Rating summary
Movie | | 4.0 |
Video | | 4.0 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 2.0 |
Overall | | 4.0 |
Miss Marple: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 29, 2014
Rarely has one actor been so thoroughly associated with a role as David Suchet has been with Agatha Christie’s inimitable Poirot, despite legendary
performers like Albert Finney (who was Oscar nominated in Murder on the Orient Express) and Peter Ustinov also tackling the part.
Christie’s other iconic detective, mild mannered spinster Jane Marple, has had a somewhat more varied screen life, though if one
were to associate an actress with the role, chances are it would be Joan Hickson, who played Miss Marple for around eight years from
1984 to 1992. While Gracie Fields had essayed the role for television in the fifties, it was the ebullient Margaret Rutherford who was first
strongly associated with Marple in a series of big screen comedy-mysteries which were quite popular in the early sixties. (In fact MGM
attempted to
launch a Poirot series in the wake of the Marple successes, but their only effort, The Alphabet Murders, tanked, perhaps due to the
somewhat odd casting of Tony Randall in the role.) Rutherford’s Marple wasn’t exactly Christie’s character, but she was memorable and
amusing. Over twenty years later Hickson (who had a small role in the Rutherford Marple Murder, She Said) stepped into the role, to
the approval of Christie herself, who had evidently once told Hickson that when Hickson was a bit older, she hoped the actress would play
the
part. The Hickson Marples may seem quaint to younger viewers who have become used to the latest reboots featuring actresses like
Geraldine McEwan or Julia McKenzie, versions which have in some instances radically changed Christie’s plotlines in a risky gambit, done
perhaps to keep longtime fans guessing, that has nonetheless angered purists who feel Christie can’t be bettered. While actresses as
notable as Angela Lansbury and Helen Hayes have also stepped into the Marple role, Hickson’s characterization will probably forever be held
up as the paradigm. She may not have had the duration of Suchet in Poirot, but her impact can’t be minimized.
The four episodes in this first volume of
Miss Marple are:
Murder at the Vicarage. While this wasn’t the first
Miss Marple to air (that was
The Body in the Library), this was the
first appearance of Miss Marple in a full length novel, way back in 1930. Miss Marple is introduced almost discursively here, in the wake of a
dust up at the local vicarage, where a local doyenne’s one pound offering has gone missing, leading to umbrage and an impending
investigation by the church’s lay treasurer, the imperious Colonel Protheroe (Robert Lang). In typical Christie fashion, St. Mary Mead is
awash in intrigue and hidden relationships, with the Colonel’s put upon second wife Ann (Polly Adams) hiding a nascent affair with visiting
artist Lawrence Redding (James Hazeldine). The local vicar, Leonard Clement (Paul Eddington), becomes aware of the subterfuge, but is
distracted first by his klutzy younger wife Griselda (Cheryl Campbell) and then by the mysterious murder of the Colonel right in the vicar’s
own study. There are of course a number of seemingly suspicious supporting characters lurking around on the sidelines, but when various
folks actually start
confessing to the murder, Miss Marple works her quiet magic even as the frustrated Detective Inspector Slack
(David Horovich) tries to pretend
he’s solving the case. (It's a bit odd that BBC places this episode first in this set, since Miss Marple
clearly states she first dealt with Slack in
The Body in the Library case.)
This version of Christie’s tale hews very closely to her novel, unlike the more recent television version starring McEwan. Interestingly, there’s
some religious subtext here that plays into the long distrust between Anglicans and Catholics (listen to how the Colonel disparages the
curate as a “papist”), an element which has tended to be featured more overtly in the most recent
Poirot offerings, where Poirot’s
Catholicism has played at least tangentially into some episodes. Hickson’s take on Miss Marple is spry, but perhaps less of a meddling
busybody than might be expected. Marple just seems to always be in the right place at the right time, rather than intentionally poking her
nose into everyone else’s business. Still, she’s shown to not be above the idle gossip mill, as detailed in a snarky scene where she has tea
with a bunch of other elderly St. Mary Mead women at the vicar’s home one day.
The Body in the Library. As mentioned above, this was actually the first
Miss Marple to air, broadcast over the Christmas
holiday in 1984 (murder and Christmas seem to appeal to the Brits). This was also the first adaptation to air in the revised
Marple
series which initially starred Geraldine McEwan as the venerable sleuth. That version radically altered Christie’s original and provided a
scenery chewing turn by Joanna Lumley as Dolly Bantry, a friend of Marple’s who is alarmed to discover, yes, a body in her library. In this
1984 iteration, Dolly is played by the significantly more reserved Gwen Watford, and the story does not delve into salacious events like
hidden lesbianism the way the newer version does (the
Marple reboots sometimes seem to suggest that a
lot of fifties’ Britain
was inexorably gay). Part of the fun of this episode is the fact that while there is indeed a body in the library, nobody initially seems to know
exactly
whose body it is.
Perhaps because this episode helped to launch
Miss Marple, there’s a bit more of a drawn out feeling to it (it originally aired over
three nights in the United Kingdom, and it’s presented here in that original three part version). There’s also a more comic tone to many of
the proceedings here, including those of the flamboyant film director Basil Blake (Anthony Smee) and his tempestuous girlfriend Dinah Lee
(Debbie Arnold). In fact a sense of wry amusement runs through quite a bit of this episode, with some nice little moments like when Dolly
attempts to describe her husband’s addled state of mind to local constable Colonel Melchett (Frederick Jaeger), doing so with a string of
non sequiturs that seem to drive the military man to distraction but which Miss Marple apprehends with just a slight tilt of her aged
head. That’s future Mrs. Sting, Trudie Styler, playing Josie Turner, a character who may hold the key to the entire mystery.
