World Famous Comics: Marple Classic Mysteries (Caribbean Mystery/4:50 from Paddington/Moving Finger/Nemesis/At Bertram's Hotel/Murder at Vicarage/Sleeping Murder/They Do It with Mirrors/Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side)
Marple Classic Mysteries (Caribbean Mystery/4:50 from Paddington/Moving Finger/Nemesis/At Bertram's Hotel/Murder at Vicarage/Sleeping Murder/They Do It with Mirrors/Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side)
Product Description: Return to post-war England for mystery and a cup of tea with Agatha Christie s most popular creation. The consummate prim and proper crime-fighting spinster Miss Jane Marple sets down her knitting needles to unwind the most ingenious crimes. As she travels from city to countryside and even the Bahamas murders missing bodies and haunted dreams have a habit of falling across Miss Marple s path--which is precisely when "tail up and head down" the beloved aunt and godmother goes into action. Digitally re-mastered and faithfully adapted from Agatha Christie s best-selling novels THE CLASSIC MYSTERIES COLLECTION features Joan Hickson (Christie s personal choice to play the spinster sleuth) in over fifteen hours of suspense misdirection rich period detail and the cleverest solutions imaginable. DVD Features: Complete Index of all Miss Marple Stories; Agatha Christie Bio; Joan Hickson Biography/Filmography; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection System Requirements:Running Time 936 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE UPC: 733961747096 Manufacturer No: AAE-74709
Amazon.com: Joan Hickson is the epitome of Agatha Christie's spinster sleuth in this DVD boxed set of nine Miss Marple movies from British television. "Little grey-haired cobra," mutters Detective Inspector Slack (David Horovitch), the hard-slogging policeman who finds himself humbled, again and again, by the frail woman's shrewd insight and dogged determination. Whether on a tropical island, in a grand hotel, or on a bus tour of historic sites, Miss Marple never fails to uncover the buried secrets, illicit affairs, tangled finances, and boorish Americans that abound in Agatha Christie's mysteries. Hickson is said to be Christie's own choice for the role (though when Christie told her this, Hickson was taken aback, as she was still fairly young at the time), and it's easy to see why: Hickson is physically unassuming, a perfect village busybody, yet her eyes contain a constant flicker of curiosity and keen intelligence.
This set includes all but three of Hickson's outings as Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery, in which an old bore's death on an island resort sets the plot in motion; The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, which features an aging movie star and sumptuous marble bathrooms; in 4:50 from Paddington, the launch of Sputnik is accompanied by a strangling on a train; The Moving Finger begins with poison pen letters, but poison and bludgeonings soon follow; At Bertram's Hotel is one of the most unusual stories, as murder doesn't happen until more than 3/4 of the movie has unfolded, and the ending features a dynamic rooftop chase; Murder at the Vicarage, a definitive village mystery which finds Miss Marple solving a killing on her home turf; Nemesis, in which a wealthy old friend of Miss Marple's orchestrates, after his own death, the investigation of a murder long gone cold; Sleeping Murder, one of the best, starts out as more of a ghost story than a mystery and culminates in genuine suspense; and They Do It With Mirrors, in which misdirection--the cunning art upon which any murder mystery depends--is part of the plot itself.
There are a few famous names sprinkled among the casts (among them Donald Pleasance, Halloween, Jean Simmons, Spartacus, and Joan Greenwood, The Importance of Being Earnest, who has one of the most wonderful voices in the history of British cinema), but these BBC dramas depend mostly on solid, enjoyable character actors--actors much like Hickson herself, who labored for decades in bit parts before finding her plum role. The compression necessary to turn a book into a movie sometimes makes sussing out the murderer simpler, but fans of the genre will still be delighted by Miss Marple's perceptive investigations. --Bret Fetzer
As compared with newer series... These are longer than the series with Geraldine McEwan, with more detail. They are closer in accuracy to the books but they still changed some things, for example, adding the character of Superintendent Slack. The lower voices, particularly Joan Hickson's, make these movies somewhat harder to understand. The newer Miss Marple series is not as close to the books as far as accuracy, but is very entertaining, with snappy music, and dialogue that is easier to understand without straining or turning the volume up too loudly.
These are considerably longer, well over two hours each in length, than the newer versions. Therefore, they are harder to fit into a busy evening. My husband and I like both series, but we end up having to watch the Joan Hickson Marple movies in two parts due to the lenght. This is supposed to be relaxing for us, but sometimes we end up stressed with trying to concentrate well enough to catch all of the clues and the explanations at the end which sometimes happen so fast we miss it. We had to watch several of them twice --- due to so many details, we missed tiny ones that ended up being important to the plot or answered a question as to motive.
In summary, my husband and I like both series, but we agree we like the newer series better for entertainment and relaxation (because they are shorter and less complex) and the older series better for being true to Agatha Christie and more classic. These just seem to move more slowly than the Hercule Poirot shows made about the same time. But these are all feature length, whereas, most of the original Hercule Poirot mysteries were of the one-hour variety. We like both Marple series, probably equally well, though I'm sure the Joan Hickson ones are more what Agatha Christie would have preferred.
Miss Marple dvd's Would recommendthese Dvd's on Miss Marple Classic Mysteries!!! My husband was thoroughly suprised when I ordered them. He is a large fan of Miss Marple and has really enjoyed them. I think he will keep me after 37 years of marriage. On scale of 1-10, we say a 10!!!!!
Agatha at her best A perfect collection. Nice that they put 9 films on the 5 CDs. A very practical way to keep your collection together. The small thin Amoray cases makes it easy to use, save, keep available. I have the Nero Wolfe series, which I dearly love, but the cases are bigger--and you notice.
A nice variety of her films too.
Great transfer but for no subtitles I got the set from one of the resellers in good time and in the NEW quality as advertised. I just wish that somewhere in the reviews, someone would have mentioned that there are NO subtitles on the disks. Joan Hickson (Miss Marple) is one of my favorite actresses in this role, but she can be quite quiet and this makes it hard to hear what's she said, and this is irritating since it's usually one of the clues that is stumping Chief Inspector Slack.
That's the only irritation I had with the set. All the episodes but for "At Bertram's Hotel" are fairly easy to view, but "Betram's Hotel" has a bit of color-change, something makes the images look tinged with sepia; the others are vivid and the image transfer is pretty good in my opinion.
Marple Classic Mysteries I believe the Joan Hickson portrayal of Miss Marple tops all the other women that have played the role. Great group of mysteries.
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