When he awoke sometime later, there was no one at that wheel.  The crew - two Greeks - were sneaking up on Josh with weapons!  Adam intervened and saved Josh's life.  However, he reclaimed his gold and set Josh adrift in a rowboat.  This would not be the last encounter between the two.

Adam was headed to Turkey to recover a ship that belonged to his family; it had been seized during the Great War.  Josh was rendezvousing with his band of mercenaries to earn some quick cash from the Sultan.  The pair were roped into escorting an Ottoman train to Smyrna under the watchful eye of Colonel Elci (Fikret Hakan).  The train is full of precious cargo: three of Osman Bey's daughters, several crates of gold, a suitcase full of jewels, and the scheming yet beautiful Aila (Michele Mercier).  With Greeks and rebels between them and Adam's ship, could they get through?

I would never have thought to put Curtis and Bronson together, but they have good chemistry.  Curtis' smart aleck charm contrasts nicely with Bronson's sharp edges and serious demeanor.  The problem is the script.  It is too busy.  Among the characters who set out, there is a constant back and forth on who is going to betray whom and what new alliances form as the situation changes.  Then there are the external threats from rebel soldiers who repeatedly attack.  Then there is the constantly shifting MacGuffin: is it the Bey's daughters, the crates of gold, the case of jewels, or something else entirely?  Though most of the mercenaries and Ottomans die along the way, the movie wraps up like a screwball comedy.  Huh?

As far as history, there was indeed a civil war in Turkey in 1922.  There you go, that is about all the history this imparts.  The Turkish government was unimpressed by the final product and banned it from distribution in Turkey.

Just okay.

The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

It is 1953 and American film star Marina Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor) has come to England to star as Mary, Queen of Scots, in her comeback movie.  During a reception at the manor where she and her husband, Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson) are staying, a village local, Heather Babcock, dies from poison.  As chance would have it, Cherry was working as a server that day; Cherry is the housekeeper for Miss Jane Marple (Angela Lansbury).  Miss Marple quizzes Cherry in detail about the events prior to Heather's death and concludes that Marina was the intended target.  As luck would have it, Inspector Craddock (Edward Fox) of Scotland Yard is dispatched to investigate; he happens to be Miss Marple's favorite nephew and also something of a film buff.  He interviews all the principals and then discusses it with his aunt, serving as an Archie Goodwin to Miss Marple's Nero Wolfe.  Among the suspects are Rudd's personal secretary Ella Ziellinsky (Geraldine Chaplin), movie producer Martin N. Fenn (Tony Curtis), and Marina's arch rival, actress Lola Brewster (Kim Novak).

The most interesting aspect of the movie is trivial.  Pierce Brosnan had a non-speaking role where he played Jamie, husband to Mary Queen of Scots.  The director, Guy Hamilton, rose to fame as director of Goldfinger (1964).  As such, Hamilton directed 3 Bond actors: Connery (Goldfinger & Diamonds are Forever), Moore (Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun), and Brosnan.

By the movie's conclusion, the solution is irrelevant.  Marple's deductions explain the plot but at no point change the events.  That she was always one link away from the action made the movie slow and a little boring.  Strangely enough, where Marina Rudd was trying to stage a comeback from a several year hiatus from movies, Elizabeth Taylor hadn't had a leading role in several years prior to this movie; good casting.

Only for the diehard Agatha Christie fan.