and the all time murder mystery best seller "and then were none" was entirely based on "ten little n." "A pocketful of rye" is certainly one of the most underrated Christie's books.It's perhaps the only one which ends with Miss Marple on the verge of tears ,a scene which was kept in the episode,with the fateful photograph.Besides ,the film begins with Miss Marple and Gladys ,so as to make us feel how Marple cares for her simple-minded servant. 10/10 Bethany CoxĮvery time she wrote a book based on a nursery rhyme,Agatha Christie released one of her best :"hickory Dickory death" "the crooked house" "five little pigs" "a pocketful of rye ". All in all, hugely enjoyable, and a definitive improvement on the Geraldine McEwan outings. And I never realised Sing A Song Of Sixpence had such an ominous feel to it, and it ws put to good use here. The story is very clever, and the final solution with a couple of red herrings along the way, is very unpredictable, I was left gob smacked when I found out who the murderer really was. The acting is very fine, from Kenneth Cranham, Prunella Scales, Rupert Graves to the late Wendy Richard, and are careful not to overshadow MacKenzie as she clearly enjoys herself here, and as the series develops as I do hope it will, she will develop too. As for the adaptation itself, I admit I haven't read the book, it was beautifully filmed, and the music was good too. When I picture Miss Marple I picture a wise and clever woman, exactly how Joan Hickson portrayed her, and MacKenzie actually manged to stay true to the character of the books too. While Joan Hickson is the definitive Marple, MacKenzie fitted the part much better than Geraldine McEwan. Julia McKenzie, though she could have done with more screen time, was terrific as Jane Marple. I will admit I was worried, after how poorly Nemesis and Sleeping Murder were adapted. A very good 8/10 The end is so sad.Ī Pocket Full of Rye was hugely enjoyable, and a definitive improvement over the other recent Marples with Geraldine McEwan. It's subtle and almost softer then some of the loud productions we've had, purposely so I thought. It doesn't exactly get the old blood pressure up in terms of excitement but it's certainly very enjoyable, it's a little slow and padded to begin with, but once Miss Marple arrives on the scene it gathers momentum and becomes excellent. Overall it's a solid, traditional version. I loved the cameo from Prunella Scales, what a legend she is. the Crumps are just joyful, verging on being caricatures but they pull it off so much fun, the much missed Wendy Richard and Ken Campbell, who could forget Roger from Fawlty Towers. Liz White is excellent as is Matthew Macfadyen. As for the rest of the cast, I'm a big fan of Rupert Graves, I find his extremely charismatic and very watchable, I liked very much his interpretation of Lance Fortescue. I didn't really identify McEwan in the same way, although I loved her performances. Joan will always be the character naturally, but Julia is actually rather wonderful, having read all of the Miss Marple novels I have a mental picture of what I believe her to look like and how I'd expect her to behave, mannerisms etc, and Julia hits the mark incredibly well, there seems a softer side to her. I'll start with Miss Marple herself, I was a fan of Geraldine, I liked the sparky twinkle in the eye that she had, she was sweet and tough at the same time. The focus for this episode is the characters, not gimmicks. After doing Geraldine McEwan a huge injustice in Nemesis, sending her out of a hatchet job of a script, it became clear there was an effort to strip the episode back, and pick out the core of what Christie did so well.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |