Miss Marple Mysteries

 

 

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"There she sits: an elderly spinster; sweet, placid ...,

... so you'd think," retired Scotland Yard chief Sir Henry Clithering (Raymond Francis) says when describing St. Mary Mead's best-known inhabitant to his friend, wealthy paraplegic Conway Jefferson in the first adaptation of a Miss Marple mystery, "The Body in the Library." "Yet," Sir Henry continues, "her mind has plumbed the depths of human iniquity, and taken all in a day's work." And Vicar Clement, the narrator of Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple story, 1930's "Murder at the Vicarage," couldn't agree more: "Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner - Miss Wetherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is the more dangerous," he observes on one occasion.

The BBC's 1980s adaptations of Christie's twelve Miss Marple novels quickly established Joan Hickson as the quintessential Jane Marple, even in the view of the grandmother (or rather, grand-aunt) of all village sleuths and "noticing kinds of persons"'s creator, Dame Agatha herself. (After seeing Hickson in an adaptation of her "Appointment With Death," as early as 1946 Christie reportedly sent her a note expressing the hope she would "play my dear Miss Marple.") Prior versions, partly involving rather high-octane casts, had seen as Miss Marple, inter alia, Angela Lansbury and Margaret Rutherford, but had been less faithful to Christie's books. While Lansbury holds her own fairly well when compared to the character's literary original in 1980's "Hollywood does Christie" adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd" (and that movie's ageing actresses' showdown featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak is a delight to watch) the four movies starring Rutherford are only loosely based on Christie's books: Dame Margaret's Miss Marple, although itself likewise a splendid performance, has about as much to do with Agatha Christie's demure, seemingly scatterbrained village sleuth as Big Ben does with the English countryside, and of the scripts, only "Murder, She Said" is an adaptation of a Miss Marple mystery ("4:50 From Paddington"), whereas two of the others -- "Murder at the Gallop" and "Murder Most Foul" -- are actually Hercule Poirot stories ("After the Funeral" and "Mrs. McGinty's Dead," respectively), and "Murder Ahoy" is based on a completely independent screenplay.

Following the rule that ever since Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Lestrade every great private detective needs a policeman he can outwit, the creators of the BBC series inserted the character of Milchester C.I.D.'s Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) into almost all storylines -- hardly in keeping with the literary originals, which are set over a period of more than 30 years and thus, exceed the career span of a policeman already advanced on his professional path at the time of his first encounter with Miss Marple; even if the BBC's Slack is promoted from D.I. in "The Body in the Library" (where he really does appear) to Superintendent in the adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd" (where Miss Marple is actually only joined by Inspector Craddock, not also by Slack). Yet, Hickson's and Horovitch's face-offs are a fun addition; and one is almost ready to pity Slack, who hardly ever gets a foot down vis-a-vis Miss Marple's quick rejoinders and, in the words of Sir Henry Clithering, "wonderful gift to state the obvious" ... and whose "good old-fashioned policework" is found to fall short, again and again, in comparison with Miss Marple's ever-unfailing "village parallels," those seemingly innocuous incidents of village life making up the sum of her knowledge of human nature, to which she routinely turns in unmasking even the cleverest killer.

This set contains the region 1 versions of the BBC's first three adaptations starring Joan Hickson:

"The Body in the Library" (written 1942, BBC 1984): In response to a friend's request, Christie makes a mysterious dead platinum blonde appear in the library of St. Mary Mead squire Colonel Bantry and his wife Dolly, Miss Marple's friend. (The horror! The scandal!) The murderer's trail leads from the Bantrys' Gossington Hall estate to nearby seaside resort Danemouth, when the dead girl is identified as a show dancer who used to work at one of the resort's luxury hotels. But as Mrs. Bantry will come to observe to her surprise in the end, "it all boils down to fingernail clippings and Mozart" ...

"A Murder Is Announced" (written 1950, BBC 1985): It was supposed to be "just a silly joke," that startling anonymous advertisement in Chipping Cleghorn's village gazette -- "A murder is announced and will take place Friday, October the 5th, at Little Paddocks, at 7PM." But then a murder really does occur, and the person found lying dead is the ad's author himself. In determining his connection to Little Paddocks's owner Ms. Blacklog -- his failed holdup's apparent target -- Miss Marple and Inspector Craddock (John Castle) ponder the effects of the post-WWII changes of British village society ... and the vital clue is finally provided by a remarkable cat named Delilah.

"A Pocket Full of Rye" (written 1953, BBC also 1985): A murderer uses an old nursery rhyme in a ghastly game with rich tyrannical Rex Fortescue and his family which soon has police and press speculate about black magic. Miss Marple, however, instantly zeroes in on the nursery rhyme, and finding that she has come too late to save the life of her erstwhile protege, the Fortescues' clumsy, naive maid Gladys, she does not rest until she has found the murderer, whose motive is, alas, nothing but "greed -- one knows that, naturally ..."

The series's remaining episodes (available in a variety of other sets):

"Murder at the Vicarage" (written 1930, BBC 1986; Christie's first Marple story)

"The Moving Finger" (written 1942, BBC 1985)

"They Do It with Mirrors" (written 1952, BBC 1991)

"4:50 From Paddington" (written 1957, BBC 1987; a/k/a "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!")

"The Mirror Crack'd" (written 1962, BBC 1992; title taken from Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott")

"At Bertram's Hotel" (written 1965; BBC 1987)

"A Caribbean Mystery" (written 1965, BBC 1989)

"Nemesis" (written 1971, BBC 1987; sequel to the above)

"Sleeping Murder" (written 1976, BBC 1987; Christie's last Miss Marple mystery)

Restricting my comments to the quality of the 3-disc release: I was very worried, based on a review published here, that the video quality of this product might be poor. It isn't; in fact, it's very good. I don't know why the reviewer would have complained about this unless his/her copy of the DVD was really as poor as described, which I have to accept that it was. All I can say is, mine isn't. A couple of nights ago, one of our Bay Area PBS channels did re-broadcast one of the 3-part episodes on this disc, and the quality of their print was awful. So, I can tell the difference between grainy and spotty on the one hand, and sharp and clear on the other...it's quite plain on my equipment, which is only average. Unlike the other reviewer's, my discs are quite sharp.

My 3 favorite Miss Marple programs. Video quality excellent. If they had left off all the ads at the beginning of each CD it would have been even better. A nice value.

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5.0 out of 5 stars You won't find these episodes in any other set!
Joan Hickson makes a very good Marple. This series is also very loyal to Agatha's written text, which always makes for a fan's good viewing. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Paulina Medeiros

4.0 out of 5 stars Great fun
To begin, Joan Hickson is marvelous as Miss Marple--even better than Margaret Rutherford--no easy task! Read more

Published on Mar 10 2004 by vanhubris

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
My Gift Set Miss Marple DVD collection is of excellent quality. Miss Marple is my favorite Christie sleuth and I am so pleased to have these episodes (Body in the Library, Pocket... Read more

Published on Sep 22 2003

2.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful mysteries; horrible DVD transfers
I love the Miss Marple mysteries in both book and movie form, but unfortunately not a one of them has been transferred properly to video or DVD. Read more

Published on Sep 5 2002 by Tom Anderson

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare collection of Aunt Janes
"Body in the Library"

Mrs. Dolly Bantry (Gwen Watford) tries to inform her husband of the reported body and is accused of imagining the report due to reading trashy books in... Read more

Published on Aug 13 2002 by bernie

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