Margaret Rutherford may not have been everybody's notion of the ideal Miss Marple, but she's surely a joy to watch.
The English country lanes and the picturesque cottages are charming and in themselves help make the movie a delight to watch, especially when we know that some of them hold dire secrets. Besides, the sight of Margaret Rutherford in an evening gown dancing the twist is in itself almost worth the rest of the film. 7/10
"Murder Ahoy":
The third Miss Marple mystery, "Murder Ahoy," released in 1964, is again directed by George Pollock but this time based on an original screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon, the same chaps who wrote the scripts for the first and fourth Miss Marple movies. However, without a Christie novel for guidance (the opening titles explain that the movie was "inspired" by Ms. Christie), this third entry is the weakest of the lot. By far.
The problems with "Murder Ahoy" are almost too many to list, but the main issue is a failure to engage the viewer. The other three Rutherford Marple movies contained not many but at least a few interesting peripheral characters, enterprising plots, and the winsome simplicity of English country life. "Murder Ahoy" is mostly stuck aboard a ship with a group of people we could care less about. When the murderer is finally revealed, you may feel about the person as I did, not even sure who it was or where the character had come from.
Let me start at the beginning. Miss Marple's late grandfather had founded a benevolent trust to help young lads by teaching them seamanship. With granddad gone, the trust asks Marple to join their board of trustees in his place. During her first meeting with the board, one of its members up and dies, right on the spot. It's regarded as a simple heart attack, but Miss Marple thinks otherwise. She believes the death was a subject of foul play.
Odd, she thinks, that the poor chap died just before he was about to make an important announcement to the board after visiting the trust's training vessel for young men, the sailing-ship Battledore. Even more odd, she notices that the dead man used snuff, and that after he died, his snuff went missing. She believes somebody sneaked in and stole it. But why? Collecting a few remnants of the snuff that the supposed culprit left behind, she discovers that it's laced with strychnine poison. But does she report this evidence to the police, to her friend Inspector Craddock (Charles Tingwell), or demand an autopsy on the body? Surely not. She decides, instead, to investigate the crime herself. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a movie.
She goes aboard the Battledore to see just what it was that the murder victim found there and was about to report on, with her friend Mr. Stringer (Stringer Davis) looking on from a hotel room on shore. And that's the setup. The rest is silliness, with Miss Marple blundering and fumbling more than usual, and almost no humor, mystery, or suspense in sight.
Miss Marple does less deducing in this one and more sneaking about, hiding in dark places, and watching people's movements to discover clues. There is nothing clever or engaging about any of it, and even the supporting cast is duller than usual. The big co-star is supposed to be Lionel Jeffries as the Captain of the Battledore, Sidney Rhumstone. But Jeffries turns in a lukewarm comic performance as a captain who hasn't a clue what's going on aboard his own ship, and it turns out not to be too comical in the least. Still, he stands out against the other cast members, like Joan Benham as Matron Fanbraid, Derek Nemmo as Humbert, Francis Matthews as Compton, and Nicholas Parsons as Dr. Crump, who are so banal as be nonexistent. "Murder Ahoy" is a distinct let-down after the first two movies in the series.
On an added trivia note, the filmmakers steadfastly refused to employ the name of Agatha Christie's fictional town, St. Mary Mead, for these Miss Marple mysteries. Instead, they change it in all four movies to Milchester. They give no explanation. 4/10
Murder Most Foul":
I understand that "Murder Most Foul" was actually made before "Murder Ahoy" but released after it the same year, 1964. This may explain why "Murder Ahoy" was the weakest link in the chain, being the last one made and being the only one not based on a Christie novel. In any case, "Murder Most Foul" was adapted from Christie's "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" (interestingly, another Poirot mystery), again directed by George Pollock, and again with a screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon.
