The first of the four films Margaret Rutherford was to make portraying Agatha Christie's dotty old "Miss Marple" who had a nose for detective work. Here she looks out of the window as she travels home on her train to witness a woman being strangled on a train passing in the other direction. She reports this to the authorities but they prove sceptical and so she duly sets off to track down the assailant with the help of her not-so-sturdy sidekick "Mr. Stringer" (Stringer Davis). Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, a perfectly curmudgeonly James Robertson Justice and en engagingly smart-alec effort from the young Ronnie Raymond are her foils in this simple, engaging, murder-mystery with a twist. Who would dare to put poison in her duck curry?
2024-06-01
