MovieChat Forums > Miss Marple: The Body in the Library (1984) Discussion > By far the better version

By far the better version

posted 14 years ago by sarah-555
16 replies | jump to latest

I recorded both the Hickson and McEwan versions over the Christmas break, and watched them back to back, starting with the 20-years newer McEwan version.

Whilst that version is flashier, and has some lovely sets and costumes, it seems very much 'showy' and all on the surface. The cast ham it up, especially the usually fabulous Joanna Lumley who simpers and lays it on far too thick, whereas the 'Dolly Bantry' of the Hickson version is a quiet, restrained gentlewoman.

Geraldine McEwan will never be the Marple that Joan Hickson was - Hickson has a quiet fussiness which is far preferable to McEwan's ditsy overdone fussiness, and Hickson had a way of showing that her fluffiness hid a sharp mind whilst McEwan makes do with overdone frowning faces, almost like a caricature.

The 'hamminess' of the later version is in keeping with the rest of that series, which started (if I recall correctly) with the utterly dreadful 'Sleeping Murder'. The earlier series as a whole is much more faithful to the style of the books.

[–] chuffnobbler 13 years ago

Don't forget that the McEwan version also changes the murderer. Ugh.

[–] vinsane 10 years ago

Changing the murderer was pure sacrilege.

Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.

[–] dmnemaine 8 years ago

Christie herself committed this "sacrilege". Whrn she wrote the play based on "Appointment With Death", she changed the murderer from who it was in the novel. She also left Poirot out of the play.

[–] Sofistali 12 years ago

I agree. Hickson is the only Miss Marple for me. When I'm reading the books (and I'm determined to read them all) she is who I picture. And I don't like the campiness of the newer versions. I LIKE the well-bred genteel English. I don't want them to be silly caricatures.

[–] mcannady1 9 years ago

Absolutely! The very best Miss Marple - My hubby and I have watched all of
them but prefer Joan. This one is very authentic and the musical group that plays at the hotel Majestic is wonderful too. Miss Marple hums the song and says it is Mozart. Wish I could find it. Don't see it in the credits.

[–] bookstore451 9 years ago

She says it's Susanna's aria from the Marriage of Figaro.

[–] mcannady1 9 years ago

Movie girl: Thank you so much! I am so glad to have the info. We watched again recently and I did hear her saying something about The Marriage of Figaro.
To me the wonderful orchestra who played the music at The Hotel Majestic is simply superb. Did not see credits for them, but everything else about the Joan Hickson versions is superb!

[–] ejchri 9 years ago

Yes, Joan Hickson is my favorite Miss Jane Marple, too. Quiet, self-effacing but not in any low-self-esteem way. Miss Marple would've been a well-bred Englishwoman of her time. I have definitely liked Geraldine McEwan, Julia McKenzie, Helen Hayes and Margaret Rutherford in many productions, and their Marples are passable, but it would be very difficult for other actresses to measure up to Hickson in the role.
In the mid-1940s, Agatha Christie saw a young Joan Hickson playing a secondary character in one of the Miss Marple plays. It prompted Christie herself to write Hickson, saying, "I hope you will play my dear Miss Marple." Finally, in the 1980s, having sufficient age, Hickson did so.

[–] mcannady1 9 years ago

Movie girl: I read that too! Agatha Christie met Joan Hickson in the audience of her play, The Mousetrap and said she would like to have her play Miss Marple one day. We are all very glad that she did! Going beyond the story, Joan Hickson seems to have been a very fine person to know. I was struck by other members of the cast as well. (I have some of Joan's earlier movies, "Mad About Men" with Glynis Johns wherein Joan plays a friendly landlady). She is a joy to watch in
everything!

[–] flowwalker 9 years ago

Yes, Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple when she plays her. I haven't seen her in anything else, but can well imagine she would be good in anything she appeared in. Will look for "Mad About Men".

Yes, mcannady1, I liked the other players in Joan's series as well. In fact, I liked everything about it!

[Haven't seen the McEwan ones; didn't care for the previews].

[–] mcannady1 9 years ago

Movie girl: I agree! I loved everything about Joan Hickson's Miss Marple. We ended up watching the others and did not like how the ending was changed - or the killer. In Mad About Men Joan is a landlady to Glynis Johns and is unaware that the girl's double is a mermaid whose haunt is the Cornish coast-line that also runs under the bed and breakfast type building she manages! It was on TCM awhile ago. The whole movie is a lot of fun.

[–] greenbudgie 8 years ago

I too prefer the Dolly Bantry of this version, played by Gwen Watford. She returned as Dolly in 'The Mirror Crack'd.' Joan Hickson's Marple is superior.

[–] Heroforsale1959 8 years ago

So agree.

For all I like Joanna Lumley, she simply hams up the part, whereas Gwen played the slightly dotty but reserved Dolly to perfection.

Had many "discussions" about who is the best Marple over the years, and the vast majority follow my thinking in that Joan Hickson is by far and away the superior...

Si vis pacem, para bellum

[–] greenbudgie 8 years ago

I have to agree that Joan Hickson is seriously the best Miss Marple. But I do have a soft spot for Margaret Rutherford's comic version of the character.

[–] SkiesAreBlue 8 years ago

Margaret Rutherford was, to me, the original Miss Marple and like you have a very soft spot for her. I would watch any of her old movies on TV and one of my favourites was her in Blith Spirit as Madame Acarti. True gold! However now with Joan Hickson, she is the Miss Marple described by Agatha Christie.

SkiesAreBlue

[–] greenbudgie 8 years ago

I always watch Margaret Rutherford on TV when I get the chance. She is at her eccentric best as Madame Arcati in 'Blithe Spirit.' 'Murder She Said' is more my type of film. That's my favourite.