The story line of "Murder Most Foul" follows the formula introduced in the first movie and scrupulously followed by the next three, including the strong, quirky male lead. Therefore, following in the footsteps of James Robertson Justice, Robert Morley, and Lionel Jeffries we find this time Ron Moody. But more of that in a minute.
First, the plot: Miss Marple is serving on a jury, the case involving a man accused of hanging a woman, Mrs. McGinty, and stealing her money. A local constable saw the hanged woman through the front window of her house, entered and found the defendant, a lodger in Mrs. McGinty's place, at the foot of the hanged woman, with money scattered all over the floor. The defendant claims he came home, found Mrs. McGinty dead, and was trying to get her body down when the constable entered the scene. Eleven of the jury members vote to find the man guilty; it is only Miss Marple who refuses to believe there is enough evidence to convict him. Without a jury in complete accord, the defendant must be go to a retrial.
Now Miss Marple must prove the man's innocence before he's tried again, as always with the help of her good friend, Mr. Stringer (Stringer Davis). And, as always, Inspector Craddock (Charles Tingwell) doesn't want her meddling into police affairs.
What Miss Marple discovers in her inimitable way is that Mrs. McGinty was a former stage actress. One of the productions she attended six times just before she was murdered was the play "Murder She Said" (cute, the name of the first Miss Marple movie), performed by an acting troupe known as the Cosgood Players. Miss Marple determines (somehow) that Mrs. McGinty was blackmailing somebody among the players, and the person being blackmailed killed her.
In order to investigate further, Miss Marple must again go undercover, this time posing as an actress seeking employment with the Cosgood Players, which she succeeds in doing, auditioning with a recitation of Robert Service's "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" that is the highlight of the show.
No sooner does Miss Marple join the company than one of their number turns up dead, poisoned. And we're on our way, with a whole acting troupe as suspects, most conspicuously their leader, Dr. H. Driffold Cosgood, a stereotypically flamboyant, bigger-than-life actor played by the aforementioned Ron Moody.
"Murder Most Foul" is closer to a Christie mystery than "Murder Ahoy," with less silliness, less fussing, and less sneaking around, and more reliance on serious logical deduction. However, that does not completely save it from being somewhat less spirited than the first two movies in the series. With the exception of Ms. Rutherford's always attractive presence and her performance of the Robert Service poem, the story moves along fairly slowly and contains less wit and humor than the earlier entires. 6/10
Video:
All four films are presented in something close to their original 1.66:1 aspect ratios, each movie cropped slightly to fill out a 16x9 (1.78:1) television screen nicely in a high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer. The black-and-white prints look in excellent shape, and no doubt the WB engineers did some minor restoration work to touch them up as well. There are practically no age spots, lines, flecks, or marks anywhere; detailing is good; and B&W contrasts are strong. The overall image is a tad soft, but the general lack of grain tends to make the picture as bright as new. Incidentally, although all four films look pretty much alike, "Murder at the Gallop" looks marginally the cleanest.
Audio:
There's nothing much one can say about the Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural sound. There is little background noise to speak of unless you turn the volume up unreasonably high, and the midrange is exemplary in tonal balance and clarity. Other than that, which is all we might reasonably expect of it, the sound is mono, plain and simple, and with little reason for a frequency or dynamic range any wider than it is.
Extras:
The bonus items are repeated on each disc: An "Agatha Christie Thrillers" gallery that includes widescreen trailers for all four of Rutherford's Miss Marple movies, plus the 1965 production of Christie's "Ten Little Indians." Things wrap up with twenty-three and twenty-four scene selections for each movie, but no chapter insert; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Thoughts:
Margaret Rutherford may not have been everybody's notion of the ideal Miss Marple, but she's surely a joy to watch--kind, crotchety, frumpy, bellowing, brilliant; forever the busybody, and not a little goofy at the same time. The films should be retitled the "Miss Rutherford Mysteries," and we'd be closer to the truth. Be that as it may, a few of the movies, at least, are still fun to watch.
