Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2006) (TV)

Director:

Peter Medak

Writers:

Stewart Harcourt (screenplay) and
Agatha Christie (novel)

Release Date:

19 February 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Miss Marple joins forces with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find the murderer of Tommy's Aunt Ada.

Plot Keywords:

Miss Marple | Tommy And Tuppence | Vicar | Murder | Syringe

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Jane Marple
Chloe Pennington	...	Young Hannah
Oliver Jordan	...	Young Ethan
Anthony Andrews	...	Tommy Beresford
Greta Scacchi	...	Tuppence Beresford
Clare Holman	...	Miss Packard
Miriam Karlin	...	Marjorie Moody
June Whitfield	...	Mrs. Lancaster
Claire Bloom	...	Aunt Ada
Steven Berkoff	...	Freddie Eccles
Patrick Barlow	...	Mr. Timothy
O.T. Fagbenle	...	Chris Murphy (as O-T Fagbenle)
Jody Halse	...	Amos Perry
Josie Lawrence	...	Hannah Beresford
Michael Maloney	...	Dr. Joshua Waters

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie - Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Australia) (DVD title)

Runtime:

USA:102 min | Brazil:93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

Agatha Christie

Trivia:

Although the date of is not made clear, it appears to be set in the Post-War late 40s or early 50s. The movie version of Jane Eyre (1944) that it refers to was made during the war in 1944, so although the poster art from the film appears similar to the Robert Stevenson film, it doesn't mention either Joan Fontaine or Orson Welles, who starred in the film. The part of Jane's friend, who dies in the film, was originally played by Elizabeth Taylor, although she dies from pneumonia, not leukemia, as stated in "By the Pricking of My Thumbs."

Goofs:

Anachronisms: This episode is set somewhere in the late 40s, early 50s (Polo mints were first made in 1948). Miss Marple requests the taxi driver to take them to "the train station". The expression "train station" has only been in common use in the last few years, it's certain Miss Marple would have said "railway station".

Quotes:

Tommy Beresford: [Tuppence asks Tommy to drive so she can continue reading her copy of Macbeth. Tommy chuckles in response] I was in Macbeth at my prep school. "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day."
Tuppence Beresford: [gets in car on passenger side] I heard you were marvelous.
Tommy Beresford: Who from?
Tuppence Beresford: You.
Tommy Beresford: Hmm.
[gets in car and starts engine]
Tommy Beresford: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

Movie Connections:

Version of Mon petit doigt m'a dit... (2005)

Something rotten in Agatha Christie land

Aren't there enough Miss Marple stories still to be filmed without grafting her on to a Tommy And Tuppence mystery. Tuppence, quite unlike her character in the original novels, is now a bored fortyish housewife with a drink problem! Yet again liberties have been taken with the original source. Why does the vicar have to be an alcoholic and the husband of (formerly single) parish worker Nellie Bligh. There are other ridiculous subplots involving an obnoxious child actress and a village girl pregnant by a G.I which add nothing to the story whatsoever. To make way for this a perfectly good part of the original novel involving organized crime has been jettisoned. The executors of Mrs Christie's estate should be ashamed of allowing her work to be butchered in this way. As for Geraldine McEwan's 'revisionist' interpretatrion of 'Marple' God Help Us!