A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY
US, 1983, 92 minutes, Colour.
Helen Hayes, Barnard Hughes, Jameson Parker, Season Hubley, Swoozie Kurtz, Stephen Macht, Cassie Yates.
Directed by Robert Lewis.
A Caribbean Mystery is one of many Agatha Christie stories filmed from the mid-'70s. With the success of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, there was a new interest in Agatha Christie's work (including the mystery of her own life in Agatha). Several stories were adapted for television including Murder is Easy and Sparkling Cyanide. This film belongs to that group.
Helen Hayes had been a star in Murder is Easy and here she takes up the role of Miss Marple, already portrayed by Margaret Rutherford in a series of films of the '60s and by Angela Lansbury in A Mirror Crack'd. The film is lightweight - the usual gallery of suspicious characters with their interactions on a Caribbean island. The cast does well and the audience is kept guessing. Australia's Mike Preston has a role as Barnard Hughes' suspicious masseur.
1. The popularity of Agatha Christie? Her skill in writing murder mysteries? Stock characters and suspicions? Interactions?
2. Audience response to a murder mystery? A puzzle? Trying to read characters, emotional interactions, loves and hatreds? Picking up clues? How well did this film function as a murder mystery in establishing characters and providing clues?
3. Caribbean locations - well-used? Atmosphere? The island isolating the various suspects? The investigation by the police?
4. Helen Hayes as Miss Marple? How well did she communicate Miss Marple's age, English background, ability to pry without seeming to. the ability to manipulate people to do what she wanted? Her understanding of human nature? Her friendship with the Major, her clashes with Mr Raphael and her friendship with him? Interaction with the various characters? Her understanding what had happened and revealing the ending?
5. The variety of characters and suspicions: Tim and Molly, the ownership of the hotel, Tim as a gracious host, Molly and her nervous breakdowns. the background of her money, parents' disapproval of her boyfriend, the new boyfriend and marrying him, her seeming to go mad, the irony that Lucky kept imitating her? Her lapses, wanderings, her almost being killed? Her love for Tim? His for her? Greg and Lucky: Greg and his offhand manner, his medication and its use for the murder? Lucky and her glamour, brazen, affair with Ed? Her being outspoken? Her rivalry and comparing herself with Molly? The irony of her being killed? Ed and Evelyn? Ed and the affair with Lucky, discussions with Evelyn? How suspicious were they? Mr Raphael and his crusty behaviour, his bullying Ruth and his masseur? Friendship with Miss Marple? Helping her solve the mystery? His emotional farewell to her? Ruth as attractive, commenting on situations, giving information? The masseur and his suspicious background, looking for documents, friendship with Miss Marple? The Major and his interest in human nature, stories, photo of a murderer? His being murdered? Victoria, the discovery of the corpse, her work in the hotel, giving the information to Tim and Molly, the possibility of blackmail, her death?
6. The unmasking of Tim as the murderer - callow and calculating? The pattern of the attempted suicide and then the death?
7. Agatha Christie’s ability to highlight aspects of human nature via murder mystery stereotypes?
