Lady détective entre en scène

Margaret Rutherford makes an amusing Miss Marple in this all-English version of Agatha Christie's "Mrs. McGinty's Dead". With an outstanding supporting cast she manages to solve the murder mystery after joining the cast of a local theater group. A quiet but very english film; filmed in black and white it looks as if it is an older film than it is, but also has a modern feel to it since it was filmed in 1964. Ron Moody is wonderful as the theatrical Clifford Cosgood, who tries to convince Miss Marple to invest in his next play. Charles Tingwell plays the police inspector who gets all his clues from Miss Marple and seems always to be three steps behind her.

This is the third entry in MGM's quintet of Miss Marple whodunits starring Rutherford as the eccentric yet highly intelligent spinster detective who time and time again has proved herself more competent than the investigating police even though she is only armed with her knowledge of crime detective novels.

In this feature, Miss Marple is on jury service at the trial of a young man called Howard Taylor whom is accused of killing his landlady Mrs McGinty for her savings. All members of the jury are convinced of Taylor's guilt except Miss Marple. As a result they are unable to say if Taylor is guilty or not guilty and the trial has to be postponed until a later date. This gives Miss Marple the breathing space she needs to find the real killer. The trail leads her to discover that Mrs McGinty was a blackmailer and that she was blackmailing a member of "The Cosgood Players", which is run by the bungling playwright and director Driffold Cosgood (RON MOODY). She manages to secure a place in the company following an unlikely rendition of Robert W. Service's poem "The Shooting Of Dan McGrew" and she is now able to investigate her fellow actors. Two more murders follow within the company before Miss Marple is able to lay a trap for the killer. As usual the hapless Chief Inspector Craddock (CHARLES TINGWELL) resents her interference but as usual she comes out on top even though Craddock is promoted to Chief Inspector for his work on the case but it was Miss Marple who solved it for him!

All in all, MURDER MOST FOUL (adapted loosely from Agatha Christie's 1952 publication Mrs McGinty's Dead in which Hercule Poirot solved the case), has all the comedy delight and charm of its two predecessors, which made the series so popular. Director George Pollock who by now had proved that he was a very efficient craftsman effortlessly blends the humor with mystery and one isn't allowed to overlap the other - something that has ruined mystery films in the past. In fact, I would say that this was his best ever film as a director. Rutherford plays Miss Marple with a great deal of authority and as always she steals the show. But Ron Moody as Cosgood, Tingwell as Craddock and Stringer Davies (Rutherford's real life husband) as her trusty sidekick Mr Stringer all deserve good notices as does composer Ron Goodwin, director Pollock and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson whose black and white camera-work lends the production a considerable atmosphere of the mysterious.

Enjoyed this Agatha Christie murder mystery and especially with the great acting by Margaret Rutherford, (Miss Jane Marple). Miss Marple sticks her nose into another murder mystery of a woman and manages to enter the murder victims apartment under the pretense of looking for old clothes and things for a church benefit. Miss Marple even joins a theatrical group and volunteers her so-called talents as an elderly British lady. There is a strange bunch of actors in this theater, one girl walks in her sleep and acts like she is in a trance and even tries to kill Miss Marple with a knife. There is a great deal of comedy through out the film and Miss Marple always seems to give the Police Inspector valuable information which he takes complete credit for himself. Nice old scenes from England and a very enjoyable classic film from 1964.

Like an intrepid war ship that patrols the high seas, wonderful Margaret Rutherford patrols a theatrical troupe of actors and actresses known as the Cosgood Players, searching for a killer-most-foul amongst them. And a killer she finds, lurking in the backstage shadows, in this screen adaptation of Agatha Christie's book "Mrs. McGinty's Dead".

It's a nifty whodunit. I was fairly sure who the murderer was. But I was dead wrong. With good film direction, and effective plot misdirection, the film cleverly leads viewers down the garden path, with red herrings scattered here and there. As you make your way through the story, you'll be hard pressed to find the relevant clues, plainly visible, but camouflaged amid a complexity of detail. And that's the mark of a good murder mystery.

If I had to pick the script apart, looking for something to complain about, I could point out that the various suspects have back-stories that are all too thin. But that's normal, more or less, for films in this genre.

En route to the solution of the puzzle, Miss Marple (Rutherford) auditions to be part of the theater troupe, in a solo recital of the Robert Service poem "The Shooting Of Dan McGrew". This sequence alone, with Rutherford's terrifically hammy stage performance, is enough to make the film worth watching.

In searching for the killer, the befuddled police don't have a clue, of course. But with her keen wit and perceptive insight into human nature, Miss Marple sifts and sorts through the jumble of facts with cunning effectiveness. The film's final few minutes take place behind the stage of a play in progress, where she conks the murderer over the head with a stage prop. Marvelous.

As a whodunit, "Murder Most Foul" is a good one. But what really makes the film enjoyable is Rutherford in the role of Miss Marple. With her animated facial expressions, her commanding tone of voice, and her formidable and intimidating stage presence, 72 year old Margaret Rutherford is an absolute joy to watch. I'm surprised that the British didn't name a battleship after her.

George Pollock's name never gets mentioned among major directors. Yet four of his Miss Marple films as best remembered for Ron Goodwin's music and the wonderful Dame Margaret Rutherford and real life husband Stringer Davis.

The four films of Pollock combined mystery with comedy in a way that it entertains even after 40 years after the films were made. The elements that hold up these four films were great casting, good screenplay, crisp editing, and charming music and sound effects. Pollock is not a David Lean or a philosopher-director. He is merely making cinema that is gripping and entertaining and how well he accomplishes this.

This film is the second only to "Murder Ahoy" among the four. And since "Murder Ahoy" followed "Murder Most Foul", it would be only too clear that Pollock was gaining in confidence and elegance with each film. In each of his "Murder" films Pollock cast a major British actor. In this one it is the talented Ron Moody (Fagin of "Oliver!"). In each of the four films the chosen British actor provides a counterpoint and balance to Dame Rutherford's major role. One tends to remember Miss Marple and not the other meaty roles (Lionel Jeffries, Robert Morley, James Robertson Justice)in each of the "Murder" films. All the four were memorable but Moody and Jeffries were truly remarkable. I found this a major work of Moody though not as memorable as his interpretation of Fagin and Uriah Heep in other films.

The juxtaposition of crime and comedy looks natural thanks to Pollock and imaginative casting. Pollock is probably a quiet achiever deserving more attention by critics and historians of British cinema.