The planned film adaptation of The ABC Murders starring Zero Mostel as Hercule Poirot collapsed before filming began: on the scheduled first day of shooting, Agatha Christie objected strongly to a script that included a bedroom scene for Poirot. Her objection brought the project to grief and prevented this version of the adaptation from proceeding.

Project and Intended Cast

The project was to be directed by British filmmaker Seth Holt, with American comedian Zero Mostel in the role of Poirot. It was an unrealized alternative to the film adaptation eventually made decades after the novel’s initial publication; the available account identifies Holt and Mostel as the planned director and star, but does not specify further production details.

The Script Dispute and Cancellation

The decisive conflict concerned the script, which included a bedroom scene for Poirot. Christie took strong objection to that material, and the project came to grief on what should have been the first day of shooting. The timing makes the distinction clear: the film was not abandoned after a completed production or a release, but at the point filming was due to begin.

Place in the Adaptation History

A different film version was made in 1966 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at its English studio in Elstree, near London, and released as The Alphabet Murders. The account distinguishes that completed film from the earlier Holt–Mostel project, which never reached its first day of shooting. A television adaptation with David Suchet as Poirot was first shown on London Weekend TV on 5 January 1992, further marking the later history of adaptations without changing the canceled project’s outcome.