Miss Marple: The Moving Finger

I couldn't agree more with Mike. My local PBS station here in the US is currently broadcasting the new Miss Marple series one evening a week, while showing the original Joan Hickson Miss Marple as a daily series at 1:00 PM. There is NO comparison. Even Agatha Christie, some years before her own death, predicted that Joan Hickson would be the perfect Miss Marple. She knew her character, and the right actress to play her. The new series struggles far too hard to be "trendy" and puts far too much present-day "politial correctness" into the plots. Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple has become nearly as much a caricature as Margaret Rutherford's movie portrayal.

Jim.

This is one of my favourite Christie books, along with The Pale Horse, The ABC Murders, Sleeping Murder, By The Pricking of My Thumb and Nemesis. all these are great books, well told and with a dark story.

Hickson is Marple. This is the best of two adaptations - ignore the ITV at all costs!!. The ITV writers are all amateurs who rewrite the story - even the endings to suit themselves, as if they can do better. The BBC have tended to stick to the story here.

This adaptation is truer to the book and portrays the characters just as Christie wrote them. I love the fact that the awkward and shy Megan is transformed into an elegant, lovely lady. Something she wasn't allowed to do under her mother's care. I do think that it should have been three or four episodes to allow the story and characters to unfold. I suppose that was the BBC budget in those days - now they have so much money they can engage John Malkovich as Poirot!

Hickson as Marple is a joy to watch. She is just as Christie described her (with no pink cardigan/shawl in this book). A gentle, unassuming elderly lady that no one would take any notice of, until her sharp brain gets to work.

I have to agree with Mike. I have no idea what Ted was watching. Miss Marple 'obnoxious" huh? Joan Hickson nails her completely and is charming. She also is able to bring across just how intuitive and intelligent Miss Marple is. I, too, like McEwan as an actress, but her portrayal of Marple is vile. she is better suited to series like "Mulberry". As for Rutherford, she doesn't bother me as Marple because I don't take her seriously in them. It's more like a charming parody of the character. Remember both Lansbury and Hayes also had a crack at Jane and while both very talented could not come close to Joan Hickson. She manages to be both steely and soft, no small feat! Ted's comments show a lack of knowledge about the mystery genre. There is no such thing as just mystery; there are numerous subcategories as well. So, comparing Gardner to Christie is akin to comparing Chandler to Conan Doyle.

The Moving Finger sees Miss Marple sort out the unpleasant events in the small idyllic village of Lymstock. The identity of a writer of spiteful poison pen (PP) letters is revealed, and a killer is unmasked.

There is a quality that ran through this series, and The Moving Finger is a particularly good offering. Joan Hickson gives the usual immaculate performance which cements her as the quintessential Spinster detective, and the accompanying cast do a great job.

The story is so full of spite and malice, a great book is very much brought to life, as a mystery you'll be kept guessing right until the end (if you've not read the book of course.) You get a true taste of the effects of the PP letters on the community, mistrust and gossip galore.

I especially like the performances of Andrew Bicknell and Sabina Franklyn, they do a great job as the unsuspecting Burtons, but it's the performance of Michael Culver (Symmington) that I most enjoy. Hilary Mason is also well cast as the vinegary Miss Barton.

THE PREMIUM version of The Moving Finger, 9/10

Not one of the best entries in the Joan Hickson - Miss Marple series. For one thing, the story is not one of Agatha Christie's strongest; I admit that the identity of the killer caught me by surprise, but in retrospect that happened because the script makes his/her motive almost completely obscure. For another thing, with the exception of 1 or 2 well-done atmospheric scenes (like the discovery of the second body), the film flirts dangerously with dullness. And for yet another thing, although the cast is adequate (it's surprising that Deborah Appleby's career went nowhere after this, because she is indeed - as her character is described by someone else - "a breath of fresh air"), nobody really creates a character as memorable as, say, Selina Cadell's Miss Dove in "A Pocketfull Of Rye". OK for one viewing. (**1/2)