Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors

Miss Marple visits an old friend, Ruth van Rydock, on a large country estate. Ruth lives there with some relatives and an assortment of characters. When someone is murdered, Miss Marple starts investigating, as does her old sparring partner, Detective Chief Inspector Slack.

The weakest episode of the Miss Marple series. Quite unengaging: the characters aren't particularly likeable or well-developed and, despite the cast, the performances largely seem over-acted. The plot is drawn out in the extreme: the murder doesn't happen until about the half-way mark and even after that things just crawl along.

After all this when the murderer is revealed it all seems random and far-fetched, complete with trite ending.

There is still a fair degree of intrigue and this keeps it going and makes it watchable, but only just.

This version tries to bring Christie's story accurately, but the editing is so choppy the details of plot are often hard to follow. Not to worry, though, intuitively if not deductively, you'll spot the murderer without much trouble. Good cast, especially Jean Simmons, and great scenery make it a pleasant watch. Joan Hickman, though, as Miss Marple just didn't quite cut it for 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

Miss Marple visits old friends. Ruth van Rydock and her sister Carrie-Louise Serrocold. Ruth is worried about her sister' health.

Carrie-Louise is married to Lewis Serrocold who uses part of the estate as an institute for young offenders. Christian Gulbranson is an trustee who arrives for some urgent business and who is later found dead.

Joan Hickson is excellent as Miss Marple. However this is not one of the better BBC adaptations and I can understand why they held it back.

It takes a while for the murder to happen, until then we are introduced to all sorts of odd characters such as a young man who thinks he is the son of Winston Churchill. Two brothers who inexplicably flirt with a married woman.

It all seemed too padded. There should be more tension as there should had been an assortment of suspects. After all it is set in an institution where young men have criminal records or mental health problems. However the reveal was rushed and did not exactly make sense. I think this could had been done and dusted in a hour.

Look out for a young Jake Wood as one of the reform school boys.

Miss Marple is the best of friends with two aging sisters. One sister, who thinks the other is in danger, has Miss Marple to pay a timely visit. Upon arriving she encounters a host of garden variety misfits and reform school types, along with their keepers, sharing the estate grounds with her friend. All of this makes for a genuinely great plot that includes the murder of the family Patriarch by which Miss Marple further sharpens her already keenly honed crime solving acumen.

This is one of the better TV-Movie adaptations that preserves the plot from novel to the screen. The screenplay flows well, has no obvious holes or gaps, the acting is grade A, and the Directing is Superb. I highly recommend this particular film as one of the BEST Miss Marple TV-Movies ever!!!