Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington

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source: Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington

An old Pal of Miss Marple's claims she saw a murder committed on a train. Or did she, as Inspector Slack thinks, dream it? Miss Marple is too old and infirm to dart around the countryside snooping out bodies so she enlists the helpful Lucy Eyelesbarrow to scout around. One of my favorite moments in TV is when Lucy Eyelesbarrow (Jill Meager) locates the decaying body. Maurice Denham plays a crotchety old codger and titular head of clan Crackenthorpe (what names!--a by-product of Christie producing so many books, I expect). After the body is found the story settles into a more typical mystery. And the ending is more psychologically satisfactory all around than the adaptation in the later "Marple" series. As usual, David Horowitz's Inspector Slack is a delight. And while Jill Meager isn't particularly pretty (why should she be?) she's a delight from start to finish and her character holds the piece, like the household, together.

A great rendition of a classic tale. Naturally, the Margaret Rutherford version is fabulous in its own way, but this version offers viewers colorful landscapes and colorful characterizations to go along with the totally old-fashioned old-school formality of the characters. Much of the acting is subtle and unforced, as is typical of British productions, with Inspector Slack a real study in irony, a decent man masked in a facade of tough-guy impoliteness and impatience. The story unwinds in a dignified manner, never boring and never rushed. As a bonus, the somewhat intricate plotting gets explicated in a way that even I could follow and understand (Inspector Morse offers a contrasting technique, almost always baffling, while Midsomer Murders at least wraps its illogic in humorous tongue-in-cheek mischief). Overall, a superb production for fans of mystery and rich atmospheric production.

A woman is being strangled and there is a witness. The police cannot find any evidence. So, it is up to Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) with help from Lucy Eyelesbarrow, an independent housekeeper. The story does not follow the book, yet it has the unmistakable Aunt Jane feel. Notice how Aunt Jane is always several steps ahead of the others in planning. Watch the expressions when Aunt Jane grates on David Horovitch as Detective Inspector Slack. "...When one of us is clever enough to find the body." I have seen this movie several times, but I never noticed the train scene music until I watched "Brief Encounter - Criterion Collection" (1945) Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. Listen to the type of music during the scene where the two trains pass. John Hallam has fun playing randy Cedric Crackenthorpe watch him again playing "Lord Rhysart" in "A Morbid Taste for Bones" (1997).

Generally I prefer Hickson's series to McEwan/McKenzie where the plots/characters were rewritten too much. However I found some of the men too creepy in this 1987 version and would rather watch the 2004 cast and chemistry. That aside, both contain the usual cops v Marple situation - the usual do they appreciate her, or get fed up? Overall, the 2004 series was often style over substance, with the writing really letting down everything else, set, make-up, fashion, props etc, which really did a good job of contrasting the conservatively dressed elderly Marple with the trends of the day. The Hickson version is not as lavish but has that fantastic theme tune.

Ordinarily, movies that have a lot of stars and celebrities in small roles are a nuisance, but Agatha Christie's stories, as they appear on television, could really use some recognizable faces attached to the many names. Characters come and go and the plot gets more elaborate and names pop up and down and before you know it, your brain has turned to tofu. The problem is avoided in most of the feature films, not only because the actors are more likely to be recognizable but because more time is available, so a viewer gets to know each character better. I could keep the characters and their names more or less straight here, which was a big help. Also there are some memorable moments, such as Jill Meager pushing back the lid of a sarcophagus in which a two-week old corpse has been stashed and being repelled by the whoosh of cadaverine. The name of Meager's character is Lucy Eyelesbarrow. That's one of the things I enjoy about Agatha Christie's work. She's no Dickens when it comes to inventing names but just look at them -- Slack, Crackenthorpe, Quimper, Duckham. And the place names: High Muckle, Dogditch Road, Gravesend, Deep Bilking, or whatever. A couple of things I didn't get. Meager consistently finds John Hallam, Cedric Crackenthorpe, repugnant, yet in the kitchen she allows him to quote poetry, praise her contours and colors, smooch his way up her neck, and then turn her and kiss her without any sign of resistance. The Big Reveal came and went too quickly for me to grasp, too. Still, it rambles less than other episodes, and you must love that cobwebbed Etruscan statuary.

I've just finished watching this episode for the second time and it held up well for both showings. Some reviewers don't seem to like the Miss Marple series but you have to wonder, why on earth are they watching? Miss Marple is never going to morph into Mike Hammer or James Bond, so why are you complaining about the slow pace? What you CAN complain about with credibility is how did Lucy (portrayed as an exceptionally bright woman) allow herself to be man-handled by the arrogant roguish heel, Cedric? That scene was creeeepy. And thank your lucky stars that when Lucy opens the sarcophagus they filmed in the style of Alfred Hitchcock: No blood or gross manifestations. The audience experiences the horror via the expressions of the heroine. That was classy. A refreshing change of pace was the introduction of a law enforcement official that appreciated Miss Marple's off-beat way of solving crimes. CHIEF INSPECTOR DUCKHAM: Where is she? INSPECTOR SLACK: She's not in. CHIEF INSPECTOR DUCKHAM: Well, don't let me keep you, my dear fellow. You can send a car back for me. INSPECTOR SLACK: No, no, we'll wait. (Miss Marple approaches, looking through her purse for her door key. Then she looks up and sees the two inspectors.) MISS MARPLE: Oh! Oh, I AM so sorry. It's Mary's afternoon off. CHIEF INSPECTOR DUCKHAM: Were you successful, Miss Marple? MISS MARPLE: Oh I think so, yes thank you. I bought four very nice pillowcases from Derry and Tom's. Do come in, won't you? MISS MARPLE: OH . . Oh yes I see, I see of course what you mean. LOL So what if she's not as sharp as James Rockford. Scenes like this are a hoot and SOOO enjoyable. Where I thought they let the audience down was, there needed to be one more scene of Harold hunting. Or they needed to show him up close, instead of through the window. The filmmakers failed to dwell on Harold. So when he disappeared, it had no effect. All good magicians show the audience the white rabbit several times before they put it into the hat and make it disappear. As one reviewer mentioned, even the other characters seemed nonplussed at Harold's disappearance. The filmmakers wasted the effect of that murder, so the tension didn't build as strongly as it could have. Also, I was disappointed with the opening. They took great pains to tell us about the itinerary of the two trains and how one was faster than the other but only at certain points in the journey. They also cut to clocks several times to emphasize the chronology. So I was expecting the murder to involve the clever use of how the trains travelled that night. But no such angle existed in the plot. Which made me wonder, why did the filmmakers bother with all of that timetable claptrap if it didn't figure into the main plot? One reviewer said "Marple is the worst detective ever devised." Well, that just shows you some people will never get it. The whole Marple shtick is, she's right-brained. She solves crimes through intuition, a gift that left-brained people do not possess. If you want a left-brained detective then you need to watch Poirot. We like Miss Marple just the way she is, thank you. EXTRA: At 40:49 you'll see the same bright red MG that was featured in the opening of Sleeping Murder.

I am not in the habit of writing reviews but the reviewer who took exception to Jill Meager provoked me to rebut his comment. She was the "Highlight" of this episode and the reason I viewed it several times. Being extremely attractive, charming and projecting intelligence are clearly reasons enough for any red-blooded male to crawl on all "fours" for Her. I confess that I only started watching this series just recently even though I was aware of it for many years. This was partly out of prejudice on my part. I wrongly assumed it would be something very staid; people making exits and entrances between long patches of dialogue. I was "all wet." This is one of the most memorable Series I have seen. John Fedinatz, New York, NY