Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5

 (TV) (2010-2011)

Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Agatha Christie's elderly spinster sleuth tackles four mysteries in the collection of Masterpiece Mystery! episodes.

For more about Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 and the Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray release, see the Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray Review

Starring: Julia McKenzie, Geraldine McEwan

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Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray Review

The Mysterious Case of the Altered Christies.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, July 6, 2011

Agatha Christie holds the distinction of being (along with some hack named William Shakespeare or something like that) the best selling author of all time. While Christie's mysteries have become iconic, and she created any number of fantastic characters including Tommy and Tuppence, Superintendent Battle and Colonel Race, she is of couse best remembered for her two most legendary and long-lived creations, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. Christie is on record as stating (repeatedly) that she detested Poirot, but she was rather fond of Miss Marple. Despite the author's disparate opinions about her two most famous creations, audiences have flocked to both Poirot and Marple outings in any number of media, starting of course with the original book and short story versions, and then moving on to film and ultimately television. Poirot, despite having been portrayed by actors as varied as Peter Ustinov, Albert Finney and Tony Randall, is inarguably most identified with David Suchet, whose impeccable (if increasingly kind of eccentric) take on the character over the past several decades has been so successful as to virtually shut down any competitiors. Miss Marple, on the other hand, has had a number of equally fine, if incredibly different, interpretations through the years. The inimitable Margaret Rutherford portrayed her in a series of semi-comic British films in the early to mid-1960's. Both Angela Lansbury and Helen Hayes tackled the character in a couple of projects before Joan Hickson, who had played a supporting role in one of the Rutherford Marples, established a firm hold on the character in a number of well received British television adaptations. Miss Marple had to wait a little more than a decade, a time span full of Suchet's Poirot as a matter of fact, before she reemerged in a series of somewhat controversial adaptations which first featured Geraldine McEwan in the famous role, but which has recently passed to Julia McKenzie. These new Marple mysteries often took considerable liberties with Christie's original plots and characters, something longtime Christie fans have found scandalous. All of these more recent Marple adaptations have boasted top notch production design, film like presentations, and excellent, if a little quirky, interpretations of the character, probably more so by McEwan than by McKenzie. This latest round of Marple mysteries continues with these trends.



The Secret of Chimneys

If you want a quick and easy summation of what is good and what is bad about these newest Marple adaptations, The Secret of Chimneys is a prime example. This is an absolutely elegant looking production filled with some wonderful performances and attention to period (1950's) detail. But Christie's source novel is left in the dust, to sometimes questionable effect. Some of the changes at least make a little sense, in terms of creating a more real feeling plot. Instead of Christie's fictional country of Herzoslovakia, Austria is substituted as the home country of a Count who plays an important part in the plot. And while "Bundle" Brent (one of my all time favorite Christie nicknames) is still around, she's not the spunky quasi-flapper of the original novel or another later Christie piece also placed at the vast Chimneys estate, The Seven Dials Mystery (also adapted as a British television film and available on DVD). Everything else in this adaptation, including Miss Marple herself, is shoehorned in from other sources or is so radically changed from the original novel as to be virtually unrecognizable. Why?, Christie fans no doubt are asking. While the original Chimneys novel was a product of its 1920's timeframe (hence no Miss Marple, the novel's detective was Inspector Battle) and dealt with a topic then much in the news—the assassination of the Romanovs—certainly a more felicitous use of Christie's original intentions could have been accomplished than this mishmash of ideas. This is one of the more predictable entries in the new Marple series, unfortunately, and anyone who's seen the old Kathleen Turner-Michael Douglas film Jewel of the Nile is going to guess one of the major "twists" as soon as it's set up. Even Miss Marple herself isn't used to best advantage here, and her fidgeting around in her purse at the denouement to deliver one piece of evidence after another is just flat out funny after a while.

The Blue Geranium

Blue flowers have for some reason long been associated with crime fiction, whether it's The Blue Dahlia or The Blue Gardenia. In this case, The Blue Geranium is expanded from one of Christie's short stories, and while there's a certain amount of padding to get this feature to an hour and a half, it retains the basic outlines of the original short story, with a twist or two. While the solution to at least some elements of the central mystery will probably be apparent to avid armchair sleuths, The Blue Geranium does do a good job of keeping the viewer guessing up to the final moments, with the requisite number of infamous Christie red (and/or blue) herrings leading to misdirection. This outing does offer a bit of unseemliness, perhaps more than the typical Christie, bad behavior which is built around the trope of the Seven Deadly Sins. But while the main murder victim is a hypochondriac semi-invalid, about as sympathetic as the similar harridan character played by Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number, there's also the glossed over murder of a pregnant woman which some viewers may find more objectionable. This is an interesting caper to contrast with Christie's Poirot mystery Wasp's Nest; both pieces utilize the stinger-laden insects as major plot elements, though in the case of the Poirot case, the sleuth is trying to prevent a murder which hasn't yet taken place, while in the Miss Marple outing, she is trying to correct her immediate misapprehension as to what had actually taken place previously with regard to several murders.

