Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder (1987)

My girlfriend put this film on while I got on with some ironing and I was surprised to find that it was one I hadn't seen before – I had assumed that I had seen almost all of them but yet here I was. The plot is rather clumsy by way of setup as it involves a huge amount of coincidence to get everyone where they need to be; whether it be Gwenda ending up in that house from the other side of the globe or the chance meeting (and involvement) with Miss Marple herself, it is built on coincidence. It took about thirty minutes to get passed this but it manages to do it by laying on the rather supernatural suspense before Marple of course comes in with logic to set us off.From here the film is an enjoyable little tale that brings in characters and motives and investigates them all. The limited history and routes of investigation help make the plot quite easy to follow and as such I was surprised to find that it was one of the more accessible of the BBC Marple's that I've seen. It probably "helps" that it is perhaps a little too obvious who the killer is and what their motives would have been. This wasn't a massive problem for me but I'm so used to being so far behind Marple that it was an odd feeling to be ahead of her for once! The whole film also has quite a light feel to it in stark contrast to the rather prime setting of the English village; the sea-side setting may be part of it but having a "foreigner" in the lead role of the investigation is probably a bigger influence. I don't think Gwenda was a great character but she was quite engaging and her threads allowed Marple to do more observing while we the viewers have it more spelt out for us via her. Miss Marple herself isn't in it that much but her presence is well felt and her read between the lines and tap the grapevine investigation style came over quite well. Of course I would have liked it to have been a little smarter in terms of the development and the resolution but it was quite enjoyable and it didn't hurt to be led through it rather than feeling like you had to work at it – it wasn't quite CSI, but Sleeping Murder certainly felt a lot "gentler" in terms of complexity than the normal Marple's.Hickson is on typically good form even if the material is a bit more obvious than normal; she plays her character well – wise but not "knowing" with it. Alexander didn't convince me at first but she did work as a "normal" person following the leads with a certain amount of intrigue and innocence, she is the actor on the screen most and she did it pretty well. Treves overplays his Scottish doctor a little bit but is fine generally while Moulder-Brown is light and enjoyable.Overall Sleeping Murder isn't a great example of the BBC Marple mainly because it is rather lively, brisk and easily understood – which is not always the case with them. Although I was a little disappointed by how accessible and easy it all was in the end, I did enjoy watching it and found it to easily hold my attention and interest me without being so complex that I stopped paying attention.

The 1980s adaptations starring Joan Hickson are on the slow side by modern standards. This was in fact the last golden age of television before it was ruined by too many channels and the advent of the MTV attention span -- which has sadly affected us all, I fear. This version is lovingly crafted with delightful period details.Although, in its slowness, this version fails to build up the various suspects as sufficiently menacing, it is a good version which keeps quite faithful to the book. Geraldine Alexander is excellent as Gwenda and to my ears does a super New Zealand accent. John Moulder-Brown is a let-down as her unconvincing animatronic husband, beautifully dressed in the gent's outfitters styles of the period, but far too mannered in his perfect elocution. Joan Hickson does her stuff very well as usual.It is interesting (if depressing) to compare this with the travesty version starring Geraldine McEwan, where the plot has been mangled -- and garbled -- beyond recognition.

What a film! Watching 'Sleeping Murder' scared me more than any other Miss Marple film, mainly due to the suspense. The version with Joan Hickson was much, much better than that with Geraldine McEwan, mainly because the director stuck to the plot and didn't add a silly romance between the protagonist and her aide to supposedly warm the hearts of the audience. I thought that the house used was just right, and the gradual tension brought about by new discoveries (some gruesome) added a thrill to the plot. The main actress came across as a genuine damsel in distress and her husband loyal and devoted. One of the few films to make me frightened.

Mysteries of the past should be left alone; otherwise, they may awaken danger. Using that well-known idiom, Dame Agatha pens another whodunit, wherein a young married woman's infatuation with an old, stately English house translates into buried secrets and impending murder.Having already read Christie's novel and concluded that this story was not quite as good as some of her other works, I watched the BBC adaptation of "Sleeping Murder", not expecting a lot. The film, like the book, gets off to a slow, tedious start. The plot gets better as it plods along. Toward the end, Director John Davies injects some needed suspense. The screenplay is a bit talky. Acting is adequate. I especially like Joan Hickson as Jane Marple who delightfully meddles in the business of a newlywed couple, and who naturally is a step, or several steps, ahead of everyone else in solving the crime.The story is not dependent on majestic scenery or unusual visual perspective, so that cinematography is fairly unimportant. But sets are important here, and so the filmmakers have given adequate attention to production design and costumes. Overall, they have done a good job with a Christie story that is relatively weak, and thus rendered a film that is reasonably entertaining.