A Caribbean Mystery (film)

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A Caribbean Mystery
GenreCrime
Mystery
Drama
Based on A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
Written by Sue Grafton
Steven Humphrey
Directed byRobert Michael Lewis
Starring Helen Hayes
Music by Lee Holdridge
Country of originUnited Kingdom
United States
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerStan Margulies
Production location Santa Barbara, California
CinematographyTed Voigtlander
EditorLes Green
Running time92 minutes
Production company Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseOctober 22, 1983 (1983-10-22)

A Caribbean Mystery is a 1983 American made-for-television mystery film based on the 1964 Agatha Christie novel A Caribbean Mystery and starring Helen Hayes as Miss Marple.

Contents

Cast

Production

Stan Margulies had the rights to eight Christie books. He made a TV movie of Christie's Murder Is Easy . It was a success and the Christie estate liked it, enabling him to get the rights to Caribbean Mystery. He made it around the time of another Christie adaptation, Sparkling Cyanide . Marguiles had to update the stories to the present day because he was unable to do period pieces on a TV movie budget. Because the films were made for American TV, he also insisted on the freedom to cast at least one American actor in the cast. [1]

Marguiles offered Hayes the part of Marple after using her in Murder Is Easy. Hayes said she turned down the role at first because she "adored" the character of Marple "and I didn't want to follow Margaret Rutherford... I can't be that funny." [2]

Filming

The film was shot in Santa Barbara. Hayes said "a lot of things were against us. Like frigid cold and rain every day. We worked indoors while it poured and poured, and when it stopped, we tried to make it look like the tropics. I was wearing light clothes over thermal underwear." [3]

Hayes found the dialogue for Marple difficult. "She has all the summing up, all the exposition. All those lines! I told the producer... 'I can't learn all that stuff.' One of the nice parts about being a star is that the lesser-paid actors have to do the exposition. I haven't done exposition for 50 years." [3]

Reception

The New York Times said the film "has its engaging moments, thanks primarily to an exceptionally good cast." [4]

The film was popular with viewers. Hayes reprised her role as Marple in Murder with Mirrors (1985).

Legacy

The film was seen on TV by writer Richard Levinson who noted its ratings success. He thought of doing a regular mystery show about a Marple-like detective, who was a mystery writer like Agatha Christie. This led to Murder, She Wrote . [5]

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Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was a British author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterised as an elderly spinster, she is one of Christie's best-known characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Royal Magazine in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, and her last appearance was in Sleeping Murder in 1976.

<i>Sleeping Murder</i> 1976 Miss Marple novel by Agatha Christie

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Joan Bogle Hickson OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks.

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<i>A Caribbean Mystery</i> 1964 Miss Marple novel by Agatha Christie

A Caribbean Mystery is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 16 November 1964 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at sixteen shillings (16/-) and the US edition at $4.50. It features the detective Miss Marple.

<i>Nemesis</i> (Christie novel) 1971 Miss Marple novel by Agatha Christie

Nemesis is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie (1890–1976) and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in November 1971 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at £1.50 and the US edition at $6.95. It was the last Miss Marple novel the author wrote, although Sleeping Murder was the last Miss Marple novel to be published.

<i>Murder She Said</i> 1961 British film

Murder She said is a 1961 comedy/murder mystery film directed by George Pollock, based on the 1957 novel 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie. The production stars Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple, along with Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, and Stringer Davis.

<i>Murder Most Foul</i> (film) 1964 film by George Pollock

Murder Most Foul is the third of four Miss Marple films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Loosely based on the 1952 novel Mrs McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie, it stars Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Ron Moody as the theatre company director H. Driffold Cosgood, Charles Tingwell as Inspector Craddock, and Stringer Davis as Mr Stringer. The story is ostensibly based on Christie's novel, but notably changes the action and the characters. Hercule Poirot is replaced by Miss Marple and most of the other characters are not in the novel. Throughout the investigation, Marple quotes from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia McKenzie</span> English actress, presenter, director, writer

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<i>Agatha Christies Marple</i> British ITV television series

Agatha Christie's Marple is a British ITV television programme loosely based on the books and short stories by British crime novelist Agatha Christie. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first to the third series, until her retirement from the role, and by Julia McKenzie from the fourth series onwards. Unlike the counterpart TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot, the show took many liberties with Christie’s works, most notably adding Miss Marple’s character to the adaptations of novels in which she never appeared. Following the conclusion of the sixth series, the BBC acquired the rights for the production of Agatha Christie adaptations, suggesting that ITV would be unable to make a seventh series of Marple.

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The Body in the Library is a 3-part 1984 television film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1942 detective novel The Body in the Library, which was co-produced by the BBC and the A&E Network. The film uses an adapted screenplay by T. R. Bowen and was directed by Silvio Narizzano. Starring Joan Hickson in the title role, it was the first film presented in the British television series Miss Marple and premiered in three parts from 26 to 28 December 1984 on BBC One. In the United States the film was first broadcast on 4 January 1986 as a part of PBS's Mystery!. In his review in The New York Times, critic John J. O'Connor wrote:

Miss Christie would no doubt approve of Joan Hickson, the veteran British character actress who plays Miss Marple... This BBC/Arts & Entertainment co-production offers an especially good example of Agatha Christie in adaptation. The characters are nicely realized and the suspense holds. Miss Hickson is lovely, neither as awesome as Miss Rutherford nor as overly cute as Helen Hayes. And the supporting cast is admirable, particularly Gwen Watford as Dolly and David Horovitch as Inspector Slack. As someone notes about the case, "you'll have to admit it has all the bizarre elements of a cheap thriller." Once hooked, you won't be able to turn it off.

In Agatha Christie's mystery novels, several characters cross over different sagas, creating a fictional universe in which most of her stories are set. This article has one table to summarize the novels with characters who occur in other Christie novels; the table is titled Crossovers by Christie. There is brief mention of characters crossing over in adaptations of the novels. Her publications, both novels and short stories, are then listed by main detective, in order of publication. Some stories or novels authorised by the estate of Agatha Christie, using the characters she created, and written long after Agatha Christie died, are included in the lists.

Lists of adaptations of the works of Agatha Christie:

Raymond West is a fictional character who appears or is mentioned in several of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories featuring Jane Marple.

Caribbean Mystery may refer to:

References

  1. English actor to bring Agatha Christie to the contemporary scene of California Buck, Jerry. Chicago Tribune 19 July 1983: b5.
  2. Helen Hayes talks about theater, aging, and her role as Miss Marple: ON TV HAYES By Arthur Unger. The Christian Science Monitor 21 Oct 1983: 21.
  3. 1 2 At 82, Helen Hayes is still a going concern The Globe and Mail23 July 1983: E.5.
  4. TV WEEKEND; MARATHONS, AT THE MET AND ON FOOT: [Review] O'Connor, John J. New York Times21 Oct 1983: C.34.
  5. ANGELA LANSBURY'S UNLIKELY SLEUTH HAS STAYING POWER: [Review] HARMETZ, ALJEAN. New York Times 27 Oct 1985: A.25.