The Pale Horse

This is yet another example of Miss Marple being interpolated into a mystery in which she initially was not a character. In fact this Christie novel was previously adapted for British television as a standalone made for television film (included on this Blu-ray as an extra), and in that adaptation, as well as this one, one of Christie's most enjoyable characters—mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver—does not appear. (Oliver, played by Zoe Wanamaker, has become a semi-regular in the newer Poirot mysteries which have been airing on Masterpiece Mystery! over the past couple of years). The Pale Horse is a prime example of Christie's expert powers of misdirection, as a major plot point involving the occult turns out to have a completely different meaning than is initially apparent. Miss Marple functions relatively well in this updated version, and a lot of the dialogue is uniquely Marpleian (is that a word?), as in an early scene when her maid, in hearing Miss Marple quote the Book of Revelation about the pale horse and Death, tells her employer, "I don't like the sound of that," Miss Marple casually replies, "It's the Bible, dear, I'm not sure you're supposed to." This is an episode long on ambience, with fog strewn streets which are almost redolent of Sherlock Holmes, as well as a number of odd and truly creepy characters in the backwoods of Britain. If there are occasional lapses in logic, and perhaps one too many characters in faux distress, The Pale Horse is still prime Christie, even in this peculiarly amended version.

The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side

This is undoubtedly the best known story in this particular compilation, due largely to two well known previous adaptations, the 1980 film with Angela Lansbury as the inconic elderly sleuth, and Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak as aging icons themselves, as well as the final Joan Hickson Miss Marple entry in the early 1990's. This is also one of many Christie efforts obviously based on real-life events, in this case a personal tragedy in the life of Golden Hollywood era actress Gene Tierney (if you know the story, chances are you know the connection to this mystery, if not, watch any of adaptations first before looking into the heartbreaking Tierney story). This is one of the few Marple entries with a scene stealing supporting turn, in this case by the wonderful Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) as Dolly Bantry, Miss Marple's dotty neighbor who in this episode has sold her palatial estate to film actress Marina Gregg. At a garden party, one of the hapless residents of St. Mary Mead drops dead in Marina's parlor and the hunt is on for a murderer who may have targeted Marina herself. This is a fairly straightforward telling of Christie's original source novel, perhaps not quite as faithful as the Hickson version, but immensely enjoyable and buoyed by the always effervescent contributions of Lumley.

Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Marple Complete Series 5 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Acorn Entertainment with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1. While all four of these features offer really well above average image qualities, The Secret of Chimneys is the hands down winner for having the best overall image, with a startlingly sharp and clear look that is about as good as I've personally seen with regard to series television. Colors are elegant and robust, fine detail is superb, black levels and contrast are spot on, and the entire episode pops magnificently. Next down the line would probably be The Mirror Crack'd Side to Side, which benefits (as do all of these episodes, actually) from some beautiful location footage. There's some purposeful soft focus in this episode, but otherwise it's a crisp and compelling presentation. Somewhat lesser, though by no means lackluster, are The Pale Horse and The Blue Geranium, both of which are considerably softer and fuzzier than their counterparts. Interestingly, The Pale Horse like its brethren is presented on a BD-25, despite having the extra version of The Pale Horse on the same disc, and the same can actually be said for The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, which also has well over an hour of bonus material on its disc. That said, there are really very few if any compression artifacts to report, and despite occasional softness (some of which was most likely intentional), all of these Marple offerings look very, very good indeed.

Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

Marple Complete Series 5 may not offer much in the surround category, but all of the lossless LPCM 2.0 tracks on these features are incredibly well realized, and they all feature some incredibly robust LFE, courtesy not just of sound effects but an appealingly sinister use of rumbling lower frequencies in the excellent underscore. (You music lovers should contrast Normand Roger's theme for this series with Ron Goodwin's similarly jaunty work for the Rutherford Marples). Dialogue and effects are all very well handled, fidelity is strong throughout all four episodes, and dynamic range is also extremely varied and expertly delivered.

Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

• The Pale Horse (SD; 1:41:27). This 1996 adaptation of Christie's novel updates the story to a modern day setting and (as mentioned above) also eliminates Ariadne Oliver, but it makes an interesting companion piece to the newer version featuring an interpolated Miss Marple. The 1996 version also features a nicely creepy turn by Jean Marsh.
• Remembering Agatha (SD; 3:18). This sweet (if way too short) offering features Christie's grandson Mathew Prichard, as well as other children of Christie's former staff, reminiscing about Dame Agatha.
• Agatha Christie's Garden: Murder and Mystery in Devon (SD; 1:00:09). This intriguing look at Christie's private life attempts to peek behind the rather formidable façade she erected to protect that privacy. Aside from the biographical element, this great special looks in depth at Greenway, Christie's private retreat which has only recently been given to the National Trust.
• Greenway Garden History (SD; 3:06) is a brief look at the gorgeous garden at Greenway and its importance to Christie.
• Agatha's Writing (SD; 2:56) is a brief overview of Christie's achievement, both content- and style-wise.

Agatha Christie's Marple: Complete Series 5 Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

I am a huge Agatha Christie fan, and as with many longtime Christie aficionados, I have repeatedly scratched my head over this latest iteration of Marple, at least when it has taken so many liberties with Christie's always elegantly plotted originals. Part of the fun and allure of any Christie outing is the sense that order has been restored to an often chaotic world, and the good news is that that feeling remains intact even with the needless jiggering some of these episodes have undergone. McKenzie makes for a very good Marple, albeit one a little less fragile than Hickson and certainly nowhere near as eccentric as McEwan. All of these episodes sport top notch production values, and while some are more predictable than others, they all have enough twists and turns to keep at least some aspects of their solutions hidden, at least to all but the most experienced eyes. My hope is that if Marple continues, they'll have the courage to stick to Christie's original vision (and why is the Christie Estate so sanguine in allowing these "improvements"?). As it stands, though at least some of these are rather far flung from Christie's originals, overall this collection comes Recommended.