billpollock183

I enjoyed it. A different murderer but still a good yarn. Joan Hickson has been the best Marple but her "Body" was only a few years old when this film was done. Changes needed to be made so as to differentiate between the two versions. I do have to say that Hickson's were generally better except for "A Pocketful of Rye" where Geraldine's was far superior. Changes needed to be made because who would watch the same story, same dialogue only with different actors. It must have set the tongues a wagging with the book in killing off a schoolgirl. Such things just weren't done. A lady before her time in many ways, our Agatha. I think she would have liked the murderers in this presentation. Like Hickson, Geraldine looks the part. They both have the set to the eyes when solving the problem.

Dolly is great and is just as good as in the earlier film. I felt all the supporting actors worked well with the script.

I feel tvholic's views are a bit harsh. It mustn't be forgotten that Verne wrote this in 1865 some thirty years before Wells wrote 'War of the Worlds". It must also be remembered that RKO was going broke at the time so special effects were not what they should have been. Stars Joseph Cotten and George Sanders did well with the script they had. Where this will not go down as a great sci fi movie, it is still an interesting one if for no other reason than the interplay between Cotten and Sanders.

Stories like War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Around the World in 80 Days have lent themselves to the use of special effects and unfortunately for this film, the film production company did not have the wherewithal to have effects in the same class as the aforementioned three.

In response to planktonrules, your comment that this was one of Hitchcock's failures is wide of the mark. It was a wonderful black comedy, nearly an old fashioned French farce. To say it was a failure in the USA is one thing (it was) but internationally it didn't do too badly. As was mentioned earlier in the site, this film went fairly well in the UK, Italy and France. This could be seen that subtle humour is more appreciated outside of the USA than inside. Hitch's problem was that the humour in the film was not the "in your face" type that was typical of comedy films of this era whereas overseas movies like "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Ladykillers" (the original) had that subtle, understated humour similar to TTWH.