It does, however, employ elements of the 1952 Miss Marple story They Do It With Mirrors. Specifically, the Battledore is a training ship for teenage boys with criminal tendencies, who are supposedly being set on the straight and narrow path – when, in fact, one of the members of the crew is training them for careers in housebreaking. Likewise, in They Do It With Mirrors, a boarding school for delinquent youths is actually being used to hone their criminal skills. This is the only element in the film borrowed from a Christie story.
Plot
The action takes place mainly on board an old wooden-walled warship, HMS Battledore, which has been purchased by a Trust for the rehabilitation of young criminals and intended by the founder to "put backbone into young jellyfish."
Shortly after joining the board of management of the Trust, Miss Marple witnesses the sudden death of fellow trustee Ffolly-Hardwicke, who has just returned from a surprise visit to the ship, much disturbed by something he has discovered there. He dies without being able to reveal his discovery. Miss Marple manages to obtain a small sample of his snuff, which is found to have been poisoned.
Resolving to learn what the murdered trustee had discovered, she visits the ship, while her dear friend and confidante, Mr. Jim Stringer investigates on shore. The captain takes an immediate dislike to her, and makes a sarcastic comment to the ship's First Mate (second in command) Commander Breeze-Connington, about her outdated formal naval attire, asking "Who does she think she is, Neptune's mother?" His distress intensifies when she announces her intention to remain on board several days. The captain reluctantly complies with her wish and gives up his own quarters to her, which causes the relocation of the officers from their own quarters to the ones of their respective next-lower subordinates.
That night, Miss Marple and Mr. Stringer use Morse code and flashlights to communicate and Miss Marple asks him to tail the sailors that just went ashore. Mr. Stringer finds that they are robbing houses and takes their dinghy to row to the ship and inform Miss Marple. Lt. Compton – who incites the boys aboard the Battledore to the robberies – overhears their conversation and is heading down, presumably to kill Miss Marple, when he is murdered – run through with a sword and then hanged from a mast. As the police investigation proceeds, the assistant matron Shirley Boston is killed, apparently by an injection of poison. Miss Marple's own investigation reveals that Boston was the lover and accomplice of Lt. Compton in the robberies. She pretended to be in love with Sub-Lieutenant Humbert, whose family belongs to the upper-class, to receive invitations to social events and therefore to explore potential robbery targets. Boston was killed trying to hide jewellery from the robberies. The further investigation interferes with the ship's traditional celebration of Trafalgar Day in the hotel at the shore. Somewhat unreasonably, the captain blames Miss Marple for this. He begs Chief Inspector Craddock to find a way to get her off the ship, saying: "She's a jinx! She's a Jonah! She's blowing an ill wind!"
Miss Marple sets a trap. First, she persuades Chief Inspector Craddock to allow the crew to go ashore for their Trafalgar Day celebration. Then, she announces to the crew that she knows that the poison was administered using a mousetrap as a booby-trap, and she hints that she intends to reveal the murderer's identity shortly. When the crew leaves the ship, Chief Inspector Craddock and his assistant, Sgt. Bacon secretly remain on board, hiding in wait for the murderer to reveal himself by attempting to silence Miss Marple. As she snoops around, she encounters Lt. Commander Dimchurch skulking about the ship. In fact, he stayed behind to confess to Miss Marple his hidden seasickness, which she already suspected, since she observed him getting the respective medication from the sickbay. Miss Marple reassured him that shan't hinder his capacity at sea. After Dimchurch gratefully thanks Miss Marple he is about to leave the ship to belatedly join the celebrations onshore but is struck unconscious by an unknown man.
Miss Marple searches the ship for the loaded mousetrap, cautiously using a sword, not her hands, to poke into possible hiding places. She finds the mousetrap concealed in the barrel of a cannon, and with it, a large sum of money. Commander Breeze-Connington, armed with his sword, confronts her. In response to her questioning, he informs her that he has embezzled the money gradually during his many years on the Battledore – money he considers the service owed him because he was unjustly passed over for promotion while serving in the Royal Navy. He acknowledges the murders of Ffolly-Hardwicke, who uncovered the scam, and Compton, who learned of the scams too and blackmailed Breeze-Connington. Shirley Boston was trying to hide the loot at the same place Breeze-Connington was hiding the earnings of his years-long fraud and got struck by the poisoned mousetrap he installed to protect his hiding place. Breeze-Connington concludes that he intends to kill Miss Marple on the spot, take the money, and flee the country.
