By the Pricking of My Thumbs
- Episode aired Feb 19, 2006
- TV-PG
- 1h 42m
Miss Marple joins forces with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find the murderer of Tommy's Aunt Ada.Miss Marple joins forces with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find the murderer of Tommy's Aunt Ada.Miss Marple joins forces with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find the murderer of Tommy's Aunt Ada.
Photos
- Aunt Ada
- (as Clare Bloom)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMiss Marple does not appear in Agatha Christie's original novel, which was an adventure featuring her other sleuths, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. In order to make the story part of the Marple series, the time period was moved from post-war to sometime near the end of the war. This conveniently places Tommy still in the military intelligence service abroad, and his part of the story was re-written for Miss Marple.
- GoofsTowards the end, Septimus Bligh is pulling the ropes of two of the church bells. While it is possible for a single person to chime two bells. Each bell in a church tower is a different pitch. The two bells Septimus Bligh had the same pitch and is therefore not possible.
- 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."
- Crazy creditsIn the closing credits Claire Bloom is misspelled "Clare Bloom". In the opening credits the spelling is correct.
- ConnectionsVersion of By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2005)
It must be said that this film does have some enjoyable parts to it and that generally the bright colours, pacey plot and simple delivery suited my dull and lazy brain when it screened on a Sunday evening. However that is about as forgiving as I feel like being because generally the film isn't very good and seems to ham it up at every chance with flamboyant touches in a frantic attempt to cover up how very average the whole thing is. The mystery is intriguing at first but gradually lost my interest by not building on the interesting aspects early on. The general delivery is a bit too light, supposedly in an attempt to try and make the whole film feel "fun", but in practice all it does is undermine the story. I wasn't too fussed about the source material but this was a mismatch of books and the whole film certainly is not what I think of when I think of Miss Marple.
The cast match this by producing a load of ham that even a butcher would struggle to sell. The performances are mostly OTT and unconvincing obviously they have been directed to do this but it didn't pay off. Having earlier been concerned about McEwan in other films, here I was in no doubt that she is poor and unsuited to the role. Here she overdoes her facial expressions and at no point showed any sign of a sharp mind; in fact at times she is a shopping trolley and a smell of urine away from being a bag lady. Scacchi is no better, overdoing things and not convincing as the woman behind the man. Andrews is OK but is barely in it. This leaves the rest of the film to be populated by uninterested and hammy famous faces. The great Leslie Phillips delivers his lines with the vocabulary skills of Muhammad Ali (as he is now); Dance is such a ham that I kept expecting him to climb on a spit and stick an apple in his mouth; Whitfield is dotty; Lawrence has nothing to do and Berkoff is simply off his t1ts for no discernible reason.
Overall this just about suitable for a Sunday night because it moves along, is mindless and will not bother you much. However even ignoring the disrespect it shows to Christie, the film is still a fairly average affair with a poor "fun" delivery, so-so plot and performances that range form being pigs to being pure ham. Worth a look if you are seeking a refuge from thought but if you are an Agatha Christie fan then my advice would be to avoid this like the plague.
- bob the moo
- Jan 8, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Panna Marple: Dom niespokojnej starosci
- Filming locations
- Loseley Park, Guildford, Surrey, England, UK(Sir Philip Starke's manor house)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro