Complete credited cast: | |||
Helen Hayes | ... | Miss Jane Marple | |
Bette Davis | ... | Carrie Louise Serrocold | |
John Mills | ... | Lewis Serrocold | |
Leo McKern | ... | Inspector Curry | |
Liane Langland | ... | Gina Markham | |
John Laughlin | ... | Wally Markham | |
Dorothy Tutin | ... | Mildred Strete | |
Anton Rodgers | ... | Dr. Max Hargrove | |
Frances de la Tour | ... | Miss Bellaver | |
John Woodvine | ... | Christian Gilbranson | |
James Coombes | ... | Steven Restarick | |
Tim Roth | ... | Edgar Lawson | |
Christopher Fairbank | ... | Sergeant Lake | |
![]() |
Amanda Maynard | ... | Miss Valentine |
Christian Gilbranson (John Woodvine), Miss Jane Marple's (Helen Hayes') lawyer, persuades her to visit the baronial estate of his stepmother, Carrie Louise Serrocold (Bette Davis), an old friend of Marple's. Carrie Louise's devoted husband Lewis (Sir John Mills) has turned the manor house into a halfway house for young men with criminal records, and has hopes of expanding the facilities. He confides to Miss Jane Marple that he suspects that someone is slowly poisoning Carrie Louise with arsenic. One of the young charges, Edgar Lawson (Tim Roth), claims to be Lewis' illegitimate child and wants his alleged father to acknowledge him. While they are arguing behind closed doors, a gun is discharged, and the visiting Gilbranson is found murdered in another room. It is up to Miss Jane Marple to aid crusty Inspector Curry (Leo McKern) discover the murderer's and poisoner's identities. Written by Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)
One of Agatha's easier mysteries to solve begins with some decent location atmosphere and solid characters then soon nosedives, like most Christie adaptions, into the silly. I agree that Dame Bette looks sadly old here and is basically wasted, so Helen Hayes makes up for a lot as the nosy Miss Marple. The funniest part of unintentional giggles, next to that exploding car crashing thru the gate, which never happened in book form, is seeing Tim Roth as a so called delinquient teen. He's a riot here and helps the disappointment factor from jumping too high. It's also nice to see Leo McCern from Rumple of the Bailey in a token, gruffy, voice-of-the-law role which plays off the Hayes cuteness level without too much strain. Too bad the plot wasn't as meticulously handled as the scenery...