SEE HOW THEY RUN is a movie currently on streaming services HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime.  It is a whodunnit film based in the 1950’s.  It is like a combination of KNIVES OUT and CLUE, but set in London.  It is a must watch for murder mystery fans and fans of Agatha Christie.  The movie is about Agatha Christie’s most successful play, THE MOUSETRAP.   That play opened in a theatre in London’s West End in 1952, and is still running to this day.  It is the longest running play in the world! 

THE MOUSETRAP is a wonderful play about a small group of strangers staying at a Bed & Breakfast in the English countryside.  There is a bad snowstorm, so they all become stuck there, and there is a murder in the house.  It is an Agatha Christie classic “locked room” mystery.  Meaning that someone there trapped in that house is the murderer.  All the people in the house are suspects, and are questioned until the murder is solved and explained.  

Agatha Christie many times used children’s nursery rhymes or songs in her books and plays.  In THE MOUSETRAP, the children’s song, Three Blind Mice, is part of the play.  That is how they got the title for the new movie, SEE HOW THEY RUN.     

But, you do not have to have read or seen the play to enjoy this new movie.  There have been a lot of movies made of Agatha Christie’s books and plays.  However, no movie version of the play THE MOUSETRAP has ever been made because Agatha Christie so brilliantly put in the contract of the play that no movie could be made of her play until 6 months after her play stopped running.  It has still, after 70 years, not stopped running!  So, this film, SEE HOW THEY RUN, is NOT a movie version of that play.  But, the film takes place in 1950’s London and centers around the theatre where THE MOUSETRAP play is running.  There are some Hollywood people there trying to get that play made into a movie.  But, then some of those people are murdered.  Two mismatched detectives are assigned to the case to try and figure out whodunnit before more people are killed.  Despite there being murders, the movie is not gory or violent.  The film is entertaining, funny, fast paced, and amusing.  Plus, the cinematography is beautiful.  It is a murder mystery within another murder mystery!  It is a great movie for any Agatha Christie fan, or lovers of murder mystery films, or crime capers set in the 1950’s.  I loved it!!!  

The classic play is worth reading.  The play is worth going to see at a real theatre.  This new movie is worth watching as well.  They are all highly recommended!