Miss Marple: Murder at the Vicarage
by Julian Amyes
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Product details
Actor: Cheryl Campbell, Joan Hickson, Paul Eddington, Polly Adams, Robert LangDirector: Julian Amyes
Cinematographer: John Walker
Editor: Bernard Ashby
Producer: George Gallaccio
Producer: Guy Slater
Writer: Agatha Christie
Writer: T.R. Bowen
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 102 minutes
Release Date: 1997-09-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Studio: A&E Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Miss Marple: Murder at the Vicarage
Movie Review: The DOCTOR did it!! Or did he??
Summary: 5 Stars
+++++
I watched this movie without reading the 1930 Dame Agatha Christie novel that it was based on. (This novel introduced the world to Miss Marple. Christie wrote twelve Miss Marple murder mysteries altogether.) I'm glad I did this! Why? Because it forced me to really watch the movie in order to try and deduce who the murderer was.
A murder occurs at the vicarage in the small village in which Agatha Christie's heroine super sleuth Miss Marple (the late Joan Hickson) lives. Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) is called in to investigate. Miss Marple helps him solve the murder.
To make this case even more intriguing, not one but two prime suspects confess to this murder. It seems like they are trying to protect the real murderer.
Who are the people associated with this vicarage? They are as follows:
(1) Reverend Leonard Clement (Paul Eddington)
(2) Griselde Clement, the reverend's wife (Cheryl Campbell)
(3) Colonel Lucius Protheroe (Robert Lang)
(4) Anne Protheroe, the colonel's wife (Polly Adams)
(5) Lettice Protheroe, the colonel's daughter (Tara MacGowran)
(6) Lawrence Redding who is having an affair with the colonel's wife (James Hazeldine)
(7) Reverend Christopher Hewes (Chris Good)
(8) Mrs. Lestrange, a newcomer to the village (Norma West)
(9) Dr. Haydock (Michael Browning)
(10) Mary Wright, the Clement's maid (Rachel Weaver)
(11) Bill Archer, the maid's boyfriend (Jack Galloway)
Joan Hickson (whom Agatha Christie herself wanted to play Miss Marple) captures the essence of the heroine super sleuth in her performance. (Hickson was 80 years old in this movie!) All performances in this movie are good but special mention should go to David Horovitch who does an above job of portraying the inspector.
I found this movie murder mystery especially intriguing since it was a big surprise to me as to who the real murderer was.
Finally, the cinematography of this movie is good. All costumes are authentic looking. The background music adds to each scene.
In conclusion, this is a fun movie even if you have read the novel it's based on!!
(1986; 100 min; made for T.V.; British drama; full screen; color)
+++++
Movie Review: "[They] knew I was a noticing sort of person."
Summary: 5 Stars
There she sits: a white-haired lady dressed in tweeds, a pair of knitting needles in her lap, more interested in village gossip than in the goings-on of the world at large - but she certainly doesn't mince words ("Oh yes. Colonel Protheroe has always struck me as being rather a stupid man," she deadpans about the man who will soon turn up dead in the study of St. Mary Mead's Vicar Leonard Clement), and whenever a murder is committed you can be sure she won't be far away; and while the police are still toddling around searching for clues she'll find the solution. "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," observes Vicar Clement, the narrator of this story's literary original, about two members of his wife Griselda's (Cheryl Campbell's) Tuesday afternoon tea and gossip circle.
And of course this also holds true with regard to the murder of disagreeable Colonel Protheroe (Robert Lang), whom the dismayed vicar (Paul Eddington) finds shot after returning home from a wild goose chase visit to an allegedly terminally ill member of his congregation. From the Colonel's wife Ann (Polly Adams), his daughter Lettice (Tara MacGowran) and Ann's lover, the painter Lawrence Redding (James Hazeldine), to the mysterious Mrs. Lestrange (Norma West), small-time poacher Bill Archer (Jack Galloway) - the beau of the vicar's maid Mary (Rachel Weaver) - and even the vicar's own curate, Hawes (Christopher Good), there is no shortage of suspects; indeed, half the village seems to have had reasons to want the Colonel out of the way. But to solve the mystery, Miss Marple doesn't only have to work her way through a thick layer of deception, false confessions and other red herrings - she also has to come to terms with the role accorded to her herself in the devious plan surrounding the Colonel's murder.
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 versions, 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.
Although "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930) was Christie's first Miss Marple mystery, the BBC series opened with a multiple-episode adaptation of the second novel-length story featuring St. Mary Mead's elderly spinster, "The Body in the Library" (written 1942, BBC 1984); followed by the three 1985 productions of "A Murder Is Announced" (written 1950), "A Pocket Full of Rye" (1953) and "The Moving Finger" (1942). Only in 1986, the BBC took up the story that had first introduced Miss Marple to Agatha Christie readers all over the world.
