Agatha Christie has been one of my favourite authors for nearly 10 years now, and while I prefer Poirot as a detective the Miss Marple novels and stories still make for great reads, especially A Murder is Announced and Sleeping Murder. Of the actresses playing Miss Marple, the definitive one to me will always be Joan Hickson, who is like Miss Marple come to life, her adaptations are all very good to great with They Do It With Mirrors being the only slightly disappointing one. Margaret Rutherford I also liked very much as the character and her films were very entertaining, Angela Lansbury did a nice job if a little on the young side for Miss Marple and Geraldine McEwen(she has grown on me as Miss Marple) on the whole was good but I wasn't taken by Helen Hayes.
Julia McKenzie here and in her other adaptations is terrific as Miss Marple, for me the best since Hickson. Hers is more agile and less shrewd but still charming, remarkably well-grounded and intelligent with an endearing twinkle about her. Whereas the BBC Miss Marple series with Hickson was generally consistent, the ITV Marple series starting with McEwen and now with McKenzie isn't so much. There are some great ones like The Blue Geranium, A Pocket Full of Rye and The Mirror Crack'd and I did like A Murder is Announced, Murder At the Vicarage and The Moving Finger too. But there have been some stinkers too like At Bertram's Hotel, A Sittaford Mystery, Why Didn't They Ask Evans and Nemesis and Sleeping Murder, Ordeal of Innocence, Body in the Library(quite good actually until the ending) and The Secret of Chimneys disappointed also. Greenshaw's Folly was one of the middling ones along with Murder is Easy, They Do it With Mirrors, The Pale Horse and Towards Zero. It has many good merits but did have some things that didn't work quite so well, compared to the excellent A Caribbean Mystery also it was a slight disappointment.
Starting with what I didn't much care for, there were stretches particularly in the middle where it did feel too padded out and while the spousal abuse and child experimentations plot points were interesting they-much more the latter than the former though-did convolute the story(I did have to rewind the ending more than once to completely get it) and while it was a quite foreboding story and atmosphere anyway maybe they did have too much of a sinister overtone and darkened the storytelling too much. Some will disagree but this was just something that I felt. Joanna David is also rather wasted despite having a character and scene holding a vital clue, people having to ask whether she was actually in the adaptation on and outside of IMDb and the internet is not a good sign, and it is a shame because she is a good actress.
However, it is a very well made adaptation. The house looks splendid and the very ideal sort of house where dark secrets would be kept, while the sumptuous scenery, haunting lighting and professional photography help give an evocative and atmospheric visual look. The music is well-composed and fitting, more subtle and suited to the atmosphere I feel than most of the McEwen Marple adaptations. The dialogue does get confused in the final solution but on the whole it is thoughtfully written and does its best to have some fidelity to Agatha Christie's style. The story is two short stories(interesting but not classic stuff, the Greenshaw's Folly story doesn't have an extraordinary amount to it and Miss Marple seems to solve the case just like that with not many if any clues) combined in one big one, and on the most part the adaptation does a noble job at keeping the storytelling interesting and even with the additional plot points that didn't work as well as they could have done elements of the two stories are there and easy to spot. The Gothic and foreboding dark secrets atmosphere is very well evoked, and the first half-hour and build ups to the murders do have tension and suspense. It does drag though after the second murder and the final solution is one that may need a couple of re-watches.
The cast are on top form though, apart from the waste of Joanna David(Vic Reeves' role is also quite brief but long enough to not be a waste in the same way). Julia McKenzie is terrific and her scenes with Bobby Smalldridge and Kimberley Nixon, both also very convincing, are beautifully played. In support, Fiona Shaw comes off best in a firm but also very touching performance, and Julia Sawalha is on fine form also as Miss Cresswell. Robert Glenister is highly believable playing a nervous ferret-like character that is also in a downward spiral, a role that fits very well within the story. John Gordon Sinclair fills the Inspector, one who tries to solve the murders asap and is seemingly increasingly exasperated at Miss Marple's involvement, excellently. All in all, quite good but could have been better. 7/10 Bethany Cox
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