If I had to rank order them, I'd say I personally prefer the second entry, "Murder at the Gallop" best; the earliest entry, "Murder She Said," second; "Murder Most Foul" third; and "Murder Ahoy" a distant last.
"Murder Ahoy":
The third Miss Marple mystery, "Murder Ahoy," released in 1964, is again directed by George Pollock but this time based on an original screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon, the same chaps who wrote the scripts for the first and fourth Miss Marple movies. However, without a Christie novel for guidance (the opening titles explain that the movie was "inspired" by Ms. Christie), this third entry is the weakest of the lot. By far.
The problems with "Murder Ahoy" are almost too many to list, but the main issue is a failure to engage the viewer. The other three Rutherford Marple movies contained not many but at least a few interesting peripheral characters, enterprising plots, and the winsome simplicity of English country life. "Murder Ahoy" is mostly stuck aboard a ship with a group of people we could care less about. When the murderer is finally revealed, you may feel about the person as I did, not even sure who it was or where the character had come from.
Let me start at the beginning. Miss Marple's late grandfather had founded a benevolent trust to help young lads by teaching them seamanship. With granddad gone, the trust asks Marple to join their board of trustees in his place. During her first meeting with the board, one of its members up and dies, right on the spot. It's regarded as a simple heart attack, but Miss Marple thinks otherwise. She believes the death was a subject of foul play.
Odd, she thinks, that the poor chap died just before he was about to make an important announcement to the board after visiting the trust's training vessel for young men, the sailing-ship Battledore. Even more odd, she notices that the dead man used snuff, and that after he died, his snuff went missing. She believes somebody sneaked in and stole it. But why? Collecting a few remnants of the snuff that the supposed culprit left behind, she discovers that it's laced with strychnine poison. But does she report this evidence to the police, to her friend Inspector Craddock (Charles Tingwell), or demand an autopsy on the body? Surely not. She decides, instead, to investigate the crime herself. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a movie.
She goes aboard the Battledore to see just what it was that the murder victim found there and was about to report on, with her friend Mr. Stringer (Stringer Davis) looking on from a hotel room on shore. And that's the setup. The rest is silliness, with Miss Marple blundering and fumbling more than usual, and almost no humor, mystery, or suspense in sight.
Miss Marple does less deducing in this one and more sneaking about, hiding in dark places, and watching people's movements to discover clues. There is nothing clever or engaging about any of it, and even the supporting cast is duller than usual. The big co-star is supposed to be Lionel Jeffries as the Captain of the Battledore, Sidney Rhumstone. But Jeffries turns in a lukewarm comic performance as a captain who hasn't a clue what's going on aboard his own ship, and it turns out not to be too comical in the least. Still, he stands out against the other cast members, like Joan Benham as Matron Fanbraid, Derek Nemmo as Humbert, Francis Matthews as Compton, and Nicholas Parsons as Dr. Crump, who are so banal as be nonexistent. "Murder Ahoy" is a distinct let-down after the first two movies in the series.
On an added trivia note, the filmmakers steadfastly refused to employ the name of Agatha Christie's fictional town, St. Mary Mead, for these Miss Marple mysteries. Instead, they change it in all four movies to Milchester. They give no explanation. 4/10
Murder Most Foul":
I understand that "Murder Most Foul" was actually made before "Murder Ahoy" but released after it the same year, 1964. This may explain why "Murder Ahoy" was the weakest link in the chain, being the last one made and being the only one not based on a Christie novel. In any case, "Murder Most Foul" was adapted from Christie's "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" (interestingly, another Poirot mystery), again directed by George Pollock, and again with a screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon.
The story line of "Murder Most Foul" follows the formula introduced in the first movie and scrupulously followed by the next three, including the strong, quirky male lead. Therefore, following in the footsteps of James Robertson Justice, Robert Morley, and Lionel Jeffries we find this time Ron Moody. But more of that in a minute.
