Miss Marple Collection #1

• Miss Marple: V2
• Miss Marple Mysteries
• Poirot: Set 7 - DVD
• Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: Classic Mysteries Collection
• Poirot: 3pc Box: Set 3 - DVD

In 4:50 from Paddington, Miss Marple's good friend Elspeth McGillicuddy witnesses a man strangle a woman on a passing train, and it's up to Miss Marple to uncover the mystery. In Sleeping Murder, the Reeds move into their dream house, where Mrs. Reed is plagued by the vision of a body in the hall. In turn they call upon Miss Marple to help them uncover this strange phenomenon. When the American movie star Marina Gregg in The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side is almost murdered while filming her new picture, she's fortunate to have the help of Miss Marple to sniff out the evil culprit. A Caribbean Mystery has Miss Marple, who's in need of rest and relaxation, deciding to holiday in the West Indies. Her holiday soon turns into a working vacation when it's time for her to gather the usual suspects. This box set is a must-have for the video libraries of all whodunit enthusiasts and Miss Marple admirers. --Samantha Allen Storey

For more likely than not, another murder has been committed; and Miss Jane Marple, elderly spinster from the village of St. Mary Mead, just happens to find herself near the scene of the crime. And also more likely than not, while the police are still toddling around searching for clues she'll find the solution - relying on her ever-unfailing "village parallels;" those seemingly innocuous incidents of village life making up the sum of Miss Marple's knowledge of human nature, to which she routinely turns in unmasking even the cleverest killer. "Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner - Miss Wetherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is the more dangerous," already observes Vicar Clement, the narrator of Miss Marple's first adventure, 1930's "Murder at the Vicarage" (the small screen version of which is unfortunately not part of this first set, which features four post-WWII stories, but of the second set, which reunites three pre-war mysteries with 1952's "They Do It With Mirrors" and 1971's "Nemesis," the sequel to this set's episode "A Caribbean Mystery").

Originally airing on TV in the 1980s, the BBC's adaptations of Agatha Christie's twelve Miss Marple novels featured Joan Hickson in the title role; quickly establishing her as the quintessential Miss Marple even in the view of the grandmother (or rather, grand-aunt) of all village sleuths and "noticing kinds of persons"'s creator, Dame Agatha herself. (After seeing Hickson in an adaptation of her "Appointment With Death," as early as 1946 Christie reportedly sent her a note expressing the hope she would "play my dear Miss Marple.") Prior realizations, partly involving rather high-octane casts, had seen as Miss Marple, inter alia, Angela Lansbury and Margaret Rutherford, but had been decidedly less faithful to Christie's books. While Lansbury holds her own fairly well when compared to the character's literary original in 1980's "Hollywood does Christie" version of "The Mirror Crack'd" (and that movie's ageing actresses' showdown featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak is a delight to watch) the four movies starring Rutherford are only loosely based on Christie's books: Dame Margaret's Miss Marple, although itself likewise a splendid performance, has about as much to do with Agatha Christie's demure and seemingly scatterbrained village sleuth as Big Ben does with the English countryside, and of the scripts, only "Murder, She Said" is an adaptation of a Miss Marple mystery ("4:50 From Paddington"), whereas two of the others - "Murder at the Gallop" and "Murder Most Foul" - are actually Hercule Poirot stories ("After the Funeral" and "Mrs. McGinty's Dead," respectively), and "Murder Ahoy" is based on a completely independent screenplay.

Following the rule that ever since Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Japp every great private detective needs a policeman he can outwit, the creators of the BBC series inserted the character of Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) into almost all of the storylines - hardly in keeping with the literary originals, which are set over a period of more than 30 years and thus, exceed the career span of a policeman already advanced on his professional path at the time of his first encounter with Miss Marple; even if the BBC's Slack is promoted from D.I. in "Murder at the Vicarage" to Superintendent in "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side." Yet, Hickson's and Horovitch's face-offs are a fun addition; and one is almost ready to pity Slack, who hardly ever gets a foot down vis-a-vis Miss Marple's quick rejoinders and, in the words of her friend, retired Scotland Yard chief Sir Henry Clithering, "wonderful gift to state the obvious." (During a conversation with Inspector Craddock in "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side," Slack - whom Miss Marple herself, in the TV adaptation of "Murder at the Vicarage," has already likened to a railway diesel engine, or in that story's literary original to a shoe vendor intent on selling you patent leather boots while completely ignoring your request for brown calf leather instead - unaware that he is talking to one of Aunt Jane's nephews, rather unsubtly credits her with having "a mind like a meat cleaver.")

Of the four episodes contained here, three are based on fairly well-known mysteries:

In 1957's "4:50 From Paddington" Miss Marple seeks the help of professional housekeeper Lucy Eyelesbarrow to investigate the murder of a woman, whom the village sleuth's friend Mrs. McGillicuddy has seen being strangled from a passing train, and whose body must have disappeared somewhere on the grounds of the Crackenthorpe family estate Rutherford Hall. (In the original, this, too, is a story featuring Inspector Craddock, not Slack.)

1962's "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" (whose title is based on a line from Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott") revisits the grounds of Gossington Hall, erstwhile home to Miss Marple's friend Dolly Bantry, who has sold the estate to ageing Hollywood star Marina Gregg. At a charity benefit, the charity's secretary is found dead - and much points to Miss Gregg as the intended victim.

"A Caribbean Mystery" (1965) sees Miss Marple in a for her most unusual West Indian setting, solving the murder of Major Palgrave, who was killed in an attempt to prevent him from foiling his murderer's even more sinister intentions. This episode also establishes the title of its sequel "Nemesis," although in the original it is Miss Marple herself, not her new friend, rich old Mr. Rafiel, who names her thus.

"Sleeping Murder" (1976) finally was Christie's last Miss Marple story; although it is less the old lady herself than newly-weds Giles and Gwenda Reed who act as detectives, with Miss Marple's help trying to get to the bottom of Gwenda's unsettling visions relating to their new home, which she conceivably cannot have known previously, and a murder occurring there over 20 years earlier.

• Genres > Mystery & Suspense
• Genres > Television > TV Series
• Genres > Mystery & Suspense
• Genres > Mystery & Suspense > Mystery & Suspense Masters

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