"THE FIRST OF FOUR MISS MARPLES . . . DISPLAYS THE GENIUS OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY . .. BUT ALSO SHOWS THAT HUMAN NATURE — AND SIN — IS TIMELESS. THOSE TWO MYSTERY MAXIMS — CUI BONO? OR WHO BENEFITS, AND CHERCHEZ LA FEMME, OR LOOK FOR THE SEX ANGLE — NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE. "
Barbara Peters
The Poisoned Pen
This first of four Miss Marples to be aired once again displays the genius of the production company at immersing viewers in the period whether by clothes, cars, meals, mores, manners, modes of address—but also shows that human nature—and sin—is timeless. Those two mystery maxims—cui bono? or who benefits, and cherchez la femme, or look for the sex angle—never go out of fashion.
Miss Marple belongs to the intuitive school of detection, deriving much of her wisdom from her close observation of human behavior and motivation and drawing on her personal experience (as with supervising domestic staff) in reaching her conclusions. I think of her as more like classic sleuth Father Brown than say Sherlock Holmes. Still, as Geraldine McEwan modestly claims, little gets by her so she operates in deductive mode as well.
Murder at the Vicarage, published in 1930, is the first of the Miss Marples and to my mind has always been the most humorous; though no P.G. Wodehouse, Christie actually had quite a keen sense of humor that doesn’t come through as well in her other books. Yet interestingly this production, while sparkling (pronouncing Lettice as “lettuce” leads to a great moment) is darker than you might expect from such a beautiful village as St. Mary Mead.
Christie was a stern moralist when it came to murder and did not let her killers go unpunished. A chilling finale to this Murder at the Vicarage not only underlines the swift and absolute punishment of the culprits but its finality—England still hanged its convicted murderers.
A touch of sadness stems from glimpses of Miss Marple’s romance with a World War I officer whom we infer doesn’t come home from the front. I don’t remember this from the books, and McEwan seems a bit elderly for the mere 15 years that have passed since she bade her lover farewell, but it adds a dimension to Miss Marple that comes across particularly well in her dialogue with Anne Protheroe. No stereotypical English spinster she.
The casting is wonderful. I adored Margaret Rutherford and Angela Lansbury each in their interpretations but they both essentially played themselves. I was lucky enough to be at the Agatha Christie Centenary held in Torquay back in 1990 where Joan Hickson and David Suchet (an inimitable Hercule Poirot) stepped from the Orient Express to the station platform. Suchet bowed over Hickson’s hand, flourished a bouquet, and breathed “At last, we meet”—which of course they never did. Geraldine McEwan breathes another characterization into her role, infusing it with a mischievous yet wistful quality at once thoroughly modern yet whispering of a by-gone age. And perfectly dresses the part.
The pugnacious, blustering Col. Protheroe springs to life in Sir Derek Jacob’s astute hands. Janet McTeer brings a full-bodied look perfectly suited to both the part and the period as Anne Protheroe, and the rest of the cast is pitch perfect. I, however, gave my heart to Stephen Tompkinson as Inspector Slack who not only wraps up the case steered by Miss Marple but delivers the funniest line.
Mystery! Miss Marple "The Murder at the Vicarage" airs Sundays, April 17 and 24, 2005 at 9 p.m. on Channel 8.
