Most people read a good book when they are on holiday, preferably a tense thriller or a captivating murder whodunit. Not Miss Marple, though. She experiences a live murder whodunit, and solves it while at it! "A Caribbean Mystery" is one of the best Miss Marple stories, and one of the best entries in the ITV-series since actress Julia McKenzie took over the titular lead role. It's somewhat odd to see Miss Marple in an exotic setting, since she's so irreversibly linked to British small-town country life, but it provided Agatha Christie with the opportunity to insert a couple of unusual but fascinating themes, like voodoo. Our brilliant writer was a fervent traveler, and spent quite some time in places like Hawaii and Haiti, where she undoubtedly found lots of inspiration for this story and others.
Apart from the sunny beach setting and the occasional margherita-cocktail, all the traditional ingredients are well-represented. There's a holiday resort full of potential suspects, guests as well as servants, clever murders disguised as natural deaths, incompetent police officers, more murders, and a denouement so ingenious that only Miss Marple can explain it in a logical fashion. Great fun.
The most remarkable moment in the film is actually irrelevant to the plot! During an evening lecture, Miss Marple meets a writer who presents himself as Ian Fleming and he tells her he has trouble finding a suitable name for the protagonist of his book. Then the lecturer comes on stage and opens with: "My name is Bond... James Bond". Well, what do you know! James Bond is an ornithologist!
Apart from the sunny beach setting and the occasional margherita-cocktail, all the traditional ingredients are well-represented. There's a holiday resort full of potential suspects, guests as well as servants, clever murders disguised as natural deaths, incompetent police officers, more murders, and a denouement so ingenious that only Miss Marple can explain it in a logical fashion. Great fun.
The most remarkable moment in the film is actually irrelevant to the plot! During an evening lecture, Miss Marple meets a writer who presents himself as Ian Fleming and he tells her he has trouble finding a suitable name for the protagonist of his book. Then the lecturer comes on stage and opens with: "My name is Bond... James Bond". Well, what do you know! James Bond is an ornithologist!