Who Committed the "Murder at the Vicarage"? (Miss Marple - Murder At The Vicarage (DVD))

Member Name: anonymili

Product:	Miss Marple - Murder At The Vicarage (DVD)
Date:	01/09/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Geraldine McEwan does a nice Miss Marple

Disadvantages: Story changes might be confusing to fans of the original story

Murder at the Vicarage was written by Agatha Christie and published as a novel in 1930. It was the first full length novel to feature Miss Marple so really if you want to get into the Miss Marple range of films (or books even) this one would be a good place to start. I've personally had the hardback book of this for over 25 years. I wanted to see how it had fared as a film so I watched the TV film earlier this year. There has been a earlier version starring Joan Hickson but the one I'm reviewing is the 2004 version starring Geraldine McEwan as the likeable but sometimes irksome Miss Marple.


Miss Marple is knocked over by an unknown assailant on a motorbike and hurts her ankle so badly that she is unable to get around easily. The neighbours fuss around her and bring her food to eat and themselves to keep her company. This all seems to be an excuse for gossiping about various other villagers and during this little tea party they all see the goings on across the way which gives them more fodder for gossip. When Colonel Protheroe is murdered, Miss Marple is on the case to find out who did it and why? Can she find the culprit before there's another murder?


The story is set in the village of St Mary Mead which is Miss Marple's home which we are led to believe is a quaint peaceful little village where everyone knows each other. I hope you can assume where the murder takes place from the title of the film? At the vicarage, yes!

One thing about the series of Miss Marple films that McEwan starred in was that some part of the plot would be changed from the books and additional characters would appear or main characters would not appear at all. I guess this was to make this series of films have something different for the viewer to see, after all; if you've seen the previous film versions, you might wonder, what exactly is the point of having a remake done with exactly the same story. It might be a good thing entertainment-wise to have these differences but it can be quite confusing if you read the novel first and then watch the film or even the other way around. A true Christie fan would find it quite confusing with major characters removed (or even added) and bug chunks of the plot changed. But if you watch the film as a standalone film with no prior knowledge of the story, it's entertaining enough - as long as you like films of this genre.

The plot for the film is clever - well it's an Agatha Christie story and I'm hardly going to slate it as I'm a huge Christie fan. I wouldn't say this is one of the better film versions of any Christie novel that I can think of, far from it, but there are a few things about the film which made it interesting for me.

The fabulous Derek Jacobi stars as the murdered colonel and is pretty obnoxious and enough of a bully that when he gets bumped off you think "GOOD!" Even the local gentle vicar jokes about wanting to kill him at a dinner party (prior to his murder of course) at which Miss Marple is present which encourages the other guests to join in and jokingly plan how they would each do it, so it's rather convenient for whoever the murderer is when the colonel actually ends up murdered in the vicarage and even more convenient when two people come forward quite quickly to own up to the murder. There are enough clues and lies thrown in to confuse even the best detectives but our Miss Marple, of course, has a way of weeding out the lies from the truth and even with a mountain of suspects, she manages to track down the culprit. Stephen Tomkinson is on good form in the role of the harassed DI Slack trying to solve the case and some of his scenes with Miss Marple are quite amusing especially when she states that she has helped out the Chief Constable in the past and he acknowledges the fact but is quite sarcastic in his response.

Rarely in Miss Marple stories do we get much of an insight into Miss Marple's past. From her title, we know she's a spinster who's never married and we also know from various novels/films that she has a nephew she is very fond of. In this film we get a glimpse into Miss Marple's past where we find out that she had a relationship with a married man during World War I. We see that she is a woman who had romantic inclinations which is never evident in other stories. Her past is something which helps her solve the murder inevitably but we see a softer more feminine side to her in this film, something which I haven't seen portrayed when the marvellous but very serious Joan Hickson has played the role or even when the fabulous and rather amusing Margaret Rutherford. McEwan has a fabulous twinkle in her eye and a slight cheeky smile which I've noted in several films where she appears as Miss Marple but I felt it was more apparent in Murder at the Vicarage.

As with most Christie novels which have been made into films, I find that the locations used are completely suitable for the era when the story is set and this film was no exception.


As a standalone film I'd give Murder at the Vicarage a fairly solid 6 out of 10. I'd rather not rate it at all in comparison to how true it is to the book as this would bring the rating down somewhat. I did like watching McEwan in the role of Miss Marple, her cheeky twinkle of the eye is very endearing to see although it's really not exactly in character with the Marple of the Christie novels.


TECHNICAL

Director: Charles Palmer
Producer: Matthew Read
Writer: Agatha Christie
Screenplay: Stephen Churchett
Starring: Geraldine McEwan, Derek Jacobi, Tim McInnerny, Rachel Stirling, Jason Flemyng, Mark Gattis, Herbert Lom, Emily Bruni, Jane Asher, Siobhan Hayes and Stephen Tomkinson
Duration: 95 minutes
Film release date: 2004

Summary: Recommended but definitely not one of the best Marple films...