Murder She Said (1961)

Margaret Rutherford: Miss Jane Marple

Photos 

36 more photos

Quotes 

• Ackenthorpe : Cod's as good as lobster any day, and much cheaper.

  Miss Marple : Well, that depends on whether or not one has a palate unsullied by cheap opiates.

  Ackenthorpe : If you mean what I think you mean, I'll have you know this cheroot cost two shillings!

  Miss Marple : Yes. Quite.

• Craddock : We have come to the conclusion that what you saw on the train was... uh... well, a man and a woman...

  Miss Marple : Yes, as I said.

  Craddock : I mean, perhaps they were honeymooners.

  Miss Marple : I may be what is termed a spinster, but I do know the difference between horseplay and murder.

• Ackenthorpe : There is one thing I cannot tolerate, and that is impertinence.

  Miss Marple : Well, we should get on admirably. Neither can I!

• Miss Marple : You contrived to introduce arsenic into my curry - which I find unforgivable, by the way.

• Ackenthorpe : If you don't shut those windows you'll be fired.

  Miss Marple : In that case I shall require four weeks' wages in lieu of notice.

  Ackenthorpe : Get out of my sight, woman!

  Miss Marple : With pleasure!

• Mr. Stringer : What a frightful looking man.

  Miss Marple : What a frightful looking dog.

• Alexander : You know, it isn't just that you don't look like Jayne Mansfield. You're not *my* idea of a maid, either.

  Miss Marple : Well, quite honestly, I don't think *you're* everybody's idea of a boy.

• Miss Marple : I'm Jane from Mrs. Binster's Employment Agency - the new maid!

  Mrs. Kidder : [laconically]  Well, you look old enough to know better. Come in.

• Miss Marple : [shaking her head in disappointment at the departing Mrs. Kidder]  The younger generation!

• Craddock : Have they got any other servants?

  Miss Marple : Yes they have, Inspector.

  Craddock : Good Lord! You!

  Miss Marple : Yes. Dotty old me.

• Miss Marple : A policeman's work is never done.

• Miss Marple : I'm afraid I never can resist my own pie, Inspector. Anybody else's, of course.

• Ackenthorpe : I hope it'll be a long time before I have to put up with the whole pack of them again.

  Miss Marple : Not a very nice way to talk about one's family.

  Ackenthorpe : Not a very nice family.

• Craddock : Withholding information from the police is a very serious matter.

  Miss Marple : Oh, I know, Inspector, and I'm most awfully sorry. Will you take tea?

• Ackenthorpe : Well, I've decided to marry you.

  Miss Marple : Well, I'm honored, of course.

  Ackenthorpe : Of course you are, but come to the point.

  Miss Marple : I'm afraid that cannot be.

  Ackenthorpe : Why?

  Miss Marple : Well, if ever I do embark on such a venture, there is someone else.

  Ackenthorpe : Nonsense! I don't believe it. Who on earth would have you?

• Miss Marple : SPOILER:

  [Quimper's about to inject her with poison] 

  Miss Marple : One more murder may be one too many.

  Dr. Quimper : This won't be a murder, the death certificate I'll write up will say heart failure.

• Miss Marple : I'm quite sure you mean well, Inspector, but if you imagine that I'm going to sit back and let everyone regard me as a dotty old maid, you're very much mistaken.

• Miss Marple : If I could just have a quiet word with Mrs Binster...?

  'Mrs. Binster' : I am Mrs Binster.

• Alexander : You're not, by any chance, on the run from the police, are you?

  Miss Marple : Too much television. You must learn to rationalize your imagination!

• Miss Marple : A policeman's work is never done.

  Craddock : Nor a woman's.

• Alexander : You know, there's something decidedly fishy about you. I can see you'll have to go, after Mrs. Kidder, of course, she's next. Depressing creature, so was Annie.

  Miss Marple : Annie?

  Alexander : Your predecessor. Thin as a rake and a shocking cook. Can you cook?

  Miss Marple : Well, I think I've done better than Annie.

• Alexander : We've never had a golf-playing maid before.

  Miss Marple : You may have heard that this is the Age of the Common Woman.

• Craddock : And no such woman has been seen getting on or off the train, either alone or with anybody else.

  Miss Marple : Of course not, she was dead.

• Miss Marple : I don't think you'll like it, Hilda. Too obvious; the mother did it, of course.

  Mrs. Helen Stainton : How can you possibly know that? The book has only just come in.

  Miss Marple : It always is with Falcon-Smith. A deprived child, you know.

• 'Mrs. Binster' : Mrs. Hamilton Potts, the Dingley Stud Farm, you know. Seven children; eldest, 7.

  Miss Marple : Oh, no, thank you.

• Alexander : [as Miss Marple begins her golf swing]  Your weight isn't quite evenly distributed.

  Miss Marple : I'll have you know that I won the Ladies' Open Handicap in 1921.

• Mrs. Kidder : [as Miss Marple hands her her wages]  Hmm! Much work for very little.

  Miss Marple : [shaking her head after the 55 year old Mrs. Kidder leaves]  The younger generation. Hmm! Well I don't know.

• Emma : I don't want a housekeeper, you know. I want someone to, well, to do the work.

  Miss Marple : Yes. You want cooking, washing up, beds made, floors scrubbed, fires lit, ashes taken away; I quite understand.