GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #24

MISS JANE MARPLE


The most famous spinster sleuth in detective fiction was created by Agatha Christie in 1927.  Vaguely based on the author's own grandmother - a sheltered and Victorian lady not unacquainted with the depths of human depravity - Miss Marple is tall and thin and has china-blue eyes.  She once wore a lace fiche and gloves and, during much of her investigative work, used bird glasses.  Not noted for her admirable character, she was prone to gossip.  Time, however, mellowed Miss Marple, and she was later presented as a grandmotherly, English gentlewoman.  Born in the village of St. Mary Mead, she still resided there in a small house.  She was about 80 years old and had grown frail in the last years of the novels.  Unable to do much gardening or go for long walks, she still enjoyed knitting.  She lived on a small fixed income that was generously augmented by her nephew, Raymond West, a bestselling novelist.  In the later works Miss Marple's character was probed in depth by Agatha Christie, and the reader could see that while Miss Marple attempted to keep up with the times she deplored the disappearance of a more genteel era.  Miss Marple was a shrewd student of human nature, and her keen intelligence, unmarred by the years, her insight, and her ability to draw analogies between current mysteries and past events in St. Mary Mead were responsible for her unfailing success.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Miss Marple made her first appearance in December 1927 in the short story "The Tuesday Night Club" published in England in The Royal Magazine.  Other short story appearances followed before her first novel-length adventure.

1930 "Murder at the Vicarage" (serialized in the Chicago Tribune in 55 installments Aug 18 - Oct 20, 1930)/  1932 "The Tuesday Club Murders" (s.s.)/  1939 "The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories" (1of the 9 stories deals with Miss Marple)/  1942 "The Body in the Library" (The Saturday Evening Post May 10 - June 21, 1941)/  1942 "The Moving Finger" (Colliers March 28 - May 16, 1942)/  1950 "Three Blind Mice and Other Stories" (4 of the 9 stories are Miss Marple)/  1950 "A Murder is Announced" (Chicago Tribune April 17 - June 12, 1950)/  1952 "Murder with Mirrors" (Cosmopolitan April 1952)/  1953 "A Pocket Full of Rye" (Chicago Tribune Jan 11 - Feb 27, 1954)/  1957 "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw" (Chicago Tribune Oct 27 - Dec 7, 1957)/  1960 "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and Other Stories" (1 of the 6 stories are Miss Marple)/  1961 "Double Sin and Other Stories" (2 of the 8 are Miss Marple)/  1962 "The Mirror Crack'd" (Star Weekly March 9-16, 1963)/  1964 "A Caribbean Mystery" (Star Weekly Jan 16-23, 1965)/  1965 "At Bertram's Hotel" (Good Housekeeping March - April 1966)/  1971 "Nemesis" (Star Weekly Oct 16-23, 1971)/  1976 "Sleeping Murder" (the last Christie novel, Ladies Home Journal July-Aug 1976)/  1979 "Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories" (s.s.)

Four of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple short stories appeared in American magazines:

"Strange Jest" (This Week Nov 2, 1941)/  "The Tape-Measure Murder" (This Week Nov 16, 1941)/  "The Case of the Caretaker" (Chicago Tribune July 5, 1942)/  "The Case of the Perfect Maid" (Chicago Tribune Sept 13, 1942)

RADIO

"Miss Marple Tells a Story" was commissioned by the BBC and read by Christie herself on May 11, 1934.  The printed story did not appear until 1939 when it was included in "The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories".  Fans of Miss Marple would have to wait until 1993 when the BBC began adapting all 12 of the Miss Marple for radio with June Whitfield enacting Marple.  The first adaptation aired December 26, 1993, and the last on September 30, 2015.

STAGE

An adaptation of "Murder at the Vicarage" was first seen in Northampton, England, October 17, 1949, with 35-year old actress Barbara Mullen portraying the aged Miss Marple.  The play came to the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End on December 14, 1949 and ran until late March 1950.  There have been several revivals of the play in London since.

FILMS

"Murder She Said" MGM, 1962.  Margaret Rutherford (Marple), Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, Ronald Howard, Thorley Walters, Stringer Davis (Miss Marple's elderly librarian friend, a character invented for the MGM film series, was portrayed by Miss Rutherford's real-life husband).  Director: George Pollock.  Based on "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw".  While travelling on a train Miss Marple witnesses a murder on another train that passes by and, in order to trace the crime, poses as a maid on an elderly invalid's estate.

