A Caribbean Mystery

Most people read a good book when they are on holiday, preferably a tense thriller or a captivating murder whodunit. Not Miss Marple, though. She experiences a live murder whodunit, and solves it while at it! "A Caribbean Mystery" is one of the best Miss Marple stories, and one of the best entries in the ITV-series since actress Julia McKenzie took over the titular lead role. It's somewhat odd to see Miss Marple in an exotic setting, since she's so irreversibly linked to British small-town country life, but it provided Agatha Christie with the opportunity to insert a couple of unusual but fascinating themes, like voodoo. Our brilliant writer was a fervent traveler, and spent quite some time in places like Hawaii and Haiti, where she undoubtedly found lots of inspiration for this story and others.

Apart from the sunny beach setting and the occasional margherita-cocktail, all the traditional ingredients are well-represented. There's a holiday resort full of potential suspects, guests as well as servants, clever murders disguised as natural deaths, incompetent police officers, more murders, and a denouement so ingenious that only Miss Marple can explain it in a logical fashion. Great fun.

The most remarkable moment in the film is actually irrelevant to the plot! During an evening lecture, Miss Marple meets a writer who presents himself as Ian Fleming and he tells her he has trouble finding a suitable name for the protagonist of his book. Then the lecturer comes on stage and opens with: "My name is Bond... James Bond". Well, what do you know! James Bond is an ornithologist!

Julia McKenzies' finest performance as the ever loving Miss Marple.! Good show...! I really appreciated the lovely scenery and the the cast were reasonably good too. An enjoyable Sunday Night tv...😊

I really enjoyed this version of "A Caribbean Mystery," with Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple. I know I saw the Helen Hayes version, but I don't remember if I saw the Joan HIckson one.

It's a neat story. Miss Marple is visiting St. Honore, a tropical island, to recover from some health problems. She stays at a resort, the Golden Palms, owned by a married couple, Tim and Molly Kendall.

The place is heavily booked, with the Hillingdons and their American friends, the Dysons, a businessman, Jason Rafiel, his assistants, and the gossipy Major Palgrave.

Major Palgrave loves a good scandal, and one night goes into one of his stories. He actually has a photo of a serial killer, he says, and pulls it out. Suddenly, he decides not to show it. The next day, he's dead, supposedly of a heart attack. Too coincidental for Miss Marple, who wants to see that photo, which has disappeared. Before she can solve the case, there are other murders, mistaken identity, and secrets uncovered.

Very good story and well done, with beautiful scenery and production values. Julia McKenzie is a good Miss Marple and close to what I pictured while reading the books: charming, lively, with a keen mind and good powers of observation, based on watching the behavior of people in St. Mary Mead.

There was probably more emphasis on voodoo here than in other adaptations. My favorite here was the gruff Rafiel (Antony Sher) who becomes a real admirer of Miss Marple's intelligence. They have a very genuine and nice relationship. The ending is lovely.

Very good.

Sent on a recuperative holiday to Barbados, Miss Marple finds the Golden Palm Hotel - a tropical paradise of blue sea, white sand and lush vegetation - a rather dull place where nothing seems to occur. But then murder strikes ... an old Major dies from high blood pressure, so it seems, but the sleuthing spinster thinks otherwise having her interest aroused by an old soldier's yarn about a strange coincidence. Infuriatingly, just as he was about to show her an astonishing photograph, the Major's attention wandered. He never did finish the story...

I liked the Helen Hayes' A Caribbean Mystery, but this 2013 version is more closer to the book - which happens to be one of my favourite Miss Marple novels - yet inventive with some emphasis on voodoo and madness. A solid effort with a good cast of characters, a trail of misdirection and Julie MacKenzie doing really well as Miss Marple.

Back in 1989, "Miss Marple" made a dandy version of "A Caribbean Mystery"...leaving little for me to complain about and I scored it a 9. As for this newer installment on "Marple", I didn't like it nearly as much...and it's mostly because of several unwanted things which were added to the story that were not in the original Agatha Christie story...such as voodoo and the addition of Ian Fleming and James Bond to the story.

The story begins on a Caribbean island where Miss Marple is vacationing. One of the guests of the hotel who has monopolized Marple's time is the Major...a bit of a blowhard who most of the hotel's guests tend to ignore. However, when talking with Marple, he does pique her interest when he talks about some murderer he knew long ago who got away with it. But he is soon distracted...possibly because he sees this murderer at the hotel! But he never has a chance to finish his story, as soon he's found dead in his room. Unfortunately, the local police don't take it seriously despite Miss Marple's and Mr. Rafiel's insistence that the death MIGHT be murder. More murders occur and the police finally take it seriously.

What there is of the original story is quite good...but the voodoo and Ian Fleming/James Bond bit are just distractions and do nothing to help the story. My feeling is that the older 1989 version is significantly better...see it first.