Istantanea di un delitto

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.

Miss Marple's best friend, Elspeth McGillicuddy (Mona Bruce), witnesses a man strangling a woman on a passing train. When nobody believes her, Miss Marple (Joan Hickson), conducts her own investigation in order to bring the culprit to justice.

Carefully constructed adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1957 mystery of the same name. It was filmed twenty-seven years earlier as MURDER SHE SAID (1962) with Margaret Rutherford playing Miss Marple. Interestingly Joan Hickson appeared in the latter film as the Crackenthorpe's housekeeper Mrs Kidder. Rutherford wasn't exactly faithful to Christie's original character, but she made the part entirely her own and she was always a joy to watch. Hickson makes a convincing Miss Marple and she is more to the letter of the book than Rutherford, but alongside each other they are still the best two actresses to have played the character. This film moves at a good pace and Hickson is most ably assisted by a first rate supporting cast including Maurice Denham as Luther Crackenthorpe, Joanna David as Emma Crackenthorpe, Jill Meager as Lucy Eyelesbarrow and John Hallam as Cedric Crackenthorpe. The only slight weakness in the film is that it sometimes tends towards the stodginess of an old drawing room play, which was quite common with so many of the BBC's dramas at this time. Still there is a good feeling for period detail and this is streets ahead of ITV's latest attempt to bring Miss Marple to television. See Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: The Body In The Library (2004).

A great rendition of a classic tale. Naturally, the Margaret Rutherford version is fabulous in its own way, but this version offers viewers colorful landscapes and colorful characterizations to go along with the totally old-fashioned old-school formality of the characters. Much of the acting is subtle and unforced, as is typical of British productions, with Inspector Slack a real study in irony, a decent man masked in a facade of tough-guy impoliteness and impatience. The story unwinds in a dignified manner, never boring and never rushed. As a bonus, the somewhat intricate plotting gets explicated in a way that even I could follow and understand (Inspector Morse offers a contrasting technique, almost always baffling, while Midsomer Murders at least wraps its illogic in humorous tongue-in-cheek mischief). Overall, a superb production for fans of mystery and rich atmospheric production.

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.

I am not in the habit of writing reviews but the reviewer who took exception to Jill Meager provoked me to rebut his comment. She was the "Highlight" of this episode and the reason I viewed it several times. Being extremely attractive, charming and projecting intelligence are clearly reasons enough for any red-blooded male to crawl on all "fours" for Her.

I confess that I only started watching this series just recently even though I was aware of it for many years. This was partly out of prejudice on my part. I wrongly assumed it would be something very staid; people making exits and entrances between long patches of dialogue.

I was "all wet." This is one of the most memorable Series I have seen.

John Fedinatz, New York, NY