Murder Ahoy (1964)

Too much of everything

A Masterpiece!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

First of all, this movie really captures Agatha Christie's special blend of light-hearted humor, clever plotting, and atmosphere of genuine tension and danger. Secondly, the cast here is really excellent. Besides Margaret Rutherford, who was the consummate Miss Marple, and her real-life husband Stringer Davis, and Charles "Bud" Tingwell, all three of whom appear in all four of this series, the directors always included fine comedic actors in the casts, such as Ron Moody in "Murder Most Foul", and, in "Murder at the Gallop", Robert Morley and Flora Robson. Here we get the hilarious Lionel Jeffries, whose performance as an uncomfortable ship's captain will remind modern viewers of John Cleese playing Basil Fawlty in the Brit series "Fawlty Towers" (except that Lionel Jeffries is more likeable and sympathetic). PLUS, don't overlook the great character-actor Miles Malleson as one of the trustees--his double-chin and floppy cheeks will be familiar to anyone who knows "Kind Hearts and Coronets" where he played the poetical hangman.

This is the third (out of four) Agatha Christie adaptations starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple that I've seen and, even though I wasn't too keen on the depiction of the all-knowing small-town spinster since the first film already, it never really bothered me that much until now. Mrs. Rutherford was a great actress and she surely put a lot of devotion into her role of Miss Marple, but to me she never should have been a headstrong, boisterous and intrusive woman. From the many books, I know Miss Marple as a timid and fragile little old lady who's always right and much more intelligent than everybody else, but she modestly remains at the sideline to solve the crimes. In the film series, she more of an imposing hag and her intellect doesn't come so much from observation and deduction, but from nosing around and reading detective novels. It also didn't help that "Murder Ahoy" isn't based on an existing Agatha Christie novel but works from an original screenplay. There are references towards famous writings, for example "The Mouse Trap", but the setting and story twists clearly aren't from the hand of the almighty Queen of Crime. Miss Marple is welcomed as a new trustee of a ship on which juvenile delinquents are rehabilitated into potent young mariners, but during her first board meeting a fellow trustee is ingeniously killed via poisoned snuff. He looked like he was about to reveal a discovery he made during the last inspection of the ship, and so Miss Marple goes aboard with intention to figure out what secret was important enough to kill another man. The crew of the HMS Battledore isn't very happy to have her on board, and particularly Captain De Courcy wants her off as soon as possible, but Miss Marple's suspicion proves to be right when she and Mr. Springer discover that people are secretly leaving the ship at night for unknown reasons. I am possibly prejudiced because the story isn't based on a Christie novel, but I found it difficult to get into the plot and feel any sympathy for the characters. I prefer the murders to be committed in St. Mary Mead, where Miss Marple is much more at home than on a military vessel. She also doesn't any real investigating, but solves the crime by reading a book she found in the ship's library and one that the killer undoubtedly read as well. There isn't any suspense or mystery, not even during the confrontation with the culprit at the end. The one and only true strong point of "Murder Ahoy" is Lionel Jeffries' wildly enthusiast performance as Captain De Courcy-Rhumstone. What a brilliant but sadly underrated actor he was.

The good: well it has a jaunty theme song. At least it honors the original form in that the order we see things in is roughly the order of discovery by the detective.By this entry in the series, they had seriously lost their way. What genuinely started out as detective stories had morphed into humor-driven light entertainment. Characters are just silly. Slapstick appears for the first time.There is no deduction, only snooping. This Marple has no hard won village-centric wisdom. What she accidentally discovers, comes from the book she is reading that just so happens to be the pattern the murderer used. Once again, we have this old woman putting herself at risk, presuming that the murderer will confess to the hidden police before killing her.You should avoid this one.

The last of the four Miss Marple adventures starring margaret rutherford, it is maybe not up to standard of previous films and weak in screenplay. It's jolly but and it's good that it's based on a ship as setting. Charles Tingwell is back as inspector craddock and jollyness is around although a bit less than films before. The cool music is back, played at opening sequence as miss marple(margaret rutherford) tries on navy uniform. star names like lionel jeffries, nicholas parsons join cast and stringer davis aids miss marple again. There is a shipload of suspects and a few detours to viewer as to killers identity. there is nice use of lamp morse code signals from ship across bay to the shore