Miss Marple calls out to Chief-Inspector Craddock to make the arrest, but Craddock and Sgt. Bacon have been accidentally locked in their hiding place and cannot help. Breeze-Connington draws his sword, intending to run Miss Marple through, but Miss Marple is herself an accomplished amateur fencer. She and Breeze-Connington engage in a ferocious sword-fight. Breeze-Connington succeeds in disarming her and is about to administer the coup de grace, but Mr. Stringer, whom Miss Marple had thought was ashore, clubs him over the head from behind with a belaying pin.
The captain faces a court martial for failing to detect the embezzlement during his command. As he enters the state-room to hear the verdict, he sees his sword on the table with the hilt toward him, and mistakenly infers that he has been found guilty. Miss Marple corrects him; the board has found that he is not at fault. Although greatly relieved to have avoided disgrace, he announces that he must resign even so, because he has been having a long affair with the ship's matron. This is a violation of the golden rule of the trust that there should be "no hanky-panky between the sexes" on board ship. They now intend to get married, which would disqualify him for his position as captain. He makes his farewell and turns to go, but Miss Marple stops him, saying, "I think I speak for my fellow trustees when I say that golden rule is hereby rescinded. You're a fine sea dog captain, but it seems to me the Battledore could well do with a woman's hand at the helm." He and matron embrace joyfully.
As Miss Marple steps into the dinghy to leave the ship, matron and the captain wave good-bye from the deck. The captain turns to matron and remarks, "You know, the moment I clapped eyes on her, I said to myself, 'What an old darling'!" matron, remembering his actual first reaction, raises her eyebrows archly, causing the captain to laugh sheepishly.
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.
Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1976 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed for £3.50 and the US edition for $7.95.
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, a novel by Agatha Christie, was published in the UK in 1962 and a year later in the US under the title The Mirror Crack'd. The story features amateur detective Miss Marple solving a mystery in St. Mary Mead.
Charles William Tingwell AM, known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and went on to appear in more than 100 films and numerous TV programs in both the United Kingdom and Australia.
The Mirror Crack'd is a 1980 British mystery film directed by Guy Hamilton from a screenplay by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962). It stars Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, Edward Fox, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, and Elizabeth Taylor. Scenes were filmed at Twickenham Film Studios in Twickenham, London, and on location in Kent.
James Buckley Stringer Davis, generally known as Stringer Davis, was an English character actor on the stage and in films, and a British army officer who served in both world wars. He was married to actress Margaret Rutherford.
A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition sold for eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.
They Do It with Mirrors is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1952 under the title of Murder with Mirrors and in UK by the Collins Crime Club on 17 November that year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6). The book features her detective Miss Marple.
A Pocket Full of Rye is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 9 November 1953, and in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co. the following year. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $2.75. The book features her detective Miss Marple.
4.50 from Paddington is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in November 1957 in the United Kingdom by Collins Crime Club. This work was published in the United States at the same time as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!, by Dodd, Mead. The novel was published in serial form before the book was released in each nation, and under different titles. The US edition retailed at $2.95.
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.
Murder at the Gallop (1963) is the second of four Miss Marple films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was based on the 1953 novel After the Funeral by Agatha Christie, with Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Charles "Bud" Tingwell as Inspector Craddock and Stringer Davis as Jane Marple's friend Mr Stringer returning from the previous film.
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".
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories is a collection of short stories written by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1950. The first edition retailed at $2.50.
Joan Benham was an English actress best known for her portrayal of Lady Prudence Fairfax in the ITV period drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. She was born in London and was the first cousin of Hollywood actress Olive Sturgess.
The Alphabet Murders is a 1965 British detective film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg and Robert Morley. It is based on the 1936 novel The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.
Miss Marple, titled Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the series, is a British television series based on the Miss Marple murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie, starring Joan Hickson in the title role. It aired from 26 December 1984 to 27 December 1992 on BBC One. All twelve original Miss Marple novels by Christie were dramatised.
Spider's Web is a play by crime writer Agatha Christie. Spider's Web, which premiered in London's West End in 1954, is Agatha Christie's second most successful play, having run longer than Witness for the Prosecution, which premiered in 1953. It is surpassed only by Christie's record-breaking The Mousetrap, which has run continuously since opening in the West End in 1952.
Henry B. Longhurst was a British actor.
Sir Henry Clithering is a fictional character who appears in a series of short stories by Agatha Christie, featuring Jane Marple. The stories were first published in monthly magazines starting in 1927, and then collected into a hard-bound collection, The Thirteen Problems in 1932. Clithering also appeared in several novels featuring Miss Marple.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
