Le major parlait trop

Cable TV here has just shown the two versions back to back. I prefer this one as the more 'solid and faithful' even though the British version has the great Joan Hickson and a strong supporting cast. This version has the great merit of sticking to the story with no fancy touches (or overacting). It's been updated (to the 80s from the 50s) but the cast have the right kind of glitter and vivid beachwear (and big hair).

This US Christie series often looks like Agatha played by the cast of Dallas - appropriately enough since she often wrote about people who didn't need to work thanks to Daddy's money! xxxxxxx

Those are the two glaring complaints I have about A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY, a made for TV movie which dawdles on for a long time before getting to the point of a series of murders committed at a vacation resort.

Helen Hayes, her American accent intact, still makes a passable Miss Marple even when she utters the name of a quaint village in England as her home, St. Mary Mead. Barnard Hughes is the mean-spirited man whose rudeness becomes a bit overdone after the first few scenes, making you wish he's going to be one of the victims. Not so. He and Miss Marple join forces to solve the crime.

The conclusion is rushed through with brief explanations and not much dramatic conflict, so it's a bit of a letdown--although the murderer's identity is never hard to guess. The acting ranges from competent to barely competent, but the script is rather mediocre.

Recommended for rabid Christie fans only. Nicely photographed with Santa Barbara, California filling in for the Caribbean, but this is very tepid stuff, to say the least, nowhere as good as other Christie outings.

I did like this adaptation on the whole, but if I were to be honest, I prefer the Joan Hickson version, which I found more somewhat better paced and more stylish. But I will say it is a marginal improvement on the Helen Hayes version of They Do It With Mirrors. Overall, this is a pleasant enough time filler, however there are things wrong with it; the pacing has a tendency to become too sluggish, the events leading up to the final solution were rushed, the direction was too leisurely and one or two scenes and parts of the script came across as rather goofy. That said though, it sticks reasonably to the original story, updating it along the way. Helen Hayes makes for a rather cute Miss Marple, the soundtrack was good, the locations were very nice. Out of the supporting performances the standout, like a previous reviewer has mentioned, is Season Hubley as Molly, she was stunning. All in all, decent and pleasant, but not as good as the Hickson adaptation. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Helen Hayes just doesn't cut it.

Rather than going the whole hog and playing Miss Marple as an American, she plays her as an Englishwoman. This is a mistake,since her accent veers from deep south of USA to England via Ireland. In short, her accent is all over the place.

Her lines are also peppered with Americanisms which no British person would ever say. Two examples:

1) She refers to "tourist class" when British people call it "economy class".

2) She says she's going to "mail" some postcards, when a genuinely British person say "post", not "mail".

Two minor examples, I know, but they add to a general feeling that this Miss Marple is as British as a fudge brownie. All the references to her hometown of St. Mary Mead in England can't change that.

Another point is that Santa Barbara is not in the slightest bit convincing as a stand-in for the Caribbean. The one shot of a caribbean town, Havana perhaps, is obviously grainy archive footage.

Steer clear of this poorly made rubbish, and watch the BBC productions starring Joan Hickson instead.

Helen Hayes played Miss Marple, Agatha Christie's second most famous sleuth (after Hercule Poirot, of course), only two times. Although the actress is American and the character is English, Hayes is quite delightful in the role - witty, humane and still youthful in spirit. The supporting cast of "A Caribbean Mystery" doesn't contain any big names, but they all play their parts adequately; if anyone stands out, it's Season Hubley as Molly. The locations are pleasant (if Daphne's place in "Evil Under The Sun" was completely booked, I wouldn't mind spending my holidays in this hotel instead), and the story fulfills the basic demands of the mystery genre: it offers plenty of suspects and red herrings, and you won't know who the killer is until the moments he or she is revealed (unless you've read the book, of course). The revelation part is a bit rushed (as it gets squeezed into the last 5 minutes), and the film is at times a bit too leisurely paced. Within its limitations, though, this is good entertainment for fans of genre. (***)