A Caribbean Mystery

Solid faithful adaption of one of Miss Marple's vacation mysteries, this has a decent cast (for a tv movie) and an okay storyline. Warning: Barnard Hughes as a grouchy old millionaire will soon start to irritate the more he nags and grumbles. The killer should have offed him in the first 5 minutes. Helen Hayes makes a nice Jane however so she saves the movie from veering too far into the goofy, even when her snooping gets out of hand. This may her best starring performance in a Christie adaption. Another version of this story was made for British television.

I've never been anyplace where someone was murdered, but Miss Marple can't escape it. On vacation in the Carbbean, she meets a nice old codger (Maurice Evans) who passes away in suspicious circumstances. Does she just see murder everywhere she looks, or . . .

The first sign Helen Hayes is playing rather than being Jane Marple is during the opening credits when she's beaming out of a plane window. My mother loved the sainted Helen but I can take her or leave her.

It's a largely 1980s cast, including Jameson Parker and Beth Howland. And Stephen Macht (I never understood how he maintained a career; he had the goods on somebody?)

The story is followed closely enough with proper tweaking for oversensitive American audiences (and we've only gotten worse; we're like children). Which is strange because the script is partially by Sue Grafton who had already started her popular "alphabet" series of crime novels (it's nice to find a gimmick).

Frankly, I've always preferred 1920s and '30s Christie. She produced some great stuff in later life, but not that much. I do like the idea Marple has that people are the same everywhere and so she can always draw her village parallels. It's a very American notion (or used to be).

It's nice to see Brock Peters. Nice to see Maurice Evans, too. In fact, I wish Evans had played in the wheelchair and grumpy Bernard Hughes had been murdered, but one can't have everything.

I agree with those who say Joan Hickson's version is better, but I'm reviewing this and not that. And while I have reservations about some of the cast, this version is good enough and not too heavy if, like me, you're an insomniac who needs to pass the night without getting (inside joke) one's blood pressure up.

Helen Hayes just doesn't cut it.

Rather than going the whole hog and playing Miss Marple as an American, she plays her as an Englishwoman. This is a mistake,since her accent veers from deep south of USA to England via Ireland. In short, her accent is all over the place.

Her lines are also peppered with Americanisms which no British person would ever say. Two examples:

1) She refers to "tourist class" when British people call it "economy class".

2) She says she's going to "mail" some postcards, when a genuinely British person say "post", not "mail".

Two minor examples, I know, but they add to a general feeling that this Miss Marple is as British as a fudge brownie. All the references to her hometown of St. Mary Mead in England can't change that.

Another point is that Santa Barbara is not in the slightest bit convincing as a stand-in for the Caribbean. The one shot of a caribbean town, Havana perhaps, is obviously grainy archive footage.

Steer clear of this poorly made rubbish, and watch the BBC productions starring Joan Hickson instead.

There's been a fair amount of actresses playing Agatha Christie's favourite spinster, but I find Helen Hayes does a fine job as Miss Marple, capturing that "old sweet looking old lady but with great observation skills" really well. Sure, her accent can occasionally slip into an American tang, but, for me, it's not that noticeable - nor does it distract from her rather lively performance. Like my favourite Marple, Margaret Rutherford, she's a fun Marple and not sour-faced like the other actresses who played her.

The story- Detective Miss Marple (Helen Hayes) is on vacation, luxuriating in an opulent Caribbean resort. She meets quirky mystery writer Maj. Geoffrey Palgrave (Maurice Evans), who giddily informs her that he believes one of the other guests is a wife-murdering serial killer. But before he can reveal the alleged killer's identity, Maj. Palgrave dies under suspicious circumstances. Soon there are other victims. Now, Miss Marple must take on the case before more are murdered.

A Caribbean mystery moves at a leisurely pace, and is quite entertaining- close attention is paid to the motley crew of suspects and when the murderer is unravelled you're left satisfied.

Those are the two glaring complaints I have about A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY, a made for TV movie which dawdles on for a long time before getting to the point of a series of murders committed at a vacation resort.

Helen Hayes, her American accent intact, still makes a passable Miss Marple even when she utters the name of a quaint village in England as her home, St. Mary Mead. Barnard Hughes is the mean-spirited man whose rudeness becomes a bit overdone after the first few scenes, making you wish he's going to be one of the victims. Not so. He and Miss Marple join forces to solve the crime.

The conclusion is rushed through with brief explanations and not much dramatic conflict, so it's a bit of a letdown--although the murderer's identity is never hard to guess. The acting ranges from competent to barely competent, but the script is rather mediocre.

Recommended for rabid Christie fans only. Nicely photographed with Santa Barbara, California filling in for the Caribbean, but this is very tepid stuff, to say the least, nowhere as good as other Christie outings.