Customer Reviews

Agatha Christie's Marple: Series 1

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I watched the new Miss Marple series, excited to see what Geraldine McEwan would do with the role. Unfortunately, I don't like what they've done with this latest batch of Christie's. Mrs. McEwan is a fine actress and she brings a "fluffiness" to the role that is missing from the Hickson version. Still, there is too much tampering with the plotlines to suit me. There are significant changes made in a couple of the stories, most notably in "The Body in the Library" so let the buyer beware. This isn't a minor change either as it involves the resolution of the case. They also add an odd, on-going storyline involving Miss Marple's own past love life that is simply not part of the books and isn't even close to being in keeping with the character of Miss Marple. As Agatha Christie is arguably the most acclaimed and accomplished mystery writer that ever lived, these changes were pretty outrageous. Her books stand the test of time and need no updating simply to satisfy 21st century ideas. I was surprised at this as the British are usually the ones who can be depended upon to leave good stories alone. So, if you just want a few hours of light entertainment, have at it, but if you're an Agatha Christie purist, you won't like this dvd so save your money.

The new Miss Marple series is truly awful. Not only is Geraldine McEwen completely miscast as the elderly spinster sleuth, but the stories themselves have been distorted to make them "politically correct" in the modern sense. The result is a confusing mess. Ms. McEwen is a fine actress and I have enjoyed her in other roles, but as Miss Marple she's a disaster. Her Miss Marple, with the little smirks and little girl voice, could hardly be described as Nemesis. Nor would she ever have gained the respect of any law enforcement professional. She's really Ms. Marple light.

If you want the real Miss Marple, read the books, or see the Joan Hickson versions. After all, Miss Hickson was Agatha Christie's own choice for the role.

Hasn't anyone noticed that the new Miss Marple (Geraldine McEwan) is far too young for the role? They try everything in the costume and makeup department to make her look older - give her a pale, ghostly complexion, fuzzy white hair, a dowdy, pale dress to wash out her complexion even more, little round spectacles and a frumpy old hat. What is worse is her voice. She tries to sound old and crotchety, and she can't pull it off. But worst of all, she lacks the dry wit of the Marple character. She does not have the personality of Marple. The trademark quality of the Marple character is this: underneath the guise and pretense of being a bumbling, feebleminded, old woman is really a brilliant, calculated, super sleuth. The new Marple doesn't put up the facade of the bumbling, feebleminded old woman at all. Instead, she acts sassy and clever. This takes the wind out of the sail of the Marple character, because there is no building of a deception or act that she is not who she portrays herself to be. The end is when she should reveal her true capabilities of unraveling a baffling mystery, but in this series, she gives that away scene by scene during the entire movie. It is evident that she fails to portray her dotty old woman character because none of the other characters treat her like she is a nosy, old busybody who should keep to herself. Instead, they all willingly answer her questions and then act as if they care about her opinion. To add insult to injury, the other characters are all unlikable and overplay their parts. The only qualities which give the illusion that these films are good are the sets, the modern film equipment, and modern filming techniques used. Ultimately, the films lack the building the suspense in order to climax when the mystery is revealed. Instead, the mystery is finally revealed after the suspense of the film is deflated, has dragged on and you are already tired of the characters and the story.

If you have ever seen Joan Hickson's Miss Marple, read one of the books, or even heard about the Agatha Christie character, you will be greatly disappointed with this new series. If I could give it zero stars, I would.

They have not only created a completely new Miss Marple character by giving her a cheery personality, twinkling eyes, and a tendency to brag about herself, they have provided her a past love affair with a married man - blasphemy of blasphemies! New characters inserted into the story add nothing, such as former French partisans in The Murder at the Vicarage. And, the dialogue is bad - even a fine actor like Derek Jacoby ends up giving a bad performance.

The actors in this series do not seem particularly British, so the series may be created mainly for American viewers - a marketing strategy that has historically led to films that bearly resemble the books from which they were derived. This is the case here too.

Agatha Christie is said to have been a vengeful person. If so, the people associated with this production had better avoid her in the afterlife.

If the adaptations of "Murder at the Vicarage" and "A Murder is Announced" are any sign of what is to come, fans of Christie should look elsewhere for enjoyment. One of the major elements that help any adaptation to succeed is the effort to remain true at least to the spirit of the novels. These adaptations fail miserably in this respect.
1. Miss Marple's interest in mysteries flows less from her familiarity with human evil as exprienced in St Mary Mead than from her interest in reading Raymond Chandler and being an overall rather chipper busybody.
2. Characters are "dolled up" to look like what some contemporary designer imagines contemporary "fashionable" people would have worn in "fashionable" circles in the early 1950s. (Thus, an overtly lesbian character looks more like k d lang than what any imaginable inhabitant (lesbian or otherwise) of Chipping Cleghorn would have worn in the world created by Christie.
3. There's an unfortunate effort to "update" Christie's material, at least in terms of social sensibility--making McEwan's Marple a woman whose married lover died during the Great War and, therefore, a non-judgmental precursor to faddish contemporary worldviews.
All in all, this set of adaptations reminds one of a chessboard populated by vaguely familiar chesspieces, but all playing a game whose rules have changed so dramatically that it no longer approximates the interesting game created by Christie herself.
Avoid this nonsense and purchase the infinitely superior Joan Hickson adaptations.

