It is no good for Miss Marple to take a vacation – sorry, holiday – in some distant exotic place like Barbados because crime is following her just the same and she gets mixed in several murders. The gist of the case here is that she was told everything that was going to happen by some kind of blabber mouth of a major of the colonial police, and she did not listen properly, just providing him with the few prompts and cues necessary for him to go on talking. But of course she will manage to prevent the last murder but three people had had it hard in the hands of that murderer. Once again that poor Miss Marple finds herself in a human environment that is not very gratifying for humanity itself: rich self-made men who control people around them with money and nurture that way all kinds and types of jealousy and hatred and that is the real fodder a murderer needs to accomplish his deadly mission which in a way is a cleansing mission in this society. There is some kind of cynicism in Miss Marple and her vision of society as being the real home of all kinds of cankers and rotten apples. And yet she manages to protect these selfish and self-centered individuals. This film was slightly too slow in a way and the Barbados setting was not used as much as it could have been.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU