Murder She Said (1961) – Movie Review
so
[Music]
i’m quite sure you mean well inspector
but if you imagine that i am going to
sit back
and let everybody regard me as a dirty
old maid you are very much mistaken
murder she said was an entertaining
murder mystery movie from 1961 starring
dame margaret rutherford as an elderly
but spirited detective who witnesses a
murder on a train and when no one
believes her starts her own
investigation by taking the job of a
maid at a creepy old mansion in order to
solve this mystery herself i really
enjoyed this one and margaret rutherford
was really fantastic as the character
miss marple i’ll give an overview of the
film and then follow with some closing
thoughts
well the film opens up and we see the
character miss marple she’s settling
into her train seat and she’s reading a
pulp detective novel and she kind of
wakes up after a nap as another train
passes by and she sees various
passengers go by including this kid
sticking out her tongue at her to which
she responds in kind
then she sees a murder take place a
woman is strangled but it’s in another
and she reports it later to the
conductor but he’s one that seems a
little suspicious that maybe this is
just the dream of an old spinster who
had been reading too many detective
novels or something however the next day
at her home inspector craddock visits
played by actor charles tingwell and
basically says you know they
investigated and they didn’t find any
clues of a murder no body was found and
more or less suggested maybe she was
just seeing things
however she’s undeterred and she goes to
visit with her friend mr stringer played
by actor stringer davis at the local
library and invites him over for
buttered crumpets and tea in order to
discuss the crime that she has witnessed
and after talking about it both of them
go snooping around the train tracks
around the vicinity of where the murder
took place with miss marple thinking
that maybe the body had been thrown from
the train
well upon finding some clues miss marple
suspects that the body was thrown near
this akanthorp hall but it’s one that’s
blocked by a tall wall and apparently a
guard dog
so she finds a way to get a job there as
a maid and when she arrives it’s an
impressive and eerie old place now she
goes to speak with the character emma
akanthorp who’s played by the lovely
actress muriel pavlo
and gets her instructions on what she
needs to do and where she will stay
well she finds out that one of her
responsibilities on this job will be to
tend to eckenthorpe senior played by
actor james robertson justice who is
this cranky bedridden old guy who just
gets feisty with his words but miss
marple doesn’t put up with any of it and
is equally quick-witted in her responses
to him it’s great stuff
she gets to her room gets settled in
when she notices someone is spying on
her from behind a curtain but
she doesn’t cower in fear but rather
grabs a vase to fling at it
i love it and after this she grabs a
golf club to go and whack whoever it is
now the door starts to turn and she’s
about to club the intruder
when miss emma’s nephew alexander played
by ronald howard charges in and honestly
he’s a little annoying at times and he’s
something of a prankster but he does
turn out to be an okay kid who helps ms
marple out through some of her
investigation
the next day character dr quimper
arrives played by arthur kennedy to go
and visit with mr ackenthorpe who he
regularly visits you know to do medical
checks and to give him some medications
now mr ackenthorpe and miss marple have
some amusing banter and the two clearly
don’t like one another and i do like
miss marple’s spunk and quick wit
throughout this film anyhow ms marple
takes a break and goes out to practice
her golfing but she uses this as an
excuse to go and look around the yard
she’s still convinced that the murdered
body can be found somewhere
she asks alexander to hit the ball near
some old buildings so they can go and
look around and as they’re kind of
creeping around these old buildings that
are filled with like egyptian artifacts
and taxidermy and strange stuff like
that they’re discovered by the
groundskeeper and they have to leave but
later that night miss marple goes back
by herself sneaking around with a
flashlight and she’s looking around
through the darkness she finally
discovers the body
so she calls mr stringer and tells him
to call the police not to mention her
name
and the next day inspector craddock and
his sergeant arrive and start
investigating
the doctor suggests that the woman that
they have found could be french because
of her clothing that she’s wearing
miss marple tells the inspector in
private that she’s the one who
discovered the body and at this point
the inspector learns that you know she’s
not just an old spinster and maybe
there’s more to her than expected
so some time has passed and the heirs at
this place have gathered their dinner
it’s basically four guys plus emma and
they’re discussing what will happen and
who could be guilty of this crime
and then we cut to emma who meets with
dr quimper and they embrace in a kiss
but it’s only briefly before emma shares
