Please don't spend money on this.

One of my all time favorites.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Margaret Rutherford was the ultimate Miss Marple.Although the part has been played by several leading actresses Margaret has always been the very best although I must say Joan Hickson ran her pretty close.SPOILER BEGINSThe story starts when Miss Marple was on a train and another train travelling slightly faster was passing the train Jane Marple was on but in the same direction.She was looking at the passing train when a window blind shot up revealing a woman being strangled by a man.Jane obviously reported what she saw to the train conductor and also to the police, none of whom believed her.So she decides to investigate for herself and she gets a job at the hall where the body was probably hidden after being thrown from the train.SPOILER ENDSI'm not giving anything else away.The TV movie which starred Joan Hickson was called The 4.40 from Paddinton.Margaret Rutherford was her normal perfect and indomitable self in Murder She Said and I thoroughly recommend you watch this movie if only to discover why Margaret Rutherford was the true Jane Marple.

Murder She Said (1961)Well paced, well made, but also thoroughly "delightful" in a kind of post-war polite British lighthearted way. This is an enjoyable ride, but never with any genuine drama—it is too happily happy all the time.The actors are first rate, especially the lead playing Miss Marple, Margaret Rutherford. Arthur Kennedy is given big billing, and his role as an American is conspicuous (and strong).The plot is clever and well constructed of course—this is adapted from an Agathe Christie novel. And to tell truth, the thing that makes this thing hang at all is the terrific writing. The nephew on first appearance says to Miss Marple, "You're not my idea of a maid." And Marple replies, "Quite honestly, you'd not be everybody's idea of a boy." So Marple asserts herself, which is the charming aspect to it all (along the lines of "Murder She Wrote," if that's not obvious already from the title).There are naturally lots of people who are under suspicion, and you gradually have to try to guess who is likely or not. You play that internal game of thinking who is just too obvious and which unlikely character is actually guilty. There is some confusion about how they might confuse a recent victim with one who died 16 years ago, but we'll ignore that. The problem for me is that we are not given time to really know or care about anyone. Everyone is a type—a rich family supplying most of the caricatures. The one complex character is Marple herself. And she's terrific. She makes the movie. The whole filming and feeling to the movie is good, too. It's an enjoyable affair—which brings me back to my first word: delightful. Thoroughly.

I'm glad to see that this film gets a pretty good rating by IMDb reviewers; it's quite a neat little mystery.The real attraction here is the wonderful performance of Margaret Rutherford, at age 72. Apparently Agatha Christie didn't at first like Rutherford in the role...but then, authors don't always understand that films are a totally different medium than books, and in my view Rutherford is exactly what the audience (and I) wanted in the role.The next best thing in the film is the story itself. Miss Marple is riding in a train, and witnesses a murder in a passing train. Of course, no one believes her, so she decides to investigate on her own...and ultimately does find the body of a young woman at a country estate. The question is -- who is the murderer among the slightly odd characters that live at the estate or are visiting relatives. It's good that Miss Marple displays moments of great courage, as well as moments of great fear...makes the character seem more real.There are really only 3 actors here that most Americans are going to recognize -- Rutherford, James Robertson Justice (who plays the crippled owner of the estate), and -- surprisingly -- Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy. Kennedy is one of those actors who sometimes seemed typecast in ne'er do well roles; unfortunately, it sometimes made one overlook just how good he was. He nicely here, although we never learn why there is an American doctor working in the British countryside.Unlike many British films of the era, this one never lags...it keeps a good pace.And by the way, her friend -- played by Stringer Davis -- was Rutherford's real husband.Simply delicious, with a most surprising end.

"4:50 From Paddington" is probably one of Agatha Christie's best Miss Marple stories, with lots of interesting & diverse characters, and a fairly simple but very clever misdirection at its center. Having seen the other two filmed versions of this story (the 2004 one with Geraldine McEwan is undoubtedly one of the high points of that series), this one held few surprises for me, though it must be said that, for all its comedic overtones, it follows the story quite closely (apart from eliminating Marple's friend, who witnesses the crime, and Marple's niece, who goes undercover as a housekeeper to investigate it - Marple herself assumes these roles here!) and it plays the serious moments seriously; the ending, an one-on-one between Marple and the killer, is quite effective. Margaret Rutherford is utterly delightful as Miss Marple and she's blessed with a solid supporting cast, but I would like to have seen the fascinating family dynamics of this tale explored a little more. The music theme is fantastic. *** out of 4.