Murder at the Gallop (1963) - film review

Whilst collecting money for a charity, Miss Marple and her friend Mr Stringer pay a call on the reclusive Mr Enderby.  They are amazed when the old man suddenly appears at the top of his staircase and drops dead at their feet.  When Inspector Craddock rejects her theory that Enderby was scared to death by a cat, Miss Marple embarks on her own investigation.  Those who stand to gain from the death are the four heirs to the Enderby estate.  Eavesdropping on the reading of the will, Miss Marple hears one of the beneficiaries, Aunt Cora, assert that Enderby was murdered.  Realising that Cora knows something about the death, Miss Marple pays her a visit at her cottage, but when she arrives Cora is dead, murdered with a hatpin.  Her only clue being the footprint of a riding boot, Miss Marple checks into a hotel-cum-riding school named The gallop, where all of Enderby’s heirs are gathered.  The amateur sleuth is certain that one of them is a murderer and lays a trap to catch the killer...

In the second of her four outings as Miss Marple (five if you include her cameo appearance in The Alphabet Murders), Margaret Rutherford once again proves that no one is better suited to play Agatha Christie’s spinster detective (although she would later be eclipsed by Joan Hickson in the BBC TV series of Miss Marple stories).  Rutherford was both a born eccentric and a supremely talented actress, two qualities that made her perfect for the part, which she clearly relishes playing.  "Murder most foul!" she declares with an exuberant lust for adventure, and just look how enthusiastically she dances the twist in the dance sequence.  What a swinger.  

Murder at the Gallop is arguably the best and most enjoyable of the four Miss Marple films made by MGM.  Director George Pollock strikes an appropriate balance between suspense-drama and comedy and takes a leaf or two out of Hitchcock’s book, planting red herrings all over the shop and using the camera imaginatively to build the tension.  The performances are equally creditable, with a particularly memorable turn from Robert Morley, an actor with a rare talent for appearing sinister and funny at the same time.   

The film is based on Agatha Christie’s novel After the Funeral, in which the murder mystery was solved by Hercule Poirot, not Miss Marple, not that it matters.   In the film, Miss Marple admits that she is a great fan of Agatha Christie, which clearly cannot be the case, because if she had read After the Funeral she would have cracked the case in five minutes.  The only explanation is that Miss Marple is either an habitual liar or an egomaniac.  And she seemed such a sweet old lady...

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