a letter that she has received from a
woman in france saying that she was
going to visit now the deal here as if
this woman supposedly had married one of
akanthorp’s sons who was killed during
the war in france and if this could be
proven she would have been entitled to
part of the share of this estate so in
other words there’s a financial
incentive for all of these heirs if she
was murdered you see
so emma takes this letter to the police
now later that night it’s dark and
stormy and miss marple is setting the
table when the power goes out and she’s
looking at the fuse box
when this cedric character comes around
he’s one of the heirs he’s very
suspicious of her
and you know how she had just happened
to arrive right when a body was found
and so on
well a little later miss marple hears a
noise and goes to investigate and sees
emma clutching her stomach and it turns
out there was a mass poisoning that has
taken place at the house
the inspector questions miss marple but
she had eaten most of the same food that
was served as well and she’s fine so
they don’t really suspect her
and she’s cleared now a little later one
of the heirs harold is found dead out on
the yard with a shotgun wound
so miss marple meets with the
investigator to declare that she knows
who the killer is and soon she sets in
motion her plan to reveal who it is
now with not much of the film left no
spoilers but i’ll let you catch the
conclusion to this one for yourself
so some closing thoughts about murder
she said the miss marple film series has
been on my list to check out and i was
really impressed by this one
namely for the amazing performance of
dame margaret rutherford i thought that
as an actress she was amazing here very
funny in her mannerisms and expressions
very quick witted and not someone to
back down from a threat but ready to
respond to an intruder with you know a
golf club to the head if needed
and this was the first of the miss
marple series of films that she starred
in and i was really impressed and i’d
like to see the other ones and they were
all made in the early 1960s
in doing some of the research of the
miss marple character over the years
there have been other actresses who have
taken on this role as well angela
lansbury starred in the mirror cracked
in 1980 and not long after that she
would be in the tv series very similar
in style to the miss marple character in
murder she wrote which is sort of a play
on the title of this film murder she
said
i used to enjoy watching this series
with my grandmother back in the day
and incidentally it used to bug me that
so many people seem to get murdered in
the sleepy little town of cabot cove
maine to the point i’d wonder how anyone
was actually alive there but you know in
researching it turns out that only 60
people died during the course of the
series you know taking into account
people visiting from other areas or
jessica fletcher’s character traveling
to other places and so on
oh and if all the killing in cabot cove
wasn’t enough it’s interesting that they
also filmed part of the show at jaws
lake in universal studios hollywood
so you got the murders and there’s also
a giant killer shark so be wary if you
ever decide to visit cabot cove
anyhow actress helen hayes also played
miss marple in some television movies
and in the late 1980s joan hixson played
the character in a pbs tv series based
on the agatha christie books and in fact
in this film joan hixson actually has a
brief role as the character miss kidder
so in a funny way the two miss marples
actually meet in this film it’s kind of
cool and then into the 2000s there have
been other actresses like geraldine
mcewen and julia mckenzie who have also
played the miss marvel role
it was interesting to me to discover
that when agatha christie first saw the
film murder she said
she is quoted as saying
oh this will never do
i love it and from reviews that i’ve
read apparently
the four margaret rutherford miss marple
films
bear very little resemblance to agatha
christie’s books and the character but
they’re still this was really good
anyway
charles kingwell was great as inspector
craddock and apparently he’s in all four
of the miss marple films as well so i’ll
have to watch for him in future reviews
james roberts and justice played the
grumpy old character akanthorp and i
remember him as the guy running the
candy factory in the movie chitty chitty
bang bang
he was lord scrumptious
remember that bit toot sweets toot
sweets the candy you whistle the
whistles you eat
okay anyhow a final note that actor
stringer davis was actually married to
margaret rutherford in real life and the
character mr stringer
was not really a character in any of the
agatha christie novels but he was just
written in as a favor to margaret
rutherford which is really cool he’s
kind of a funny nervous character and
there’s some genuine sweet chemistry
between the two of them in the film
which was touching when you consider
they were actually married in real life
well that’s murder she said from 1961
it’s a fun murder mystery movie starring
a very entertaining margaret rutherford
it’s definitely one worth checking out
