Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Paul Evans Miss Marple is made trustee of The Battledore, a training ship for youngsters. During her first meeting fellow trustee Cecil Folly Hardwick is killed with poisoned snuff. Miss Marple smells a rat and contrives a way to spend time on board to Battledore, to find out what Folly had uncovered there.The humour is here by the bucket load, Rutherford as always is a pure joy to watch, and this time she's met her match, Lionel Jeffries is utterly brilliant to watch, he's so much fun. I think Derek Nimmo being called 'Muscles,' is one of the funniest bits.The pièce de résistance has to be the sword fighting scene, can anyone in their wildest dreams picture Joan, Julia or even Geraldine wielding a sword, watching a now 72 year old Rutherford fighting with a sword is worth the watch alone. The final instalment of Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple films is total entertainment, fun and proper escapism. True that any links with Agatha Christie have now completely gone, but it seems not to matter, as the story is there just there for fun. I've read that more were planned but never happened, what a shame.Great entertainment, real family fun (if the kids are a bit quirky that is, like I used to be and enjoy this kind of yarn.) 9/10

AaronCapenBanner George Pollock once again returned to direct Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Stringer Davis as Mr. Stringer, and Charles Tingwell as Inspector Craddock, in this original story not directly based on an Agatha Christie novel. Here, Miss Marple investigates the death of a fellow trustee member that leads to Maritime murder, and uses her trustee status to go on board a naval ship to investigate the murder, and reports that one of the officers is operating a crime ring from it, which of course leads to more murders... A bit of a step down from the first two pictures, being not as atmospheric, and a bit too much comedy, but still has a fine British cast to make it seaworthy.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU Nothing is serious in this criminal detective and private eye story. It is all humor, oh no, fun really. But who is getting the fun out of the story? Agatha Christie? For sure, and she even manages to put a direct allusion at her famous dramatic success in London for more years than anyone else, The Mousetrap. But she is making fun at a bishop, a lord and a few other social entities. And she enjoys it enormously. But we could wonder if it is not Miss Marple who is making fun of all these heavy heads and straight jacketed minds. We would be right too. She obviously makes fun of the poor detective inspector or chief inspector, of the captain, of a few more people in the dear society of Winchester. She appears as an eccentric, and she cultivates that appearance because one has to keep up appearances and because that's her true hallmark and method to capture the attention of those she wants not to see what she is really doing. To go inconspicuous, this Miss Marple knows we have to go very visible. But it could also be Margaret Rutherford who is enjoying herself at our expense, and there too I think we have a point. She seems to be enjoying herself so much that she could be God himself come down incognito. This film is a little gem of such nice detective suspense laced and stuffed with a lot of British or English humor, with a lot of tongues in a lot of cheeks. Quite interesting if we consider it as a remnant and a testimony of a time when computers did not exist and scientific police was not yet a glimmer in the eye of an administrative law and order progenitor. And we managed to arrest criminals in those days when we did not even have a computer to process and identify finger prints.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

jamesraeburn2003 Miss Marple joins the board of senior trustees for a youth reformation committee, which prides itself on reforming troublesome teenagers by means of naval cadet training on board a ship called The Battledore. But when one of her fellow trustees is murdered by his snuff being laced with poison, Miss Marple learns that he had just returned from a routine visit to The Battledore and she suspects that the motive for his murder must lie on the ship. Using her position as senior trustee, Miss Marple pays a visit to the ship much to the chagrin of the eccentric Captain Rhumstone (Lionel Jeffries) who seems anxious to get rid of her. With the help of her loyal friend Mr Stringer (Stringer Davis), she soon learns that the shore leave patrol has been committing a series of jewel thefts from the high society. But the question is which one? Meanwhile, Lieutenant Compton (Francis Matthews) has been run through with a sword and hung from the ship's yardarm and suspicion immediately falls on Sub Lieutenant Humbert (Derek Nimmo) whom didn't get along with Compton because they both fancied the same girl, Nurse Shirley (Norma Foster). As usual, Chief Inspector Craddock (Charles Tingwell) thinks he's got an open and shut case, but Miss Marple isn't convinced of Humbert's guilt even though the jewel robberies were all committed after high society parties, all of which he and Shirley had both attended. In her usual shrewd way, Miss Marple sets a trap for the killer and uncovers a big swindle attached to the higher ranks among the committee but not before Shirley is murdered by a poisoned spike primed to a mousetrap...Murder Ahoy was the fourth and final entry in the series of comedy whodunits starring Rutherford as Miss Marple. The series was doing well at the box office, but the producers were unable to get the rights to any more of Christie's works. In addition, this is the only one that wasn't adapted from a Christie novel and the film was produced in 1964, but released at the end of 1965 in order to space out the series. Following the end of the Miss Marple franchise, director Pollock would make one more feature before he more or less vanished from the scene. Another Christie, Ten Little Indians (see my review), for Fu Manchu producer Harry Alan Towers.All in all, Murder Ahoy is fantastic light hearted fun with Rutherford on fine form as usual as the spinster detective. She gets good support from Lionel Jeffries as the Captain and Stringer Davis offers his touching portrayal as the local librarian Mr Stringer who is Miss Marple's closest friend and is always concerned that her meddling may result in her getting bumped off, but its never any use as she is determined to unravel the mystery and she does in her own inimitable fashion. Moments to savour here include her sword fight with the killer at the climax when she assures her assailant "I must warn you that in 1931 I was the winner of the ladies fencing championship." Screenwriters David Pursall and Jack Seddon came up with quite a good storyline of their own and the identity of the killer is well concealed until the end, but I felt that the script could of been a little tighter. Nevertheless, its all good fun and Rutherford has no trouble in dominating the film with her uniquely individual performance as Miss Marple, George Pollock's direction is smooth and the atmospheric black and white camera-work of Desmond Dickinson is an added bonus.