Miss Marple: La plume empoisonnée

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 love Agatha Christie. I've read most of her books several times, and "The Moving Finger" is one of my favorites. Each time I open it, I am captivated anew by the adorable English-village setting and the delightful relationship between witty Jerry and his spunky sister Joanna. As I continue reading, I am drawn in further by the rich cast of unique characters and a host of clues. Even though I know who committed the murder -- and it IS a bit obvious in retrospect -- I always enjoy trying to spot all the clues and remember how they fit together.

Unfortunately, this adaptation really doesn't live up to the book. To be blunt, it's boring.

First, I found the acting wooden. None of the characters seem to believe that they live in a village terrorized by anonymous letters and brutal murders. For example, at the end, the murderer's former employee/confidante explains that she needs to leave the village. Instead of seeming shocked and saddened, she positively beams! The placid music and bland lighting add to the absurdly calm atmosphere.

The book features two romances. In both cases, the man and woman start off friends, then have some misunderstandings. All four people experience painful self-discovery: For example, pampered city girl Joanna must decide if she has what it takes to be a rural doctor's assistant. Christie understands how to craft a believable (and interesting!) courtship story. In contrast, in the movie, both couples fall in love almost at first sight (although the understated acting does not convey a lot of passion), and both romances run a smooth, uneventful course.

Miss Marple actually plays a minor role in the book. However, the whole point of film adaptations is to bring beloved characters to life! Viewers want and expect to see Miss Marple blinking her china-blue eyes, fussing with her fluffy white knitting, and reminiscing about trivial events in her village 50 years ago. Sadly, in this adaptation, Miss Marple gets very little screen time, and her character is not developed beyond "old woman." I don't think this adaptation would inspire a new viewer to love Miss Marple and read more about her.

Finally, and most importantly, this adaptation eliminates most of the MYSTERY. Miss Marple's limited screen time allows her to mention the key points of the case, but not to display her deduction process. The script leaves out most of the clues from the book, so the viewer has no real chance to solve the puzzle. (And isn't that the fun of it?) When the solution is presented, there's no thrill of discovery. Miss Marple explains in about two lines because she has so few clues to fit together.

All in all, watching this adaptation felt like reading Cliffs Notes. I got the basic gist of the plot, but I missed out on the pleasure of the setting, characters, and mystery.

I have made no secret of loving the Joan Hickson adaptations of Agatha Christie's wonderful books, and this is no exception. This is a very good adaptation, it is a little slow on occasions I agree, but not bad, not bad at all. The writers also do an above-respectable job adapting, perhaps lacking the humorous touch of the book, but at least the story is coherent. The production values as always are excellent with lovely scenery, costumes, make-up and photography, the music is lovely and the characters are still interesting, especially the Symmington household. The direction is solid as is the writing and acting- Joan Hickson is just superb as Miss Marple and will always be the best Miss Marple to me. Michael Culver is great as Mr Symmington, Elizabeth Counsell is suitably whiny as his wife and Deborah Appleby is very convincing as Megan. Both Gerry and Joanna still maintain their interest and played well by Andrew Bicknell and Sabina Franklyn, and Penelope Lee is good as Partridge. Overall, this is a very good adaptation with a great cast especially. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Oh dear, poor Ted, he seems, from his email address to be in Education, and one would suspect that his academic speciality is "Mystery Writers". A pity, excessive analysis over the years appears to have rather distorted his power of judgement. I was lucky enough to have been brought up in 1950s England, and I have never seen a series which more accurately reflects the life and people I remember then, less the murders of course! The real problem Ted has with the whole series is revealed in this comment: "At least this one emphasizes the obnoxious, mousey character of Jane more than the others." He just doesn't like Joan Hickson's characterisation. Well, sorry old chap, I knew many friends of my grandparents who were extremely similar to this Miss Marple, intelligent ladies of the Raj who had returned to England or daughters of the prewar middle class coping with the new society that was being shaped. They were used to a 'certain standard' in all things. Behind the fierce formal exterior, though, there was a twinkle, although often buried quite deeply. If Ted doesn't like this Joan Hickson characterisation, then I'm pretty sure he would have not have got on with Agatha Christie either. Probably Erle Stanley Gardner's more his type! This episode is up to the standard of the rest of the series, and it was directed by Roy Boulting, who would also remember this time well since it was his heyday at Shepperton Studios, producing classics like 'I'm alright Jack'. Hence the accuracy of the period feel. If you want to see Miss Marple really messed up, then check out the new 2004 series featuring Geraldine McEwan, whom I admire in the right part (Mapp and Lucia for example). But she is NOT Miss Marple, Miss Hickson IS.

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)