I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Colonel Protheroe is a resident of St. Mary Mead and a loathsome man. A magistrate, forceful, opinionated and tyrannical. It comes as no surprise when he's shot dead, plenty of suspects including his adulterous wife, her lover, his ex wife, and a local petty criminal. Hailing from the same village it comes as no surprise that local sleuth Jane Marple is first on the scene, much to the annoyance of Detective Inspector Slack.The first Miss Marple story that Christie wrote, and a classic plot, one that could have been delivered in a too heavy handed way, with the killer seeming obvious, but the production team managed to divert attention and keep the viewer guessing.Plaudits to the casting director, who did an exceptional job, primarily with the pairing of Paul Eddington and Cheryl Campbell, they are exquisite as the Vicar and his wife, Campbell manages to be sympathetic, funny and utterly charming, I would say she's the standout.The St. Mary Mead gossip team are wonderful, so believable, Rosalie Crutchley and Barbara Hicks are delightful, with the latter returning six years later for the final episode. I love the dynamic between Miss Marple and slack, the annoyance would last years.The music is excellent throughout, helping to add mystery to the story without being too much. As always a huge focus on attention to detail, the fashion, cars etc all on point.A cracking mystery 9/10

I have never thought that Margaret Rutherford was the perfect actress to portray Christie's famous lady detective.Angela Landsbury,who portrayed her in "the mirror cracked" was not an ideal choice either.Joan Hickson was Miss Marple as I see her ,discreet ,insightful,mischievous,terribly observant.She and the detective inspector make a funny pair,like Poirot and Japp. Unlike Poirot,Marple does not really investigate.She never questions the suspects (some of whom even use her as their alibi)but has a rare talent for observation."Murder at the vicarage" is a classic Christie novel:it happens in Jane Marple's village where a wicked colonel nobody likes -and thus has a reason to kill him of course- is murdered.It even involves the priests who are suspects too.Good job by all the cast.French title (of the novel and the movie):"L'affaire Prothero" .

Spoilers herein.Watching all these BBC Marples is a real treat visually because you get a different director each time, and usually a different writer. That way, there is as much discovery in how the translation is made as there is in the mystery itself.But T R Bowen adapted seven of these and they are the worst of the bunch. That's because he truly believes in the TeeVee model: the viewer doesn't want to think about what is going on. There is no game between writer and reader. The TeeVee viewer just wants to pleasantly take up time and be surprised by the clever solution.Christie never intended such a thing, and railed against it in her lifetime. Her own plays show that intelligent engagement with the audience is possible,This Bowenization is a case in point. The novel idea here is that the detective herself provides the mistaken alibi. A pretty clever idea in 1930, already copied many times by the time this production is set. The book has it as a matter of self-confrontation; that's why we have the mad curator, and the introspection of the dying woman, and the painter.All that is washed away in this TeeVee script. Shame on Bowen and curses to viewers who don't complain.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

It is difficult to understand ITV's decision to remake the Miss Marple series, because in Joan Hickson we have the definitive interpretation of Agatha Christie's amateur sleuth. This particular story, Miss Marple's first fictional outing,dates from 1930, but the writer, T.R. Bowen has skilfully updated it to the 1950s. The script is witty and the cast is endowed with such acting stalwarts as Paul Eddington and Rosalie Crutchley. If the plot does not seem so original now it is because Christie's work was so often copied, and what must have seemed innovative in 1930 now appears to be hackneyed. All that said it is a story well told and worth a couple of hours of anyone's time.