S_Sigerson

Could Miss. Marple have had a married lover who died in World War 1? Of course, she could have. There is nothing that says otherwise.

Miss Marple would've disapproved over anyone having an affair with a married man-- she wouldn't have excluded herself from this preconception, shall we say, of hers.

As far as something jarring or out of place, an example would be Miss. Marple circa 1950's talking on a cell phone since cell phones had not been invented yet. I have yet to experience this jarring feeling with either Miss. Marple or Poirot.

I agree w/ you both, Go leafs & S Sigerson in regards to MM having an affair w/ a married man. I just have some points to make on both sides:

On one hand like you said SS (may I call you SS?), MM I think was capable of having an affair w/ a married man (even though the books, as far as I know, never referred to it). The reason: she never seem phased by crimes or the fact that she had interacted w/ culprits. So she probably wouldn't be too scandalized by just an affair. And even though MM is 'fluffy' & dainty in appearance - she has proven that she is witty & highly intelligent. Just b/c she is elderly shouldn't exclude her younger years: she might have had an affair.

But I see go leafs point too. MM does have a strong sense of justice, & she has a lot of compassion (she must not have gotten that just from growing older) so she may have disapproved of immoral behavior, & it might not be the act itself she might have felt sorry for the person who was cheated on.

It's an interesting topic...

When I said "jarring", I didn't mean in terms of anachronisms, but in terms of mood. If a movie has been a serious drama for the first hour, and then turns into a great big overblown comedy for the final act, the transition will be jarring. So when Taken at the Flood went from faithful in plot and tone to dumbed-down, predictable nonsense, the transition was jarring.

I do see your point about being vague but it has its advantages. The character in general is sketched in, but it leaves enough to the reader's imagination to "colour in" the picture.

One reason that her description of Miss Marple could be vague is so that it would be difficult for her to be portrayed on screen, I think it unlikely that Miss Marple had an Affair because as her 1st Husband did she would know what pain it causes, Anyway I like to think of MM as free of shame in this respect.

Goleafs, you mentioned “the jarring and out of place” when you were discussing The Sittaford Mystery and not when you were discussing Taken at the Flood.

We know Miss. Marple had a strong sense of justice i.e. her strong dislike of murder, but Agatha Christie was quite vague on what other things Miss. Marple approved of or in this case disapproved of.  

S_Sigerson

Goleafs, you mentioned “the jarring and out of place” when you were discussing The Sittaford Mystery and not when you were discussing Taken at the Flood.

Whoops, my mistake. But the lesbian romance at the end really did feel just thrown in for the heck of it-- no development or anything was done during the film to reach that point. It's as if Producer X decided "we need to be fair; everyone has had affairs of all kind, so toss in some lesbians here to make it even". It's out of place. It's stupid. It's not Agatha Christie.

These are mysteries after all. One does expect - well - a few surprises. Agatha Christie was a genius when it came to misdirection and coming up with solutions that sometimes shocked the public. Take The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for example, the book caused quite a scandal in its day. Agatha Christie could be unconventional at times. Maybe whoever wrote the script for The Sittaford Mystery wanted to follow in Agatha Christie's footsteps and cause a little excitement? Once again these are mysteries and should be fun and enjoyable. Or better still perhaps you are seeing something that is not there. Maybe the two ladies in question were just simply going on holiday. Friends (who are not romantically involved) do on occasion go places with one another and even take a holiday together.   

To cut in on a side note, briefly - I personally feel that Geraldine McEwan is the only Miss Marple I could genuinely believe was "the worst cat in the village".  She's also the only one I can readily accept insinuating her way into situations and confronting murderers the way MM does.  Joan Hickson was great at conveying the more reserved, conservative side of MM, but it was just one side - I've found McEwan's portrayal a lot more layered.

Having seen Julia McKenzie in "Murder in Easy" online, I think she looks physically a lot more like the illustrations of MM, but in terms of performance she just seems constantly confused and flushed.  It's a balance between Hickson and McEwan for me.

Less said about the film Marples, the better, in my opinion.

I respect your opinion Toon and your right to express it but I dissagree, I read an Interview on Teletext where Geraldine MKewan said that the Series tried to convey things that wasn't in the books (That was the gist anyway even if it wasn't put like that) but surely if it isn't in the Books it shouldn't have been in the Episodes, I personally felt McKewan's portrayal wasn't layered at all, I liked 'A Murder Is Announced' except for Alexander Armstrong and 'By The Pricking Of My Thumb' was very entertaining even if Miss Marple shouldn't have been in it so It wasn't all bad.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2OB6D9P58USNZ?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

This person made some astute points about Miss. Marple series 1 & 3 with Geraldine McEwan.

May I chime in, too?  As a Christie fan from way back, I read many of her books before seeing any films adaptations, so my envisioning of Miss Marple came from Dame Agatha's own descriptions, "tall, elderly", old-fashioned, Victorian, taken as a bit gossipy by other characters in the books.  So with that alone, MM reminded me of my beloved grandmother.  My grandmother was tall, but in her old age, she slumped a bit, but she was energetic, and talky, and always everyone's "aunt", kind-hearted and moral, not to mention a churchgoer.  Rutherford was the first J. Marple I'd even seen onscreen (the films were fairly new at the time!), but nothing like my grandmother or my idea of Jane Marple, but fun nonetheless. I liked Helen Hayes because I've always liked the actress.  Angela Landesbury wasn't "quite" the real deal.

Joan Hickson is the closest J. Marple I've ever seen.  She resembles my grandmother in stature, as well as my vision of MM, and she was up for anything.  I was impressed when watching her traipse across a very unclean beach without missing a beat - and she was well up in age by that time!  Her Miss Marple was seriously against crime, and although the Inspectors and the townspeople may have considered her just a nosy, gossipy old lady, I don't get that.  I believe she plays the gossip factor as her detection modus operandi and never anything less.  She's serious but kind, and loved by many.  It's just her nature to listen and notice.  To me, that's the real Jane Marple.  She was never truly a gossiping old biddy.

McEwan and McKenzie are fine in their own right, but neither is tall enough, nor have been any of the others, with the exception of Ms Hickson.  Sadly, the latest round of stories have been butchered to the point where I easily lose interest.  So I consider Rutherford for fun and Hickson for the true portrayal of the world's most famous eldery sleuth.

For me, no one ever matched Hercule Poirot until David Suchet. From Agatha's own pen, Poirot was constantly referred to as a "slimy little man". None of the prior actors ever appeared slimy nor little to me. While Peter Ustinov was fun, he was just not a "slimy, little man". Albert Finney could have passed for slimy but not little. David's character could certainly be called both by criminals who didn't appreciate that he was going to nail them. So Suchet my Poirot. I ran out of space so had to use two posts, sorry about that.