Mrs McGillicuddy is on her way to see her friend Miss Marple when she looks out of the train window and sees, in an adjacent train, a woman being strangled by a man. Disturbed and doubted by the police she asks Miss Marple to look into it. With nothing but mockery from Detective Inspector Slack, the pair try to pinpoint the location of the murder and thus the possible places where the body would be dumped. The most likely would be the ample grounds of the Crackenthorpe estate but they can't go wandering around that looking for a body. So instead Marple turns to her niece Lucy Eyelesbarrow for help getting her to take a job within the grounds to allow her to look around.
Although I am more into the Columbo's of this world, an enjoyable mystery is an enjoyable mystery and I thought I would take the opportunity to revisit the Miss Marple stories as told by the BBC back in the late 1980's. This film opens well enough, with a seemingly impossible murder to track down far less solve but gradually it does. After the actual crime the film does drag a little for the first hour as we get to know the characters and Lucy looks around. Once the body is found I had hoped it would spring into life a little bit but it didn't really and the "facts" and the discoveries didn't grab my interest that much. The stiff and proper approach is all well and good and I could live with that but I didn't like the way it seemed to infect even the narrative and the delivery. It is all delivered slowly and without any particular hook to grab the audience and I must admit that I found myself caring less and less as the film went on.
The cast are all reasonably good. Hickson was a good Miss Marple and it is not her fault that the film forgets her for the first hour and then uses her sparingly for the second. Meager is OK as Lucy but it is too much of an ask in my opinion for her to carry the majority of the film by herself. The support cast is all fairly reliable without anyone marking themselves out; Horovitch does his usual Marple-weary thing to good effect.
Overall an OK film but nothing special. The slow pace is not a problem but the uninvolving story and slow mystery meant I wasn't really hooked at any point a bit of a weakness for a mystery story. The cast are all OK but the specific nature of the resolution meant it was being told to me rather than carrying me along. Marple fans will probably like it but the majority of viewers will struggle.
Although I am more into the Columbo's of this world, an enjoyable mystery is an enjoyable mystery and I thought I would take the opportunity to revisit the Miss Marple stories as told by the BBC back in the late 1980's. This film opens well enough, with a seemingly impossible murder to track down far less solve but gradually it does. After the actual crime the film does drag a little for the first hour as we get to know the characters and Lucy looks around. Once the body is found I had hoped it would spring into life a little bit but it didn't really and the "facts" and the discoveries didn't grab my interest that much. The stiff and proper approach is all well and good and I could live with that but I didn't like the way it seemed to infect even the narrative and the delivery. It is all delivered slowly and without any particular hook to grab the audience and I must admit that I found myself caring less and less as the film went on.
The cast are all reasonably good. Hickson was a good Miss Marple and it is not her fault that the film forgets her for the first hour and then uses her sparingly for the second. Meager is OK as Lucy but it is too much of an ask in my opinion for her to carry the majority of the film by herself. The support cast is all fairly reliable without anyone marking themselves out; Horovitch does his usual Marple-weary thing to good effect.
Overall an OK film but nothing special. The slow pace is not a problem but the uninvolving story and slow mystery meant I wasn't really hooked at any point a bit of a weakness for a mystery story. The cast are all OK but the specific nature of the resolution meant it was being told to me rather than carrying me along. Marple fans will probably like it but the majority of viewers will struggle.