Sadly, this is not one of my favourites in the BBC Hickson series. I think they tailed off a little towards the end and this was one of the later ones to be made. It's not actually one of the best of the Marple books in my opinion and this adaptation sticks quite closely to the source material. The story had a previous outing with Helen Hayes as the very American Miss Marple and an aged Bette Davies as her friend Carrie Louise. Both characters are improved upon in this version - indeed Jean Simmons' portrayal of Carrie Louise was the high point of the film for me. Joss Ackland does a decent enough job as the frustrated do-gooder Lewis Serrocold but I'm not really a fan of this actor generally and the rest of the cast are so-so. The character of Ruth van Rydock is given more to do than in the book which works quite well but I missed the character of Miss Bellever (the excellent Frances de la Tour in the Hayes film).
It passes a pleasant couple of hours but there are better entries than this in the series.
It passes a pleasant couple of hours but there are better entries than this in the series.