Search - Murder Most Foul on DVD

From the past comes some pathertic voice

Jacques COULARDEAU | OLLIERGUES France | 07/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are three most important reasons why you should watch this film, even if it is in black and white and slightly old in style. We would not make films like that any more even for TV, but we could also say that about Hitchcock or Charlie Chaplin. So what! Well, be positive and as I said before there are three main positive reasons for you to watch this film, or any film of that series, because it is a series. First it is Agatha Christie, and Agatha Christie is the most English woman that writes the most English detective stories with the most English "private eye" or "sleuth" no one in no Hollywood or even Bollywood could think of or imagine. Second Miss Marple is the sleuth of the film and that Miss Marple is an old fire-fox at that. She knits when on duty in a jury, and then she blocks the jury in its decision, one to eleven. Her imagination is totally twisted and warped, just what is needed to find the criminal in the story, a typical English criminal, no serial killer or pure psychotic violent schizophrenic or whatever twisted lunatic you may think of. No, just a plain English person who for some reason or other has to kill someone out of logic, maybe not our logic, but a plain simple logic that says when endangered or menaced a plain ordinary simple unremarkable individual has to kill to survive. In this case the menace is blackmailing about some old childhood crime that had gone unpunished. And the third reason is that this Miss Marple is played by Margaret Rutherford who is a real pleasure on the screen or the stage, in fact I should say was of course since the film is from 1964 and she was already canonically old then. She is a real treat because she really acts and she turns her old age, her deformed body and her drooping skin and flesh into visual assets to build her character. This too is a very great particularity of England: first actors work equally on the stage or for the cinema or for TV, and they do make an effort to provide parts to older actors, and thus to give a picture of real society in which old people are part of our daily social landscape. Now to get the detail or details about the crime you'll have to go and watch the film. But be sure that in the most English way possible the private eye has the last word in the case over the public police officer and of course the woman sleuth has the upper hand over the male detective. Some will say the film is quaint, but that quaintness is a whole culture that you may not be able to witness any more in real life. The cinema is our unfailing memory.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
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Murder Most Foul

Michael Taylor | Indian Trail NC | 02/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Murder Most Foul" is another installment in the Miss Marple series played by the charming Margaret Rutherford. The theme is a series of murders taking place among actors in a repertory company. For some reason these murders are taking place and once again, it's Miss Marple to the rescue.

Margaret Rutherford is her usual charming self as she navigates her way around the company searching clues and nab the murderer.

Being a lifelong fan of murder mysteries (Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Queen, Charlie Chan, etc.), I had to check this title out at the local public library. Unlike today's murder mysteries that can be quite graphic and full of R-rated language, the Miss Marple series are more like a PG rating and are in black and white. In my humble opinion, the older series such as Miss Marple and the older Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan titles are more entertaining and have a certain charm that newer series sometimes lack.

Comment aside, the film was entertaining, full of red herrings designed to distract Miss Marple, and full of the usual suspects. Does Miss Marple nail the murderer?

Watch and see!

Recommended.

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