Murder She Said (1962)

Murder She Said (1961)Well paced, well made, but also thoroughly "delightful" in a kind of post-war polite British lighthearted way. This is an enjoyable ride, but never with any genuine drama—it is too happily happy all the time.The actors are first rate, especially the lead playing Miss Marple, Margaret Rutherford. Arthur Kennedy is given big billing, and his role as an American is conspicuous (and strong).The plot is clever and well constructed of course—this is adapted from an Agathe Christie novel. And to tell truth, the thing that makes this thing hang at all is the terrific writing. The nephew on first appearance says to Miss Marple, "You're not my idea of a maid." And Marple replies, "Quite honestly, you'd not be everybody's idea of a boy." So Marple asserts herself, which is the charming aspect to it all (along the lines of "Murder She Wrote," if that's not obvious already from the title).There are naturally lots of people who are under suspicion, and you gradually have to try to guess who is likely or not. You play that internal game of thinking who is just too obvious and which unlikely character is actually guilty. There is some confusion about how they might confuse a recent victim with one who died 16 years ago, but we'll ignore that. The problem for me is that we are not given time to really know or care about anyone. Everyone is a type—a rich family supplying most of the caricatures. The one complex character is Marple herself. And she's terrific. She makes the movie. The whole filming and feeling to the movie is good, too. It's an enjoyable affair—which brings me back to my first word: delightful. Thoroughly.

Oh, the sights one can see on a train. Like a woman being strangled to death, or one of mystery fiction's darkest talents being reinterpreted as a light comedienne. Such is the experience you get taking a seat next to Margaret Rutherford on "Murder She Said."Rutherford plays Miss Jane Marple in what was the first-ever cinematic presentation of Agatha Christie's famous detective. While aboard a train, Marple spies a woman in another train being throttled, the killer's face hidden from view. Ashen, Marple calls police, only to be told she probably just witnessed a couple on a honeymoon."I may be what is termed a spinster, but I do know the difference between horseplay and murder!" Miss Marple exclaims.With that, she decides to investigate the case herself, taking a post as maid at a manor house nearest to where she suspects the body was dropped from the train.It's a very different Miss Marple from Christie's version, but that's easy to understand with the demands of cinema, and easy to forgive when the results are as fine as you get here. Rutherford is in high form, playing up her character's indignation at being taken for a "dotty old maid." The manor house turns out to be alive with equal parts amusement and suspicion, presided over by Luther Ackenthorpe (James Robertson Justice), who enjoys the fact he makes his adult offspring miserable just by staying alive and denying them his inheritance.No one can believe Marple wants to work for Ackenthorpe, least of all those who already do. "You look old enough to know better," fumes a maid played by Joan Hickson, who went on to famously play Marple herself.Director George Pollock and his writing team do a fine job reinventing a typically dark Marple mystery into something more jovial. In fact, you can say there are moments they undersell the mystery this way. We don't even meet the full range of suspects until the movie's half over, which leaves little time for suspicion to marinate. But the mystery is a good one, not easy to figure out but making sense when it's all over.The only outright annoyance for me is the same so many others here point to, that kid Alexander. He's played with annoying smugness, and poorly dubbed by what sounds like a 40-year-old woman doing a Freddie Bartholomew impersonation. Every time he comes on screen, I cringe.But everything else in this film is a treat, including another character others here consider supercargo, Marple's boyfriend Mr. Stringer (Stringer Davis, Rutherford's real-life husband). As Marple must take a more active role in the movie than she does in her books, the doughty Stringer serves as a kind of comedic superego to her brave id."Miss Marple, whatever it is, no, no, no!" he cries.Give this a chance, and you'll be saying the opposite: Miss Marple, yes, yes, yes! Even if she wasn't Dame Agatha's cuppa, movie Marple brings home the entertainment and leaves you wanting more...which Rutherford and Pollock would deliver in short order.

My history of introspection in film starts with clever mystery writers. Then when talkies fell on us there was a huge experimental breeding ground for techniques that worked. By the 40s that chapter was all over and noir was incubated.Agatha Christie played a central role in this history with her wild experiments, sliding narratives and dynamic reinterpretation of what we know. So when a mature cinematic tradition deals with her material, the solutions fascinate me.In the books, the detective is a compelling personality: doomed by chance to be a matron in a small village, she is nonetheless the brightest lamp in the area. Here, she is a shuffling if fearless busybody. This adjustment turns the story possibilities inside out. She doesn't figure anything out in this movie, just finds clues.I know there are folks who have fallen in love with some actor/actress who portrays one of Christie's detectives. I like some of them myself, but it is airplanes compared to birds. There is still some grace, but not the fluid life of the earlier.My original IMDb comment on this was one of several hundred deleted by a Christian warrior because of a comment on another film.

The first of the George Pollock-Margaret Rutherford collaborations, Murder She Said is lots of fun and works very well on its own terms. It is not the most faithful adaptation to the book- 4:50 From Paddington- or to Agatha Christie in general, look to Joan Hickson if you want this, but if you are willing to judge an adaptation on its own merits it makes for an enjoyable and easy watch. It does start off a little too slow and the character of Alexander played by Ronnie Raymond is very irritating. But the setting is evocative and the film is well shot. Murder She Said is further advantaged by crisp pacing, a deliciously witty script and an outstanding music score. The story is very compelling with a nice mixture of comedy and clue solving. The final solution wasn't a surprise to me, then again I have read the book more than once and have seen the Hickson and Geraldine McEwan versions(so it was more a familiarity issue than predictability), but it doesn't underwhelm either. The film is tautly directed by Pollock, and apart from Raymond the cast are great. Margaret Rutherford is a sheer delight and James Robertson Justice is superb as the crusty patriarch. Alan Kennedy makes a good impression as the doctor, and Charles Tingwell also seems to be enjoying himself as the Inspector in his mild exasperation. As with the book and the other adaptations, the characters are diverse and generally well defined. All in all, not for Christie purists maybe but much fun to be had on its own(which ideally is how an adaptation should be judged). 9/10 Bethany Cox