MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

UK, 2004, 94 minutes, Colour.

Geraldine McEwan, Stephen Tompkinson, Derek Jacobi, Robert Powell, Jane Asher, Janet McTeer, Jason Flemyng, Herbert Lom, Miriam Margoyles, Rachael Stirling, Julian Morris, Angela Pleasance, Christina Cole, Emily Bruni, Ruth Sheen.

Directed by Charlie Palmer.

Agatha Christie novels on screen are always popular. And the Miss Marple television films with the three actresses also made their mark. Here is Geraldine McEwan, a sweet and nosy Miss Marple.

As with all these television films, the supporting cast is outstanding, drawing on an enormous range of British character actors. Derek Jacoby enjoys himself as a loud and bullying Colonel and local magistrate – and the target of dislike, even to murder. The film also features Robert Powell as the local doctor, Jane Asher is the former wife of the Colonel, Janet McTeer as his wife, Jason Flemyng as a visiting artist, Herbert Lom as an investigator, Miriam Margulies and Angela presence as gossips in the town, Rachael Stirling and Tim McInerney as the vicar and his wife and Stephen Tompkinson moving from DC Banks to the local detective investigator.

The early part of the film establishes all the characters and the atmosphere of the village. It also provides a basis for a great number of suspects when the Colonel is finally killed.

Once again, the murder set up is ingenious but Miss Marple, along with the detective, is able to work out what went on and make accusations.

Touch of the spoiler – the two who commit the murder are very sympathetic, Miss Marple even liking them, which means that we, the audience, also like them, so that is very disappointing and dismaying to find that they are guilty.

1. The popularity of Agatha Christie stories? Miss Marple? The three actresses?
2. The location, the village, the church and vicarage, mansions? The period, the 1950s, costumes and decor? The musical score?
3. The opening, St Mary Mead, the vicar, his wife and devotion? The congregation? Introducing Miss Marple? The atmosphere of the village, the older women, meetings, gossip? The response to Colonel Protheroe?
4. Colonel Protheroe, the history of the war, his role as a magistrate, his daughter, his relationship with his wife, his bullying manner, shouting, the case with the poacher and the heavy sentence? The community dislike of him? His going to the vicarage, found dead?
5. The wide range of suspects? Those who disliked him? His wife, the later marriage, the relationship with the daughter? The daughter, her being painted, provocative, her father’s disapproval? Lawrence Redding, popular, painting the vicar’s wife, access to the house?
6. The various women, their gossiping, the sending of the nasty letter?
7. The doctor, his place in the village, reputable?
8. The presence of the professor, his assistant, the alleged research, the revelation of the truth, to unmask the Colonel?
9. The court case, the family of the accused, his being sent to prison, response?
10. The time of the murder, alibis? The colonel’s wife and Lawrence Redding, Miss Marple seeing them? The vicar’s wife, the train journey, its being cancelled?
11. Detective Inspector Slack, his work, collaboration with Miss Marple, the very serious, interrogations?
12. The buildup to the solution, the vicar’s wife pregnant and going to check?
13. Colonel’s daughter, the absent mother, her return to the village, creating a scene, the revelation of who she was, the reunion with her daughter?
14. The revelation about the visiting professor, his going for a walk, his search, alibi?
15. Miss Marple liking Lawrence and Anna Protheroe (and audience sympathy for them)? The relief that they had an alibi? Miss Marple, her observation about and is behaviour and walk, suspicions, the gun, the shot, the distraction?
16. The solution and expose? A satisfactory Miss Marple story and investigation?