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Murder Ahoy!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Murder Ahoy! | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | George Pollock |
| Written by | David Pursall (screenplay) Jack Seddon (screenplay) Agatha Christie (motifs) |
| Starring | Margaret Rutherford Stringer Davis Lionel Jeffries Bud Tingwell |
| Music by | Ron Goodwin |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | 1964 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English German |
| Preceded by | Murder Most Foul |
| IMDb profile | |
Murder Ahoy! is the last of four Miss Marple films, made by MGM and starring Margaret Rutherford. As in the three previous films, Margaret Rutherford plays Miss Jane Marple, Bud Tingwell is (Chief) Inspector Craddock and Stringer Davis (Rutherford's real-life Husband) plays Mr Stringer.
The film was made in 1964 and directed by George Pollock, with David Pursall and Jack Seddon credited with the script. The music was by Ron Goodwin.
Contents |
Unlike the previous three that were very loosely based on novels by Agatha Christie, this one was not and it employs an original screenplay. It does, however, borrow a few obscure plot details from They Do It with Mirrors (but otherwise bears no resemblance at all to that Miss Marple novel); and it pays at least nominal homage to Christie's long-running play, The Mousetrap.
The action takes places mainly on board an old wooden-walled battleship, HMS Battledore, which has been purchased by a Trust for the rehabilitation of young criminals, and intended by the founder to put backbone into young jellyfish.
Shortly after joining the board of management of the Trust, Miss Marple witnesses the sudden death of a fellow Trustee, who has just returned from a surprise visit to the ship. She manages to obtain a small sample of his snuff, which is found to have been poisoned. Against police advice, she visits the ship, much to the distress of the Captain and officers.
On her first night on board, one officer is murdered - run through with a sword and then hanged. As the police investigation proceeds, the assistant matron is killed, apparently by a poisoned mousetrap.
Who is behind the killings? And why? Is someone defrauding the Trust? Miss Marple reveals all!
- Margaret Rutherford - Miss Marple
- Stringer Davis - Mr. Stringer
- Bud Tingwell - Inspector Craddock
- Lionel Jeffries - Captain Rhumstone
- William Mervyn - Commander Breeze-Connington
- Joan Benham - Matron Alice Fanbraid
- Miles Malleson - The Bishop
- Derek Nimmo - Sub-Lt. Humbert
- Francis Matthews - Lt. Compton
- Nicholas Parsons - the doctor
The assistant matron is killed by being pricked on the finger by a poisoned mousetrap. This may have been intended as a veiled promotion of the Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap which was running at the time (and still is). Whether the homage is more than nominal cannot be said, because The Mousetrap cannot be published until it ends production on the West End - and that is not going to happen any time soon; and people who have seen the play, invariably accede to the request not to spoil it for anyone else by divulging the plot. There is, nevertheless, a delightful mention of the word "mousetrap" in this film, and the humorous reference is obvious to any Christie reader.
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Miss Marple Murder films with Margaret Rutherford
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Films Murder, She Said | Murder at the Gallop | Murder Most Foul | Murder Ahoy! Based on the Agatha Christie novels 4.50 from Paddington | After the Funeral | Mrs. McGinty's Dead |
Cast Margaret Rutherford | Stringer Davis | Bud Tingwell Crew George Pollock | Ron Goodwin |