Miss Marple: Le train de 16 h 50

Whilst traveling by train to visit her friend Jane Marple, Elspeth McGillicuddy wakes from her slumber and witnesses a man strangling a woman on a passing train. With no other witnesses and no trace of a body, the police don't believe her story, so Miss Marple engages Lucy Eyelesbarrow to help uncover the mystery.

It's a very faithful, beautifully made version; production values are incredibly high. The music is lovely and melodic; it's never invasive, and it helps generate atmosphere.

Some totally iconic scenes too; the whole sequence of Lucy discovering the body is one of the most memorable bits of TV from my childhood. It's beautifully filmed, and the music is superb; it adds to the tension. The set and props are wonderful.

Beautifully acted with some wonderful performances, my favorite being Joanna David's; she is superb as Emma, making her downtrodden and meek but wonderfully believable. Maurice Denham is wonderful as always, and Jean Boht's cameo as Madame Jolie is delightful. Jill Meager puts in a great performance, be it it's a little surprising how she has men falling at her feet, she's so prim and proper. (Is that Bertram's Hotel I spy for their first meeting?)

The ending is nicely staged and suitably dramatic. It seemed at the time like she was always using Somerset House.

It's an excellent production, a little doddery in parts, but very faithful to the book. Hickson is excellent as always but somewhat takes a back seat in this one, she's very much an observer.

This one makes for perfect Sunday teatime viewing.

8/10.

4:50 From Paddington Station was also the first Agatha Christie Miss Marple story to be adapted for Margaret Rutherford in Murder She Said. Comparing the two is six of one, half a dozen of the other.

For the big screen the characters of the woman who saw the strangling on a passing train and the woman who Miss Marple sends in as a housekeeper to scout out the terrain are eliminated. Rutherford's character serves as both and one of the biggest strengths of the film is Rutherford doing her own scouting and sleuthing and her scenes with ailing family patriarch James Robertson Justice are a hoot and a half.

Joan Hickson's Jane Marple is a milder sort, but still a woman who doesn't miss much. This version is faithful to the Christie story and has a friend of Miss Marple see the strangling of a woman and her being thrown out the window of a train going the other way. But no body turns up near the tracks. At that point Hickson goes into action and determines that the body was most likely thrown off near the Crackenthorpe estate. At that point she sends in Jill Meager as an operative so to speak.

The Crackenthorpes are wealthy British family, new money, they got rich manufacturing breakfast cereal. And they've got an ailing patriarch with one of those crazy wills that provide a host of relatives as suspects.

I will say this, the same perpetrator in the Margaret Rutherford movie does the deed again in 4:50 From Paddington Station. And nearly gets away with it, but for an unexpected witness.

A little slow, but more is explained and the murder itself doesn't seem quite as contrived as the Rutherford film.

I've been a mystery fan for most of my life and particularly fond of Agatha Christie's well known characters, Jane Marple and Hercules Poirot. I was surprised recently when viewing one of the old films in my collection, "Murder, She Said" from 1961. This was the first of four movies starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple. The film was loosely based on Christie's "4.50 From Paddington". Marple poses as a domestic to investigate a murder. One of the other servants in the home is played by none other than Joan Hickson. This may not be completely relevant in commenting upon the later version, but I thought it was interesting that Hickson appeared in a Marple film 26 years before this one was released. The Rutherford movies aren't very faithful to Christie, but they're very entertaining. However, if you're an avid Miss Marple fan, you'll be overjoyed with these productions featuring Hickson. She truly embodies Agatha's character like no other actress. I highly recommend these to any mystery fan.

A friend of Miss Marple's, Mrs. McGillicuddy, is travelling on the 4.50 from Paddington when she sees a man strangling a woman on a neighbouring train. The police turn up nothing and don't believe her but Miss Marple does. She believes the answer to the mystery lies at nearby Rutherford Hall. She enlists the help of her resourceful, energetic niece Lucy Eyelesbarrow, who investigates Rutherford Hall by working there as a housekeeper.

A great instalment of the Miss Marple series. A return to the earlier episodes in that the characters and the character-based sub-plots are much more interesting making this episode very engaging.

The mystery is excellent too: we initially don't even have a body! Slowly things are revealed before we finally have our murderer.

Quite the mystery.

Elspeth McGillicuddy is taking the 4:50 from Paddington (a train) to visit a friend and falls asleep. She awakens to see another train on a set of tracks parallel to hers. Suddenly, a window shade zips up and Mrs. McGillicuddy sees a woman being strangled by a man whose back is to her. The train moves on and Mrs. McGillicuddy is left is significant distress. The person she was visiting? Miss Marple, of course. And we're off to the races.

Miss Marple's investigations bring her to the doorstep of the eccentric Crackenthorpe family and she hires a formidable assistant in the guise of the lovely and efficient Lucy Eyelesbarrow (Jill Meager) who infiltrates the household in the guise of a housekeeper. She becomes Miss Marple's eyes and ears.

It's arguably one of the best of the Marple mysteries. In part because when I read the book, I was completely surprised by who the murderer was (some excellent literary misdirection here) but also because the story contains a series of characters who are, for the most part, fairly sympathetic (unlike the detestable Fortescues in "Pocketful of Rye"). And the hint of romance between Lucy and one of the suspects is a nice addition.