I am an unregenerate Agatha Christie fan and will watch any dramatization of her books, including this new version of Jane Marple. However, I have to agree with previous reviewers who couldn't come to terms with the new Marple. Geraldine McEwan's portrayal is very far from the character Christie created and the stories have been so mutilated that in some cases they are hardly recognizable. For my money, you can't improve upon Joan Hickson in the title role and this new version lacks the subtlty, faint air of menace, wry humor and sharpness of the Hickson productions. Yes, the new series is more "colorful", flashy, even, with a stream of well-known actors flowing through in character roles but many of them are ill-cast (e.g., Stephen Tomlinson as Inspector Slack) and their characters seem more like charicatures or cartoon figures. Miss Marple has been transformed into a much less remarkable person, with a rather routine romantic past and without the same shadowy, razor-sharp intelligence honed by experience with the people living in her small village. Overall, I have to wonder what they were thinking when they came up with this unrecognizable mish-mash and had the effrontery to call it "Agatha Christie's" Marple. Although this review shows three stars at the top, I would rate this series one star at best.

This adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries has more bite than the Joan Hickson films of 1984-1992. Geraldine McEwan's Miss Jane Marple has a sympathetic ear and is always polite, but she doesn't hide her cynicism or incisive nature. She may be closer to Agatha Christie's description of her grandmother and friends who inspired Miss Marple's personality: "though cheerful, they always expected the worst of everyone and everything and were, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right." McEwan's Miss Marple acts like someone trying to appear harmless, but who is actually rather obsessive and tenacious. I'm sure the producers of this Miss Marple series are trying to spice its protagonist up a bit for modern, or younger, audiences. But this Miss Marple isn't likable. While Hickson's Marple was dull, McEwan is scruffy, smirks a lot, and generally looks constipated. I'm giving this series 4 stars, but the episodes vary in quality, and Miss Marple is sometimes grating. The novels upon which the movies are based were written 1930-1957, but they have all been set in the 1950s for this series. Each film is about 90 minutes long.

"The Murder at the Vicarage" introduces us to Miss Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan), an elderly spinster with a reputation for amateur sleuthing in her home village of St. Mary Mead. When the stodgy, puritanical, and generally insufferable Colonel Lucius Protheroe (Sir Derek Jacobi) is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. Inspector Slack (Stephen Tompkinson) investigates the case and finds that Miss Marple is a quick-witted partner in detection and a great help in navigating a maze of false confessions and endless red herrings. This is the least successful film of this series. The salacious aspects of the script seem forced, and Jane Marple's flashbacks reveal that she was a young woman during WWI. Oops, that's impossible, since at least 35 years separate WWI from the time in which the story is set, and Miss Marple appears to be about 70.

In "The Body in the Library", Miss Marple is summoned by her friend Dolly Bantry (Joanna Lumley) when a young woman is found murdered in the library of her homel. The body is that of Ruby Keene (Emma Williams), a dancer at a resort hotel in a nearby town. Miss Marple and Dolly set off to the Majestic Hotel to do some sleuthing, as do the official investigators, Chief Constable Melchett (Simon Callow) and Superintendent Harper (Jack Davenport). The trail leads them to the Jefferson family, most of whose members were tragically lost during the War, leaving only a controlling patriarch, Mr. Conway Jefferson (Ian Richardson), and his daughter- and son-in-law, who care for him. I found "The Body in the Library" to be the best film of the series, thanks primarily to the supporting cast. Joanna Lumley makes Dolly comic, colorful, sympathetic, and terrifically entertaining. Simon Callow is superb as the gruff, somewhat ill at ease Colonel Melchett. The comic overtones in this mystery make it great fun.

