This is a classic of great fame and force and it works marvelously, so marvelously that it has not taken one single wrinkle with age. Of course it is a story within a rich family and the motivation of the murderer is money and greed. Miss Marple or Agatha Christie definitely thought that the rich old families of Great Britain had something rotting away in their rose gardens, like in Hamlet's Denmark. But you will have to find the details at the end of the film. But Miss Marple is a lot better than just that. She is no Sherlock Holmes after all. So she manages to bring some children in the picture and some antiques that are more frightening than attractive. And of course there is a niece of hers who is her own agent within the crime scene, and the niece is of course in love with one of the members of the family, the crazy RAF pilot who is able to sell his own house to buy a small plane just to be able to land in front of the manor and alight and salute his girl friend who is slightly annoyed but finds him so original and irresistible. This particular production of the story is just quaint and fragile in that life style (1959, Gagarin has just flown around the earth) and it insists on these things that were going to disappear so fast in the coming five years: coal-burning trains for one and the ritualistic rite of tea and breakfast. Delicious old ladies, delicious ancient world that has by now been erased from our globalized memories. Luckily Miss Marple is still here to tell us the old story of it.
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington
(1987 TV Movie)
Paddington, my favorite London Station
9 February 2011
Warning: Spoilers