Miss Marple: At Bertram's Hotel (1987)
Miss Jane Marple is staying at an elegant hotel from her childhood compliments of her nephew Raymond. Also there is international adventurer Bess Sedgwick and Lady Selena Hazy (Joan Greenwood in her next to last performance). A doorman working at the hotel turns out to be from Bess' past, and when he is killed, she is the prime suspect. But what does his murder have to do with the disappearance of an elderly vicar staying at the hotel, and a string of robberies over the last few months? Miss Marple must find out before the murderer strikes again!!!
Watch Trailer
Cast
Reviews
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
A waste of 90 minutes of my life
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
I always like Agatha Christie Miss Marple especially with Joan Hickson. Then things that went on in this episode woke me up. Supposedly this hotel was a high class hotel with rich people. The suspense surrounds different things that happen in the hotel.There are competing characters, Bess, Elvira, Michael Gorman, Ladislaus Malinowski and more. No Inspector Slack.A woman that is highly respected is really the head of a group of thieves. She is having an affair with a man who is also going to marry her daughter.What I find offensive is a man who sleeps around is a womanizer and questioned by police is wearing Christian Cross. I am a Christian and this is how they portrayed this man in this episode. That is the only time you see the Cross at all. I find the more I re-watch these videos the more I see they offend me. I don't know if Christie put these in her stories I never read her books. Many women played Miss Marple and they played in episodes by the same name but the episodes are similar but not the same. Example Geraldine McEwan played Miss Marple in "The Body in the Library " which is totally different which has lesbians kissing which is disgusting but the one Joan Hickson was in had nothing like that.So I think people are re-writing Christie's stories and putting their own morals in videos in different years. At the end Miss Marple praises a certain criminal as "remarkable"I support the law. I don't think criminals that do many bad things then confess to something they did not do to help someone else is "remarkable". I am very dissappointed in the way things turned out.
At Bertram's Hotel is not just one of the best Miss Marple episodes ever. It is a nostalgic trip to the late 1950s and shows a London/Britain as many would expect. The afternoon tea served at Bertram's in the episode is exactly how it should be. The best line is when Lady Celia tells Miss Marple about getting muffins in America that were "like tea cakes with raisins in them", to which Miss Marple replies. "The Americans have a lot to answer for." One of the best and funniest Miss Marple moments ever. The episode also includes rare footage of the De Havilland Comet 4 (the improved version of the first commercial jet liner) and of the roof terrace at the former department store Derry & Toms (which still exists as an exclusive venue for wealthy Kensingtonians). Wonderful.
'Bertrams' has never been one of my favourite Miss Marple books. It's slow and unlikely and not much really happens. The new ITV McEwen version tries to remedy this by packing in lots of additional stuff and fails miserably. In my opinion, the BBC Hickson version does the reverse and improves on the original material. I think it's one of the best looking of the Hickson adaptations with great attention to detail and an effective musical score. It's very restrained but it works by sharpening the original characters. There are some lovely performances from Joan Greenwood, James Cossins and Preston Lockwood. Helena Michell is OK as a rather chilly Elvira but I can't heap enough praise on the terrific Caroline Blakiston who is superb as the crucially important character of Bess Sedgwick. Yes, her performance is over the top but then Bess as a character is over the top, lively and dynamic - a true adventuress and Blakiston captures this perfectly.Joan Hickson is clever and astute once more as Miss Marple though George Baker is a trifle dull as Davy and I began to get a bit annoyed with his Gilbert & Sullivan quotes. Overall, a really good entry in this series and much better than McEwen.
My summary line says it all. My wife has been reading and enjoying Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books. She decided to buy this video to see if it was similar to the books she has read. She liked this film. As for me, it was exactly what I expected it to be. A long, boring teleplay with non-stop talk and absolutely no action until a very brief flurry appeared near the end.