First, the plot: Miss Marple is serving on a jury, the case involving a man accused of hanging a woman, Mrs. McGinty, and stealing her money. A local constable saw the hanged woman through the front window of her house, entered and found the defendant, a lodger in Mrs. McGinty's place, at the foot of the hanged woman, with money scattered all over the floor. The defendant claims he came home, found Mrs. McGinty dead, and was trying to get her body down when the constable entered the scene. Eleven of the jury members vote to find the man guilty; it is only Miss Marple who refuses to believe there is enough evidence to convict him. Without a jury in complete accord, the defendant must be go to a retrial.
Now Miss Marple must prove the man's innocence before he's tried again, as always with the help of her good friend, Mr. Stringer (Stringer Davis). And, as always, Inspector Craddock (Charles Tingwell) doesn't want her meddling into police affairs.
What Miss Marple discovers in her inimitable way is that Mrs. McGinty was a former stage actress. One of the productions she attended six times just before she was murdered was the play "Murder She Said" (cute, the name of the first Miss Marple movie), performed by an acting troupe known as the Cosgood Players. Miss Marple determines (somehow) that Mrs. McGinty was blackmailing somebody among the players, and the person being blackmailed killed her.
In order to investigate further, Miss Marple must again go undercover, this time posing as an actress seeking employment with the Cosgood Players, which she succeeds in doing, auditioning with a recitation of Robert Service's "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" that is the highlight of the show.
No sooner does Miss Marple join the company than one of their number turns up dead, poisoned. And we're on our way, with a whole acting troupe as suspects, most conspicuously their leader, Dr. H. Driffold Cosgood, a stereotypically flamboyant, bigger-than-life actor played by the aforementioned Ron Moody.
"Murder Most Foul" is closer to a Christie mystery than "Murder Ahoy," with less silliness, less fussing, and less sneaking around, and more reliance on serious logical deduction. However, that does not completely save it from being somewhat less spirited than the first two movies in the series. With the exception of Ms. Rutherford's always attractive presence and her performance of the Robert Service poem, the story moves along fairly slowly and contains less wit and humor than the earlier entires. 6/10
Video:
All four films are presented in something close to their original 1.66:1 aspect ratios, each movie cropped slightly to fill out a 16x9 (1.78:1) television screen nicely in a high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer. The black-and-white prints look in excellent shape, and no doubt the WB engineers did some minor restoration work to touch them up as well. There are practically no age spots, lines, flecks, or marks anywhere; detailing is good; and B&W contrasts are strong. The overall image is a tad soft, but the general lack of grain tends to make the picture as bright as new. Incidentally, although all four films look pretty much alike, "Murder at the Gallop" looks marginally the cleanest.
Audio:
There's nothing much one can say about the Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural sound. There is little background noise to speak of unless you turn the volume up unreasonably high, and the midrange is exemplary in tonal balance and clarity. Other than that, which is all we might reasonably expect of it, the sound is mono, plain and simple, and with little reason for a frequency or dynamic range any wider than it is.
Extras:
The bonus items are repeated on each disc: An "Agatha Christie Thrillers" gallery that includes widescreen trailers for all four of Rutherford's Miss Marple movies, plus the 1965 production of Christie's "Ten Little Indians." Things wrap up with twenty-three and twenty-four scene selections for each movie, but no chapter insert; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Thoughts:
Margaret Rutherford may not have been everybody's notion of the ideal Miss Marple, but she's surely a joy to watch--kind, crotchety, frumpy, bellowing, brilliant; forever the busybody, and not a little goofy at the same time. The films should be retitled the "Miss Rutherford Mysteries," and we'd be closer to the truth. Be that as it may, a few of the movies, at least, are still fun to watch.
If I had to rank order them, I'd say I personally prefer the second entry, "Murder at the Gallop" best; the earliest entry, "Murder She Said," second; "Murder Most Foul" third; and "Murder Ahoy" a distant last.
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[release]18414[/release]