Loosely adapted from Agatha Christie's novel 4.50 from Paddington, Murder, She Said was the first in a
series of four Miss Marple films that were made in the early 1960s with
the incomparable Margaret Rutherford cast as the indefatigable amateur
sleuth. Christie reputedly loathed Rutherford's portrayal, which
made Miss Marple a far more proactive and eccentric character than she
ever was in her crime novels. The film may not have pleased
Christie but audiences loved it and it remains one of the most popular
adaptations of her work, a well-crafted whodunnit with some pleasing
shots of humour.
Rutherford is a delight and clearly relishes her role, doing for Miss
Marple what Basil Rathbone did for Sherlock Holmes in the 1940s.
Her fierce set-tos with James Robertson Justice are particularly
enjoyable to watch and there is a heart-warming touch to her scenes
with her real-life husband Stringer Davis. The cast
includes a young Richard Briers at the start of his career and Joan
Hickson, who would win recognition as the definitive screen Miss Marple
in a long-running BBC television series of Christie adaptations, a
quarter of a century later. Hickson may have made the more
authentic Miss Marple, but Rutherford's interpretation is still just as
laudable, and much more fun to watch.
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Film Synopsis
Whilst returning to her home village by train one afternoon, Miss
Marple witnesses a woman being strangled in a passing train. When
the police refuse to take her seriously, the redoubtable old spinster
begins her own investigation, with the help of her old friend Mr
Stringer. Miss Marple soon ascertains where the body of the
murdered woman fell after being thrown from the train, and deduces that
it must have been collected by somebody living at Ackenthorpe Hall, the
grounds of which are adjacent to the railway line. By
exercising her usual guile, Miss Marple arranges to be engaged at the
Hall as a housemaid, although she soon takes a dislike to her irritable
crippled employer, Luther Ackenthorpe. Undeterred, the one-woman
crime squad sets about her investigation and soon discovers the dead
body, concealed in an Egyptian coffin in the stables. Suspicion
falls immediately on Ackenthorpe's offspring, who each stands to
inherit a fortune when the old man dies. When a member of the
household is murdered, it becomes apparent that Miss Marple is up
against a dangerous and resourceful killer...
Script: Agatha Christie (novel),
David D. Osborn,
David Pursall,
Jack Seddon
Cinematographer: Geoffrey Faithfull
Music: Ron Goodwin
Cast: Margaret Rutherford (Miss Marple),
Arthur Kennedy (Dr. Quimper),
Muriel Pavlow (Emma),
James Robertson Justice (Ackenthorpe),
Thorley Walters (Cedric),
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell (Craddock),
Conrad Phillips (Harold),
Ronald Howard (Eastley),
Joan Hickson (Mrs. Kidder),
Stringer Davis (Mr. Stringer),
Ronnie Raymond (Alexander),
Gerald Cross (Albert),
Michael Golden (Hillman),
Barbara Leake (Mrs. Helen Stainton),
Gordon Harris (Bacon),
Peter Butterworth (Ticket Collector),
Richard Briers ('Mrs. Binster'),
Lucy Griffiths (Lucy),
Nadia Pavlova (Murder Victim),
Martin Stephens (Alexander)
Country: UK
Language: English
Support: Black and White
Runtime: 87 min
Aka:Agatha Christie's 'Murder, She Said'
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