Miss Marple: Le manoir de l'illusion

I truly love Joan Hickson's adaptations of Miss Marple, she is in my opinion the quintessential Jane Marple. It's one of my lesser favourites in the series. I'll try and explain why.

The novel itself isn't one of my favourites, I find the trickery of the murder works better in the book (in my mind) then it does on screen. In terms of production I find it safe, but still very good, when compared to other adaptations it's quite not there.

On the plus side the acting is superb, Hickson is as always excellent, Holly Aird is wonderfully youthful and vibrant as Gina. The legendary Jean Simmons is incredibly sweet, she gave a sensitive and believable performance of the fragile Carrie Louise. I am a bit biased when it comes to Joss Ackland, he is hugely charismatic, at times almost overpoweringly so, but here we see a restrained, dare I say touching performance, his voice makes him incredibly watchable.

The scene I enjoyed most of all I think was the stage play, Ruth looks on awkwardly, Miss Marple watches intently. It's there to show that events are sometimes smoke and mirrors, it's cleverly put together. I also like their later fireside chat where she talks about the robberies committed by starting the bonfires early.

I would still give it a score of 8/10, it is still an excellent production, it's just that I have such high regards for others in the series. I must say I find the later Marple a particularly good production from a frequently bemoaned series.

This was quite a poor dramatisation and illustration. It felt too long and drawn out. When we finally arrive to the murder and how it was executed it was very rushed and they annoyingly did not show how it was done, they just said who did it but not how. In Agatha Christie stories the greatest value is delivered at the end when the how and story comes full circle. The viewers were cheated of this.

Not a good production at all and a waste of time.

Despite thinking that I had seen the vast majority of the BBC Marple films, my second random one in as many days turned out to be yet another one I had never seen before. Sleeping Murder had been the first and had been surprising accessible and lively and the opening of Mirrors made me think it would be more of the same, with the American voices and the tone of the opening scenes. I was also familiar with the story as I had seen the ITV Marple films adapt it as well. Sadly They Do It with Mirrors turned out to be a real summary of what I tend to dislike about the Marple series.

Running long (particularly with adverts lasting 4 minutes every 10-15 minutes) the film really takes its time with everything but not in a way that hooks me. Ironically I felt that Sleeping Murder was almost too accessible and easy to follow, but yet at the same time I appreciated it for this. They Do it with Mirrors goes the other direction by quite some measure as it does almost nothing to assist the viewer in keeping up with Marple or indeed even CI Slack. Instead of clues or red-herrings what we are given are characters and details – but none of which really are much used until we enter that final room for the traditional reveal. Like tedg said in his review, the viewer here is never allowed to be taken along with the case – we are sitting in the final room with the rest of them, knowing who people are but learning stuff we didn't know before and couldn't have figured out.

The problem I have with this is that I feel excluded and just expected to wait rather than be involved in the mystery. The longer this goes on the less inclined I was to care and by the end I was really not paying much attention to it. There never appears to be much in the delivery to intrigue the viewer or make them think – I watched this knowing the story but yet still didn't really know where it was going and while I'm open to the idea of me being dumb, I think part of it was that the film wasn't actually going anywhere until it got to the final reveal. I'd like to say the pieces all fell into place at this point, but they don't because we hadn't been given pieces – only characters, no clues, no nuggets etc. The cast are solid throughout despite this; I do like Hickson as Marple and enjoy her way of playing it as all observation and gossip – the downside is that she does live in her head as a character so she needs the script to help her in terms of what the viewer can "see", she gets no such help with this one.

I'm not sure if it is deliberate or by design but this film was incredibly uninvolving – it offered me nothing throughout and then suddenly pulls the solution out of nowhere. It is difficult to care and before the reveal scene I had really stopped being interested since the film itself seemed so uninterested in me.

Although I really liked this, it is a disappointment after the delightful Murder Is Announced. Then again the book isn't Agatha Christie's best, although it's well written and perplexing, it is for me one of the weaker Marple books. There were several things I liked about the adaptation, one was the acting. Joan Hickson is a sheer delight as Miss Marple, and Faith Brook and Jean Simmons were very effective as Carrie-Louise and Ruth. Their end scene in particular was very poignant. Joss Ackland has a little less to do, but he turned in a solid performance. The adaptation is beautifully photographed, and the music is stunning. However, I had a real problem with the pace, the adaptation does start off very slowly, and never quite recovers. Out of the Joan Hickson adaptations, it is one of the least faithful ones. The elements that made the book perplexing were either left out or a tad underdeveloped. Consequently the plot is hard to follow and I will admit the final solution left me baffled. Overall, disappointing but well acted and beautifully filmed, so worth a look. 7/10 Bethany Cox

They Do It With Mirrors is an unusual Miss Marple adaptation. It's hard to put your finger exactly what it is, but the best I can come up with is that it comes across as an everyday crime procedure. In that I mean there is a murder, then the police question everybody and then there is a denouement and the culprit is revealed. And that is more or less exactly how They Do It With Mirrors is to watch.