"A Murder Is Announced" finds Miss Marple vacationing at a spa when a notice appears in the local paper announcing the time and location of a murder that is to take place. Letitia Blacklock (Zoe Wanamaker), whose house is to be the scene of the crime, expects that the notice is a joke that will invite curious neighbors to disturb her evening. So she prepares a party for her uninvited guests, and her drawing room is full by the appointed hour. The lights go out, shots are fired, Leticia is injured, and an intruder is shot to death. Miss Marple's niece, Amy Murgatroyd (Claire Skinner), was present the night of the murder and provides her with lodgings while Miss Marple insinuates herself into the police investigation. The investigation dredges up sordid pasts of the characters who surround Letiticia and turns to the will of the wealthy financier for whom Letiticia was trusted secretary for many years. This film has stirred up some controversy because Amy and her housemate "Hinch" are made out to be lovers, but the mystery unfolds nicely.

"What Miss McGillicuddy Saw" is a dramatization of the novel "4.50 from Paddington". Elspeth McGillicuddy (Pam Ferris) is traveling by train to visit her friend Miss Marple when she witnesses a woman being strangled in the compartment of another train, as the tracks run parallel to her train. Railway police investigate, but find no body, so no crime. Miss Marple and Elspeth discover that a body could have been dumped as the train passed the grand Rutherford Hall, home to the Crackenthorpe family. Miss Marple engages her intrepid, stylish niece Lucy Eyelesbarrow (Amanda Holden) to take on the job of cook at Rutherford Hall and do some snooping, while Marple stays nearby at the home of Detective Inspector Campbell (John Hannah). The Crackenthorpe family has an ornery patriarch, 3 sons who don't like one another, a long-suffering daughter, and a secret -and the largest private home I've ever seen. Lucy does most of the investigating in this film, and I found her a little too precious, but the family are an entertaining lot.

The DVDs (Acorn Media 4-disc set, 2005): There is one movie per disc, and each disc includes a Photo Gallery, which is a 1-minute slideshow of stills and on-set photos from the movie, as well as selected filmographies for 5-6 cast members. Additional bonus features are found on Disc 1: "Behind the Scenes Featurette" (1 hour) dedicates 15 minutes to each of the films and includes interviews with cast members and Geraldine McEwan, who talks about Miss Marple. This documentary is better viewed after you have seen the films. "Miss Marple on TV & Film" is an essay by Professor Charles Silet that provides an overview of cinematic interpretations of Miss Marple from 1956 to 2004. "Agatha Christie Biography" is a short text bio of the author.

I have nothing against the "new" Miss Marple, Geraldine McEwan is a great actress and a great Miss Marple but the stories are not even close to the originals ! Stories, characters, places, motives, weapons are changed ! It's enjoyable if you don't know the original! Don't use these for a book review!

I have not read Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced. I can only compare this new adaptation, staring Geraldine McEwan, to the 1985 Joan Hickson adaptation. Perhaps that's the problem. Hickson seemed spot on in the role of Marple, and the adaptations so classy, perhaps I cannot imagine someone else in the role. (Imagine someone other than Suchet doing Poirot.)

Or, perhaps this new interpretation just isn't good -- That could be it.

What bothered me about this new version of a Murder is Announced:

1)Some characters were removed while new relationships were added. This includes an affair that never existed in the old book.

2)More scenery chewing than during the making of Mr. Ed. Really, this is hammy stuff.

3)More yelling, knife pulling, etc. than required to make a Miss Marple blush; the climax-confrontation with the killer is badly done, an odd series of emotional ventings.

4)A spunky Miss Marple in the vein of Jessica Fletcher, as another reviewer mentioned (as apposed to the Miss Marple Christie created). I like Jessica Fletcher, but Miss Marple is a different character.

Clearly, those making these adaptations began with a flawed concept: Agatha Christie's work needs to be updated for our modern standards -- there needs to be more conflict ... Much, much more conflict. Maybe you agree? If so, then you might like this series.

However, if you like sitting down to a good mystery, I really recommend the Joan Hickson version of this story. It's a terrific realization of the character.

After watching these productions, all I could think of was, "How could they!" I grew up reading Agatha Christie, and loved Joan Hickson's interpretation - she really nails it, in character and appearance - Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple. So I was wary of this new series, and for good reason! Geraldine McEwan has got to be the worst Miss Marple ever. She is not old and delicate enough; she doesn't even sound English enough. Although otherwise a talented actress, she is just wrong for this role.

But by FAR the worst part is that writers/directors took uncalled for "liberties" with the stories. What gives them the idea that they could improve on Ms. Christie's work? The stories were perfect as she wrote them, just as much now as when she wrote them. The screenwriter obviously has some sort of lesbian obsession, so much so that he completely rewrites the ending of "Body in the Library", changing the villain to a female character so that he could create a lesbian love affair scene. I don't understand the reason for the lesbian element, other than the sceenwriter's obsession, as it was not in the book, but what is really unforgivable in my opinion is changing who the villian is. I can understand slightly changing or leaving out some peripheral details, but switching villians is against the rules! Agatha must be rolling over in her grave!