Crucially, like all of the episodes produced for TV, this adaptation not only maintains the tone and atmosphere set by Christie's original but also - *although* in the sequence of the adaptations Miss Marple and Inspector Slack of Milchester C.I.D. had already crossed paths in "The Body in the Library" - the fact that this story very much serves to establish their acrimonious relationship. And while Miss Marple, who compares Slack to a railway diesel engine, or in this story's literary original to a shoe vendor intent on selling you patent leather boots while completely ignoring your request for brown calf leather ("most unappealing - but I'm told efficient. Well, I suppose we shall have to learn to live with such things. And such people ...") usually has the upper hand vis-a-vis Slack (who in turn calls her a "nice little grey-haired cobra [who] sticks to [murder] like chewing gum to the cat") occasionally Slack gets in the last word, like in the exchange following his announcement to Miss Marple that he will pay her a visit to get her full account of her observations on the day of the murder:
Miss Marple: "Oh, I'm sure you're far too busy to listen to my little ideas, Inspector."
Slack: "Noone can accuse me of not being thorough."
Miss Marple: "Indeed ..."
Slack: "I suppose it's having an ear for gossip and, uh, a talent for a bit of blind guess work, really."
Miss Marple: "What is, Inspector?"
Slack: "What stops your little ideas being a waste of time."
Miss Marple: "Well, I don't think I've ever been complimented quite like that in my life before, Inspector."
Slack: "Don't mention it ..."
Of course Slack will pay dearly for this slight from that very moment on, and in the end has to suffer the ultimate defeat of (not for the last time) catching his murderer only after having agreed to a "little strategy" proposed by Miss Marple.
Also recommended:
Murder at the Vicarage: A Miss Marple Mystery (Agatha Christie Collection)
Agatha Christie: Five Complete Miss Marple Novels (Avenel Suspense Classics)
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
Marple Classic Mysteries (Caribbean Mystery/4:50 from Paddington/Moving Finger/Nemesis/At Bertram's Hotel/Murder at Vicarage/Sleeping Murder/They Do It with Mirrors/Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side)
Miss Marple - 3 Feature Length Mysteries (The Body in the Library / A Murder Is Announced / A Pocketful of Rye)
The Mirror Crack'd
Movie Review: The Delightful Miss Marple
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like Miss Marple, you must get this video. It is vintage Miss Marple at her best. Joan Hickson absolutely does the best rendition of Miss Marple that is out there and this particular episode, "Murder at the Vicarage," is the most delightful and my favorite. Paul Eddington plays the vicar and is at his best in this role. I can't remember the name of the actress who plays Griselda, the vicar's wife, but she is delightful and enchanting. The two of them are so cute together, especially at the end after Miss Marple has clued everyone in on what actually happened and then Griselda tells the vicar some personal news. And of course, there's the ever pitiful Inspector Slack, who is played with perfect rudeness and ignorance of what has really happened and as usual, finally figures out that he needs to listen to Miss Marple. This is the best of the video renditions of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and I highly recommend it to all the Miss Marple fans out there.Movie Review: I'm Never disapointed in Joan Hicks as Miss Marple
Summary: 5 Stars
When I picture Miss Marple my minds eye sees Joan Hicks. Such a wonderful portrait of Agatha Christies slueth. I've enjoyed this title time and again. Some one is murdered at the Vicarage of all places, who could have done it and why. The ex-wife, the lover, the unhappy daughter? The ever observant Miss Marple can piece it all together. Some people think these A&E Miss Marple movies move too slowly....but if you love Agatha Christie (like me) you will not be disapointed.Movie Review: Aunt Jane sees it all
Summary: 5 Stars
In "Murder at the Vicarage" nothing escapes being noticed by Miss Jane Marple Joan Hickson) as her house is strategically accost the way from the Vicarage.
A missing one pound note from the Poor Box. Colonel Lucius Protheroe (Robert Lang) intends to get to the bottom of this.
As Reverend Leonard Clement (Paul Eddington) passes the hedge hiding Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson), he expresses an ill chosen explicative to describe Colonel Lucius Protheroe.
Colonel Protheroe is later found dead while checking the books of the Vicarage.
Lots of people (ALL with alibis) had reason to do him in. Now Aunt Jane must explain that no one could have done it as she was watching all the time from her house across the street.
Poor Detective Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) must once more deal with Miss Jane Marple. You get to help Detective Inspector Slack sort through all the sub plots and confessions to find out what happened.
Summary of Miss Marple: Murder at the Vicarage
The death of a most unpopular citizen throws the sleepy village of St. Mary Mead into an uproar.Amateur Sleuths Video
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