Murder She Said (1961)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

George Pollock

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel)
David D. Osborn (adaptation)

Release Date:

7 January 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

Agatha Christie-The First Lady of Mystery and Margaret Rutherford-The Last Word in Detectives, Bring You a Killer of a Suspense Yarn...No Ifs, Ands or Butlers About It!

Plot:

Whem Miss Marple reports witnessing a murder through the window of a passing train, the police dismiss her has dotty spinster when no trace of the crime can be found.

Plot Keywords:

Miss Marple | Train | Murder | Manor | Manor House

Cast

Margaret Rutherford	...	Miss Jane Marple
Arthur Kennedy	...	Dr. Paul Quimper
Muriel Pavlow	...	Emma Ackenthorpe
James Robertson Justice	...	Ackenthorpe
Thorley Walters	...	Cedric Ackenthorpe
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell	...	Inspector Craddock (as Charles Tingwell)
Conrad Phillips	...	Harold Ackenthorpe
Ronald Howard	...	Brian Eastley
Joan Hickson	...	Mrs. Kidder
Stringer Davis	...	Mr. Jim Stringer
Ronnie Raymond	...	Alexander
Gerald Cross	...	Albert Ackenthorpe
Michael Golden	...	Hillman
Barbara Leake	...	Mrs. Hilda Stainton
Gordon Harris	...	Bacon

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie's 'Murder, She Said' (USA)
Meet Miss Marple

Runtime:

USA:87 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | West Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL

Filming Locations:

Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

George H. Brown Productions

Trivia:

Despite privately remaining unimpressed by the film, Agatha Christie dedicated her 1962 book "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" to Margaret Rutherford, "in admiration".

Goofs:

Continuity: The train in the scene showing the second train overtaking is hauled by a BR Standard Class 4 tank engine but in two previous shots the train was hauled by a tender engine.

Quotes:

Miss Marple: I'm Jane from Mrs. Binster's Employment Agency - the new maid!
Mrs. Kidder: [laconically] Well, you look old enough to know better. Come in.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Claim (2002)

Formidible Spinster Sleuth

I do so love Margaret Rutherford who makes Agatha Christie's Ms. Jane Marple a most formidable and determined sleuth. Unfortunately this was one of Christie's weaker and way too coincidental plots.

Rutherford is on the 4:50 from Paddington station and while she's observing the passing scenery, a train passes in the opposite direction. Looking at that train she sees a pair of hands strangling a woman. Of course there's no body to be found after Rutherford calls for the police.

But things like that don't faze Margaret Rutherford in the slightest. With the aid of her friend and real life husband Stringer Davis, she walks the length of the track and does find some clues as to where the body might have been flung out the window. Turns out to be on a large estate and then Rutherford goes to work at the estate in the guise of a maid so she can continue her sleuthing.

The household is headed by James Robertson Justice who is one booming hypochondriac, the despair of his ever present doctor, Arthur Kennedy. The scenes with JRJ and Rutherford are the best in the film.

Of course the murder does have something to do with the estate and for me that's way too much to swallow that the murderer could have so contrived the crime to occur when the train was passing at the proper time for the body to be thrown out precisely where it was.

Still Margaret Rutherford is always a delight and Christie fans will like what she did with Agatha's formidable spinster sleuth.