The Pale Horse

Julia McKenzie is as good as Joan Hickson as the mischievous Miss Marple;both are closer to Christie's character than the sturdy Margaret Rutherford in George Pollock's sixties movies.

I read "the pale horse" a long long time ago but I remember the black magic,an unusual subject for the writer.Note that Ariadne Oliver was replaced by Jane Marple.The first sequences ,in a foggy street ,looks more like a Sherlock Holmes adventure ,but what remains takes place in one of these small villages where the old lady pulls the rug from Under the cop's feet.It includes a (mortal) equivalent of Viagra-not in the book-,a list of people who mysteriously died after staying in that "Pale Horse" (from the Apocalypse?),a priest who was murdered after confessing a dying woman,a secret ceremony in which the three witches invoke the evil spirits ,a man in a wheelchair who might be able to walk (and kill?).

The Pale Horse has some fine actors and performances, albeit a few chosen for popularity rather than their acting prowess. The production value is without fault and Julia McKenzie delivers another strong turn as Miss Marple.

As another long-term fan of Agatha Christie - I was introduced at a young age by my mother, and as someone with a reading difficulty, having me watch the televised version first helped me develop my reading skills - I get upset when people attack these versions of the stories, just because there are changes to suit the storyline. It's like criticizing art that has come from a school of a great painter. While some elements of the stories haven't been handled with the greatest of care, these new updated versions are bringing the world of Jane Marple to a younger audience. I like to take each tele movie as a story on its own - I can see the distinct differences, but can appreciate why sometimes it is necessary to adapt the stories to meet the needs of modern set of viewers, whose attention span and ability to read between the lines might not be as astute. I personally have watched Margaret Rutherford, Helen Hayes, Joan Hickson, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie all play the role, and for my generation I prefer Joan Hickson onwards. Watching Margaret Rutherford as Marple puts me to sleep as those productions are slow and plodding. For the purist out there, these stories were not aimed at you, but rather at a cross sectional transcontinental audience. Considering the many levels they have to appeal to, I think they do very well.

If Ms. Christie's books are to appeal to the next generation, the stories will have to adapt slightly to appeal to them.

A close friend of Miss Marple, Father Gorman, is savagely beaten to death while on his way to see one of his ailing parishioners, Mrs Davis. Miss Marple is deeply upset and suspects it wasn't a random act of violence. She received a letter from him shortly after his death, listing names and a Bible verse from Revelation. Mrs Davis, who died the same night as Father Gorman, had a similar list. There may be sinister forces afoot.

Quite clever and reasonably intriguing. Miss Marple herself is as dull as ever but the case is puzzling and quite dark, making for a suspenseful episode.

One or two interesting sub-plots too.

The Pale Horse mystery by Agatha Christie is arguably one of her best stories. It is a story that is on another level and more than just a motive by one of the characters. We saw an elaborate scheme or set up that was almost fool proof. Witchcraft was the supposed centre and cause for many so called natural deaths. Dig deeper and you see a non practicing lawyer taking bets for predicting the deaths and the owner of the Pale Horse Inn also collecting money for the witchcraft. However digging deeper you find the true head of the scheme who is a figure in the dark that actually executes these murders carefully and disguising murder as natural causes. This story is so intriguing and remarkable that perhaps adding action and thriller on a bigger scale would be worthy of a James Bond film.

However the film adaptation was poorly executed. The story was told so badly that it was hard to follow in its entirety. Often stories are paced very badly. You have close to nothing revealed in 3/4 of the film and then a big complex story with no backstory is given quickly to close the case. The audience is wondering how we jumped from A to Z. Sadly a few Poirot episodes have followed the same trend with little revealed throughout and a hasty summary at the end. A good film would have clues distributed evenly before the big reveal. Overall great story but poorly told and portrayed.

It's been years since I read the Agatha Christie canon -- and I read every one -- but I don't remember all of them well enough to do a comparison with the book to the movie.

"The Pale Horse" is a Christie book that does not feature Jane Marple, and yet, here she is. Before I go on, I need to say one thing. I don't know why the producers of this series decided to change Christie's stories. However, Acorn Media owns something like 67% of the Christie estate, and apparently, in the negotiations, Christie's relative, Mathew Pritchard, who heads the estate, put no restrictions on the sale. So all of this is okay with the estate. In other words - if they don't care, why should we?

In this story, Miss Marple receives a letter from an old friend, Father Gorman, with a list of names and a Biblical quote. The same day she receives the letter, she reads that Gorman was murdered right after attending to a dying woman.

Miss Marple is right on it, traveling to the area where Mrs. Davis lived and checking out her room. There, she finds the same list. On tracking down the names, she finds out that all of the people have recently died. She also discovers a reference to the Pale Horse Inn, which ties in with the Bible quote. She stays at the inn and begins to investigate.

I found this particular movie a little confusing and hard to follow. The subplots were not woven in together as well as they should have been, making it a little disjointed. I did like Julia McKenzie, who is a fine actress.

I wouldn't say this is one of the best of the series, but it's okay.