"Murder at the Gallop" MGM, 1963.  Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson, Charles Tingwell, Davis.  Director: Pollock.  Based on the Hercule Poirot novel "After the Funeral" (1953).  Miss Marple is convinced that the death of an elderly recluse was actually murder and, in order to uncover the killer, becomes a member of a riding lodge.

"Murder Most Foul" MGM, 1964.  Rutherford, Ron Moody, Tingwell, Davis, Megs Jenkins.  Director: Pollock.  Based on the Poirot novel "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" (1952).  Miss Marple, a juror in a mistrial, is certain that the accused is innocent of the murder of a former actress and, to prove her theory, joins a third-rate repertory troupe.

"Murder Ahoy!" MGM, 1964.  Rutherford, Lionel Jeffries, Tingwell, Davis, Francis Mathews.  Director: Pollock.  A trustee of an organization that maintains a moored ship as part of a youth program, Miss Marple uncovers murder, poisoning, and a Fagin-like school for young criminals.

"The Mirror Crack'd" Columbia, 1980.  Angela Lansbury (Marple), Elizabeth Tatlor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak.  Director: Guy Hamilton.  An actress is murdered while filming a movie in St. Mary Mead.

TELEVISION

Lancashire actress Gracie Fields portrayed a wide-eyed Jane Marple in a 1956 "Goodyear Playhouse" dramatization of "A Murder is Announced".  

"A Caribbean Mystery" CBS, October 22, 1983.  Made-for-TV movie.  Helen Hayes (Marple), Barnard Hughes, Jameson Parker, Season Hubley, Swoosie Kurtz.  Screenplay by Sue Grafton.

"Murder with Mirrors" CBS, February 20, 1985.  Made-for-TV movie.  Hayes, Bette Davis, John Mills, Leo McKern.

"Miss Marple" TV series.  December 26, 1984 - December 27, 1992.  Produced by the BBC and the A&E Network.  Joan Hickson played the spinster sleuth in adaptations of all the Marple novels.

"Agatha Christie's Marple" ITV produced series of adaptations of the Marple novels with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple (2004-2008) followed by Julia McKenzie (2009-2013).  Short stories were also adapted as well as non-Marple Christie stories.  The series aired in the US on the PBS show "Mystery!"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  LEGENDARY HEROES #53 SPACE PATROL "Space Patrol" was about the 30th Century adventures of Commander-in-Chief Buzz Corry of the United Planets Space Patrol and his young sidekick Cadet Happy Osborn.  The original concept of the series was "a cop show in outer space" so "Space Patrol" became an intergalactic paramilitary space police force.  Corry and his allies were outfitted with ray guns, miniature "space-o-phones" and atomic lights to face their interplanetary villains.  "Space Patrol" was created by Mike Moser, a WWII vet and Navy flier who came up with the idea while fighting in the Pacific.  He wanted to create a show that kids would enjoy today just like he did years earlier when he read "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon" in his youth. Moser pitched the idea to KECA-TV (now KABC) and they loved the idea.  The show debuted on March 9, 1950 as a live 15-minute show and was aired Monday through Friday, televised f
Read more
Image
  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #66 PARKER Created by Donald Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark, Parker is a professional robber specializing in large-scale, high-profit crimes.  Parker is a ruthless career criminal with few redeeming qualities - aside from efficiency and professionalism.  Parker is callous, meticulous, and perfectly willing to commit murder if he deems it necessary.  He does live by one ethical principle: he will not double-cross another professional criminal with whom he is working, unless they try to double-cross him.  Should that happen, Parker will unhesitatingly exact a thorough and brutal revenge. Parker's first name is never revealed in any of the novels, and it is hinted that the name "Parker" might even be an alias.  Parker is rare among the anti-hero protagonists in that he never develops a conscience.  Parker is big and shaggy, with flat, square shoulders.  His hands look like they were molded of brown clay by a sculptor who
Read more
Image
  GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #65 HARRY PALMER Len Deighton, the English author of espionage thrillers, created a series which involves a man of the working class in Burnley who dislikes and distrusts everyone in authority.  He is nameless in the books but is popularly known as Harry Palmer because he was given that name in the films based on the novels.  "The IPCRESS File" published in 1962 is told in the first-person, and the secret agent is anonymous.  At one point he is greeted by someone saying "Hello, Harry", to which he thinks, "Now my name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been."  Harry is described as working class, living in a back street flat and seedy hotels, and shopping in supermarkets.  He wears glasses, is hindered by bureaucracy, and craves a pay raise. BIBLIOGRAPHY Len Deighton was born in London, educated at the Royal Academy of Art, and has held a variety of jobs.  He was an
Read more