DVD REVIEW -AGATHA CHRISTIE COLLECTION

Agatha Christie's inquistive spinster detective Miss Marple was first brought to the big screen by British director George Pollock (b.1907 d. 1979) and producer George H Brown, which resulted in four tongue-in-cheek whodunits being made for MGM between 1962-64 with the delightfully scene stealing Margaret Rutherford in the title role. Although she was nothing like the character described in Christie's books, which critics inevitably commented on, Rutherford made the part her own and with her director's well-judged blend of mystery and quirky British humour, MGM had a hit on their hands. The films which are all included in this four-disc DVD set are Murder She Said, Murder At The Gallop, Murder Most Foul and Murder Ahoy. The films were very much in the style of the old British b-features only made with bigger budgets and higher production values. They are the kind of splendid light hearted entertainment that we don't often find nowadays and they contained some great laughs such as Miss Marple doing the twist in order to fake a heart attack in order to trap the murderer in Murder At The Gallop and the climatic sword fight in Murder Ahoy where Miss Marple warns the killer "I must warn you that I won the Young Ladies Fencing Championship in 1951!" Who else could have carried off something like that other than Dame Margaret? Pollock cast a number of very fine British character actors to support her such as James Robertson-Justice, Robert Morley, Flora Robson and Ron Moody whilst regulars included Rutherford's real life husband, Stringer Davis, as her best friend and local librarian, Mr Stringer, who helped her solve her cases and supplied her with her constant supply of detective novels which aided her in her sleuthing! "Agatha Christie should be compulsive reading for the police force" she tells the hapless Chief Inspector Craddock (Charles Tingwell-a role he played in all four films), a man who was irritated at Miss Marple's constant interfering but always took the credit for bringing the killers to book.

Overall, this four-disc set from Warner's is a must have for lovers of the Miss Marple quintet as the picture quality, sound and overall remastering is as good as one would expect. Alas, it is short of Special Features with only the customary scene selection menu screens, but in this case not even the original theatrical trailers are included here but it is worth buying simply because everything about the films is a delight in that they are the kind of films that the British film industry or any other have simply forgotten how to make.