It starts with Miss Marple meeting old friend Ruth Van Rydock in a hotel, who is concerned about her sister Carrie Louise. Now married to 3rd husband Lewis Serricold, they live at Stonygates, a sprawling mansion that has been converted into a home for delinquent boys - part of a pet project of Serricold's. Despite everything seemingly well, Ruth is convinced that there is something wrong at Stonygates and is fearful for Carrie Louise's life - but she doesn't know why. She asks Jane Marple to go and investigate, having already arranged for her to stay at Stonygates, and soon Miss Marple is down there as one of the inmates (sorry, guests).

All seems well, but as this is an Agatha Christie something HAS to be wrong, but quite what Miss Marple can't put her finger on. It's certainly a bustling place packed with people. Also at Stonygates are Carrie Louise's daughter Mildred Strete, her daughter Gina Hudd and her American husband Walter, plus the Restarick brothers Alex and Stephen, who help Lewis Serricold with the boys, but also have their eyes on Gina, who enjoys their flirting - Walter, understandably, is less than happy about this. Dr Maseryk is also there on hand to help with the delinquents, which includes a young pre-EastEnders Jake Wood among their number, while another lad, Edgar Lawson works as a secretary for Serricold, but seems increasingly paranoid. The seemingly happy home looks complete when Carrie Louise's stepson Christian Gulbrandsen arrives unexpectedly for a visit, but he looks troubled by something and later Miss Marple overhears him and Lewis Serricold talking about concerns for Carrie Louise's health and keeping something back from her. But before she can find out more, events take a dramatic twist when Edgar flips and accuses Serricold of betraying him. Lewis tries to placade the boy by taking him into his office while the others watch an old reel of film, but while there the lights go out, gunshots are heard - and there is a body lying dead in a room. But it isn't Serricold who is dead, but Gulbrandsen, killed in another room the other end of the house.

It has to be said that it takes nearly an hour to get to this point, and what follows afterwards is Inspector Slack and his assistant Sgt Lake arriving at the mansion to conduct police inquiries, little suspecting the grey haired cobra is laying in wait for him. And what follows is Slack questioning the various guests of their movements, while around them various minor or major incidents happen. Minor incidents include Gina's love triangle with the Restarick brothers and her increasingly disenchanted American hubby Walter. More major developments are when Miss Marple learns from Lewis Serricold that someone has been trying to poison Carrie Louise. But who? And why?

Contrary to some opinions, They Do It With Mirrors is not a bad mystery overall. It takes it's time with introducing the various characters and it's numerous storylines before the crime is committed. But at times it feels a little eccentric and rambling in it's plotting, and before the crime is eventually committed you do wonder if they've actually forgotten to add one in! And once the deed is done, it mainly occupies Slack's efforts to question the suspects, while offshoots of plot interject the interrogations, such as the love triangle and the fact that another murder is committed when a witness is lured to the theatre by one of the Restarick brothers playing detective, little realizing that someone has overheard his plan. Again it feels a little eccentric in it's plotting, but nevertheless "Mirrors" holds your interest. The flaw with the 2nd murder is that it happens rather late, leaving little chance of us the viewer to figure out who among the household could of done it.

It's helped by some decent performances from the cast, which lift this from the ordinary. Joss Ackland is surprisingly muted from his usual eye catching portrayals, but his subtle playing of Serricold is actually a plus and he doesn't overwhelm the production. And he's helped by Jean Simmons, note perfect as the gentle and bewildered Carrie Louise who sees all that she thought of as certain slowly being queried by the shock of her stepson's murder and the later revelation that someone has apparently been trying to kill her. Jay and Christopher Villiers have different personalities as the Restarick brothers, and each play their roles well. Jay is the more sensitive lovesick Stephen, but it's Christopher who is more fun and amusing as Alex. But the most eye catching for me is Holly Aird as Gina, giving an effervescent performance that is as pert and perky as her many other attributes, even if at times her character is surprisingly insensitive to her husband's feelings when flirting with the Restarick brothers. I find it hard to really criticize Neal Swettenham as the paranoid Edgar, as he does decently enough in a difficult role, but it did feel more like a performance than truly delving into a troubled man's mind. However, he does provide a hugely enjoyable moment when he gets questioned by Inspector Slack (David Horowitz). Horowitz is great in this, and for once you thoroughly sympathize with his impatience at the more "PC approach" that is foistered on him by Dr Maseryk (Saul Reichlin), who insists on sitting in on Edgar's interview while Edgar proves to be evasive. But Slack proves wonderfully inventive in his questioning and ties Edgar up in knots by asking about the "voices in his head", before getting so fed up by Maseryk's interruptions he snaps and throws him out. It's a great scene, while there's also a surprising glimpse into Slack's personal life with his passion for magic that actually proves to supply Miss Marple with the answer to how the murder was committed.

There's a surprising softening in relations between Slack and Miss Marple by the end of the mystery that is quite touching. Joan Hickson was 85 at the time, and there was no guarantee that she would be around for the final adaptation, so maybe this was included in the script just in case. It's nice also to see the character of Sgt Lake (Ian Brimble) developed, and he looks to be enjoying himself as he watches Slack's discomfort with Miss Marple. The ending is dramatic as it is moving, and it's impact is felt on those that are left behind, made poignant by the reel of old film in the closing scene, as Miss Marple and those remaining view footage of themselves when young in the past, not knowing then what life or fate had in store for them. All in all, it's a decent mystery with an unusual structure that can hinder at times, but is aided by some bright and decent performances. And Holly Aird can drive me around in that car anytime!