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We have taken some photos of "A Caribbean Mystery". They represent actual movie quality.

• Oh dear posted on 05 May 2009

  A good crime novel might be material for a fine movie or even for some entertaining distraction, as the hunt for the killer is a plot technique that keeps the attention focused. How they made such a gruesome movie out of an Agatha Christie novel is an art in itself.As not having read the novel, I'm not sure if the plotting mistakes are due to the writing or the adaption, but either way, they are there and aren't going away. The poison in the pills that the major never takes? Why would he take one now? The killer not trying to hush the possible poisoning but even informing the police about it? The exhumation based on the fact that a pill bottle was in his bathroom that wasn't there before? The hotel nurse telling someone in a highly suspecting way that she saw the killer? Why not tell the police or even her 'new friend' miss Marple? Dramatic effects like the exhumation during the night, some tiny voodoo and the nervy score cannot save the lack of drama.Badly scripted, awfully acted and Barbados seems a perpetually overcast island with some techno-echo-crickets chirping away every time we are supposed to witness outdoor scenes at night. This isn't even entertaining anymore, this movie is a crime itself.

• Sheer Class posted on 03 August 2008

  I cannot believe the lack of positive comments on this episode. Everything works together, the acting, the locations, the music, the subtle changes to the book. To make what is in my humble opinion a wonderful piece of drama, Joan Hickson is as always incredibly good in the role. Superior in every way to the awful Helen Hayes version, Adrian Lukis and the gorgeous Sophie Ward are superb, and the closing scene between them is superbly acted and gripping. It would be really interesting to see if ITV can produce something as good as this when it comes around to it, will also be interesting to see who will be starring as Miss Marple. Sit back and enjoy this wonderful drama.

• OK but not one of the best posted on 24 February 2007

  This is quite a late entry in the BBC Hickson Miss Marple series. The story had a previous outing with Helen Hayes as an American Miss Marple. I re watched this recently a found it surprisingly worthwhile though hopelessly trapped in 80's TV movie-land - it had a good Mr Rafiel! This Hickson version is quite faithful to the book though it has to be said that Christie spent less time mourning the death of the maid than this more PC version. There are a couple of minor characters cut out but otherwise its fairly intact. The cast is OK; Donald Pleasance does pretty well as Rafiel but no better than his Hayes counterpart, the Kendalls are a little dull and Sue Lloyd affects a bored Texan drawl as the unpleasant Lucky Dyson.Joan Hickson is wonderful as always as Miss Marple but this is not, in my opinion one of her better outings.

• "By far and away the best adaptation of Christie's novel." posted on 10 November 2005

  Miss Marple is enjoying a holiday in Barbados recovering from a recent illness. However, an ex colonial police officer called Major Palgrave (Frank Middlemass), boasts to Miss Marple about a murder story and takes a photograph out of his wallet which apparently has a murderer's face on it. However, he suddenly sees that person and quickly puts the photograph back into his wallet. Miss Marple didn't take it very seriously at the time but when Major Palgrave is found dead the next morning, she wishes she had when more murders follow.By far and a way the best version of Christie's whodunit. It was filmed in Hollywood in 1983 as a lacklustre TV movie starring Helen Hayes as Miss Marple and was saddled with an indifferent script. This BBC production is lengthly, but there is more attention to detail and a first rate cast including Donald Pleasance, Frank Middlemass and not forgetting Hickson's Miss Marple. All do fine work in their roles.

• Worth a look posted on 23 November 2002

  Well shot and acted, and it transports you to a pleasant hotel in the Caribbean. Is Donald Pleasance making up his own dialogue? I'm sure Christie never called anyone a 'saucy mare'. Liberties are taken with the book, some good (Miss Marple's visit to the chambermaid's aunt) and some pointless (made up superstitions about the dead taking revenge). Directors should trust Christie!Many of the 'improvements' blur and confuse the storyline. xxxxxx

