Life has been a bit hectic lately, but I finally managed to watch the Miss Marple DVDs featuring Helen Hayes and the series featuring Margaret Rutherford, which I got for Christmas. If you know me, you know I LOVE Agatha Christie. I’m especially fond of Miss Marple. I hadn’t seen the Helen Hayes portrayals. Helen Hayes was a great actress, so I was really looking forward to watching it. I had seen two of the Margaret Rutherford movies previously, and I was excited to see more. Before I tell you my thoughts, let me preface this by stating, I know when books are adapted for television, there are often a lot of changes. I also know that different producers/directors/writers/actors have different visions of an adaption and so I was prepared that the movies would not mirror the books.
Let’s start with Margaret Rutherford. Unlike the petite, elderly sleuth who lives in St. Mary Mead, England which Agatha Christie described, Margaret Rutherford is a larger woman who is also extremely more active than the knitting spinster in the books. In these movies, Miss Marple is a ladies fencing champion, an equestrian champion, and a golf champion. Rutherford’s Miss Marple reads mysteries and with the help of her beau/partner in crime librarian, Mr. Stringer, sets out to solve mysteries by using her wit, charm, and ingenuity. Rutherford also has an incredibly expressive face which adds a new dimension to the role and which I found delightful. This adaption doesn’t try to emulate the books but embraces the differences in a tongue-in-cheek way. I especially loved a scene where Miss Marple suggests that all police should read Agatha Christie as part of their training. Miss Marple purist might not like this, but I did.
Next was the adaption featuring Helen Hayes as Miss Marple. Hayes is a wonderful actress, but this adaption was a bit…odd. First, the mysteries are set in the 1970s, which took a little adjustment on my part, Imagine a cross between Murder in the Caribbean and Baywatch. However, the oddest thing for me was that in Murder is Easy, Helen Hayes doesn’t play Miss Marple. She plays Lavina Fullerton. SPOILER ALERT. If you haven’t read Murder is Easy, skip the rest of this paragraph***For those familiar with the book, you know that Lavinia Fullerton is killed early in the book. That’s one part the adaption gets right. Helen Hayes as Lavinia Fullerton is killed within the first ten minutes of the movie and Miss Marple doesn’t appear in this movie…at all. Instead, a young Bill Bixby plays Professor Luke Williams, an American professor who attempts to program a computer to solve a murder (don’t tax your brain. He doesn’t exist in the book). I have to admit, this was a different concept for me. I never imagined a Miss Marple adaptation without Miss Marple. That’s certainly an interesting twist. It took me a bit to let go and simply accept this as a mystery that borrows a bit of the plot from an Agatha Christie mystery. Once I did, I enjoyed it. However, it took a lot of adjustment. In the movies where Helen Hayes actually plays Miss Marple, she does a great job.
If you like your movie adaptions to mirror the books, you’ll be disappointed with these two. However, if you’re open to enjoying a mystery that is very LOOSELY based on the Miss Marple mysteries by Agatha Christie, then I would recommend both of these. They are entertaining and funny with exceptionally talented actors.