The Moving Finger. Part of the subtext of the
Miss Marple mysteries in particular was the cognitive disconnect between the
apparently bucolic paradise of St. Mary Mead and other picturesque English villages and the often rather hideous behaviors of the residents.
That proclivity is delivered (literally, as in dropped off at the door) via a series of so-called “poison pen” letters that start showing up after a
young brother and sister named Gerry (Andrew Bricknell) and Joanna Burton (Sabina Franklyn) lease a rather luxe manor house while Gerry
is recovering from an injury. These two are on the receiving end of one of these nasty missives, but they at least decide it’s all just a bad
joke. When another resident evidently commits suicide after having received one of the deliveries, things seem to be taking a much more
dour turn, and when a second body soon turns up, it’s not long before Miss Marple is on the case.
The Moving Finger is an interesting example of typically brilliant Christie misdirection combined with the author’s unerring eye toward
human behavior, including some seemingly inherent differences between the sexes. When, for example, a nascent form of police profiling
seems to point to a meddlesome older biddy (just like Miss Jane Marple, in fact) as the culprit, Miss Marple herself of course has other ideas.
As with virtually every Christie mystery, there are red herrings galore, with a number of characters harboring certain secrets, and yet the
motive for both the letters and the deaths turns out to be almost frighteningly banal.
A Murder is Announced. This is one of Christie’s most elegantly plotted Miss Marple outings, one that casts its net rather wide both
geographically and generationally, revealing a decades’ long ruse whose unfraying proves to be the kiss of death for several characters.
Once again this BBC version takes its time, spooling out over three episodes, letting the beautifully realized vignettes between various
people unfold at a languid but never boring pace. Interestingly, this was the first ever small screen Marple, the aforementioned Gracie Fields
entry from 1956. Her co-star was the inimitable Jessica Tandy, playing an elderly woman named Letitia Blacklock, played here by Ursula
Howells. Letitia is confounded one morning to see a small classified ad in the local newspaper announcing a murder at her house for the
coming weekend. That announcement soon sets off a chain of events that does in fact see someone getting killed—though the victim seems
to be the one perpetrating the advertised “murder”.
Letitia and her housemate “Bunny” (Renee Asherson) initially feel that the whole escapade is some kind of joke, but one that a number of
residents take seriously enough to show up for, as if a party of sorts is about to unfold. When an interloper
does appear, all hell
breaks loose, including the loss of electricity, something that plays into the ultimate resolution of the case. Once again a rather tangential
(and probably too convenient) relationship draws Miss Marple into the case, but not soon enough to prevent there being more victims. The
smallest details like some moved furniture and a seemingly innocent slip of the tongue play into this fantastic piece of writing, one that
remains at or near the top of Christie’s entire output. That’s future
Inspector Lewis Kevin Whately playing another somewhat Lewis-esque second fiddle during the investigation here.
Miss Marple: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Miss Marple Volume 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Younger viewers may be
unimpressed with this presentation, but for those of us who are old enough to have seen these episodes broadcast and in various previous
home video incarnations, the results approach the revelatory. What was once a kind of drab, often yellow-tinged, presentation that frequently
bordered on the fuzzy and inchoate has been beautifully upgraded with these new high definition masters. Sourced from the original A/B roll
camera negatives, there is a rather large uptick in detail and clarity, but perhaps the biggest difference here is with regard to color timing. What
used to be an almost saffron ambience is completely gone, replaced with a much more natural looking palette that supports everything from the
admittedly sallow flesh tones of some of these Brits to more vivid hues courtesy of the foliage in various English villages. There has been
some noise reduction here along with the usual removal of dirt and scratches, though to my eye it's been applied judiciously. While grain can be
minimal in things like brightly lit skies, it's more than apparent in ruddier textures like thatched roofs or even tweedy costumes. There are still
occasional variances in sharpness. Watch, for example, when Colonel Protheroe first leaves the church in Murder at the Vicarage, and a
small but noticeable downgrade in clarity is quite evident, but considering the various elements that were utilized and the herculean task of
restoring these older 16mm outings, the results are largely stupendous and should delight longtime Miss Marple fans.
Miss Marple: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Miss Marple Volume 1 features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix that does perfectly well with the various episodes' rather talky
ambiences, but perhaps just a bit less well with regard to some of the music, including the charming opening theme by Ken Howard. Even here,
though, there is a manifest uptick in clarity, especially with regard to the brass, from the old DVDs of this series. There are no major issues on
any of the episodes other than a typically somewhat boxy sound that stems (no pun intended) from the source.
Miss Marple: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- A Very British Murder - Part One: The New Taste for Blood (1080i; 50:04) features Lucy Worsley in a very well done
examination
of murder and its ineluctable interest by the general public. Worsley starts with an actual murder from a couple of centuries ago, but then starts
to
examine how tales of murder started to ripple out into the general public consciousness, ultimately becoming literature in the hands of writers
like
Dickens, Doyle, and of course Christie.
Miss Marple: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Agatha Christie mysteries are the rare outing in this genre that repay repeated viewings, even after you already know who the culprit is. That's
due to the author's mastery not just of plot but perhaps even more importantly of character. Christie's keen observational style
permeates these Hickson Miss Marple episodes and makes them unusually satisfying. While these don't have the whiz-bang production
values of the newer Marple episodes with McEwan and McKenzie, they have something much more important: Joan Hickson as Miss
Marple and a respect for Christie's original creations. Technical merits are very strong and the sole supplement is also great. Highly
recommended.