• Hayes-Hickson 2-0 posted on 22 February 2001

  Apparently I'm in the minority, but I liked the Helen Hayes (1983 and 1985) versions of two of Agatha Christie' Miss Marple novels - this one and "They Do It With Mirrors" - more than the Joan Hickson takes on the same stories. Not only because I warmed up more easily to Hayes after only 2 movies than I have to Hickson after seeing her in 7 so far, but also because the plot is much better explained in the Hayes versions; it's ironic how these two Hickson films are so plodding for most of their running time, but when they get to the most important part of any mystery, the resolution, they rush right through it. Another problem with this film is the often annoyingly loud score, which sometimes drowns out the dialogue (most frustratingly, this even happens during Miss Marple's final explanations!). Admittedly, if you don't know the story, the film does a good job of camouflaging the killer - by barely featuring him or her on the screen! The Barbados island does make for a pleasant change of scenery in the series, and the absolutely lovely Sophie Ward gives a sympathetic performance as the vulnerable Molly (my rating would have been lower without her), but nobody else in the cast is particularly memorable, and that includes Donald Pleasence. (**1/2)

• Solid Entertainment posted on 10 April 1999

  This is worth sitting down to watch. Not your typical Miss Marple, as it takes place in Barbados. However, all the usual ingredients are there to make this a worthwhile diversion. I agree that there are some changes from the book, but on the whole these are positive. Give it a go.

• A commercial excursion posted on 09 April 1999

  Originally screened as a Christmas treat, this "Miss Marple" adaptation-- part of a cycle established since 1984- was mainly shot in Barbados and presumably commanded a bigger budget than usual. All the more surprising that direction was entrusted not to a BBC trusty but to Chris Petit, a critic who had turned road-movie maker, imitating Germans such as Wenders.True, Petit had previously helmed PD James's "An Unsuitable Job for a Woman", with many an attempt to "subvert" that conservative Queen of Crime's material in a feminist direction; but the movie tanked, and this Agatha Christie version is more respectful. As others have remarked, the screenplay (by regular Christie scenarist Trevor Bowen, who as usual writes in a small part for himself) introduces a dash of political correction. Miss M trots round to Isabelle Lucas's shanty for a nice cup of tea to show she's no segregationist, and Shaughan Seymour's haughty white colonial administrator patronises the black police inspector: reasonably so, since the latter has less to do with solving the crime than Miss M's English foil DI Slack, as it turns out. Donald Pleasence injects an amusingly repellent late cameo as a rough old fellow guest; Barbara Barnes (what happened to her?) is alluring as his put-upon secretary. But for the most part the story unrolls with no conspicuous directorial touches. This was Petit's height as a commercial proposition; subsequently he sank back into the wilderness of arty late-night TV projects. The explosion in British feature film production since the early 1980s seems to have left him as high and dry as Michael Winner, though one would not bracket them for any other reason.

• A Drugged Blur posted on 04 July 1999

  Christie did all sorts of things with mystery, but in this case she stuck to the genre as genre. In this case, the idea is to deepen the groove, to follow the pattern and surprise with small things rather than the grand upsets of other stories.In that case, the subtleties are important: the richnesses of character aren't there to define a person, instead to indicate a world, many worlds as candidates for the one world that is true.These BBC do more than just tinker with the story, they flatten those worlds into characters, and then strut these characters as stereotypes. All the richness of the mystery is lost.In this case, there's an extra cause for humor: to enhance the local flavor and also satisfy modern correctness, we have extended additions involving the local people: an aunt and a patronizing voodoo bit.The result is an unwatchable mess.Since nothing of value can be said of this particular episode, this is a good a place as any to remark on the portrayal of Miss Marple. In the books, the character is a busybody, slightly obnoxious, fussy. Bright, but only by measurements in her own world. She is as occupied with her garden as the gossip in the village. She is, in fact, as comical in her own way as Poirot is meant to be.The BBC characterizations make Poirot more comical and Marple decidedly less so. She is reduced to one mannerism, an "oh dear oh dear oh dear" or some slight variation, while at the same time hovering near fondly remembered grandmotherisms. The wholefulcrum of the craft is in the position of the detective, where they are in comparison to us. Here that fulcrum has been blindly moved to a sunnier spot.A real shame.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.