A Murder is Announced
Jun. 29th, 2021 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dimity_blueI've just finished watching Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced which boasts an impressive cast list.
Aside from Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, there's John Castle as Detective Inspector Craddock, Kevin Whately as Detective Sergeant Fletcher, Ursula Howells as Miss Blacklock, David Collings as Reverend Harmon, and darling Joan Sims as Miss Murgatroyd.
The story runs thus: Miss Blacklock is astonished to read in the local newspaper that a murder is announced and it will take place in her sitting room that night at 7pm. Friends are urged to accept this, the only invitation.
Accordingly, her friends and neighbours turn up at her house, expectng a game of murder.
What they get is the lights going out at 7pm, a light being shone in their eyes, and three shots from a gun. The lights are turned back on and they find two bullet holes in the wall where Miss Blacklock was standing, Miss Blacklock covered in blood from a nick in her ear, and the masked assailant dead on the floor.
Did he trip and shoot himself? Did someone hire him to kill Miss Blacklock? Why would anyone want Miss Blacklock dead?
~'~
It's a good book, and the Joan Hickson version is an excellent adaptation. It's well acted, rather enthralling, and kept me captivated all the way through. But I have a major issue with the story, or rather with one of the characters that really annoys me.
Massive spoilers under the cut.
The intended victim was never Miss Blacklock. She organised the whole thing because the assailant was aware of exactly who she was, and she didn't want to risk anyone becoming aware of that. The dead guy on the floor was the intended victim all along.
Basically, years before, Miss Blacklock had assumed the identity of her own sister (Letty) as her sister was due to inherit a fortune from a trust fund once a woman named Bella Goedler died. When Mr. Goedler died, his fortune was left in a trust to his wife (a chronic invalid) but, after, her death, it would pass to Letty, who'd been his secretary and right-hand woman. If Letty died before Bella, the money went to Goedler's estranged relatives.
Miss Blacklock and Letty were in Switzerland when Letty unexpectedly died. Miss Blacklock returned to England and settled in a quiet village while she waited for Bella Goedler to die and the fortune to come to her. Now it's a number of decades later and Miss Blacklock is still waiting.
Aside from how implausible it is (the plot really doesn't stand up to scrutiny), Miss Blacklock had enough money to return to England, buy a house with at least 7 bedrooms, support herself and 3 other people, and have a live in cook. Okay, she's got a lodger (a poor widow) but Miss Blacklock must have been fairly well off herself to start with and yet she thought assuming her sister's identity and avoiding pretty much everyone who'd ever known them well was a good idea. I know she couldn't realise Bella would live on and on, but still.
She's not even portrayed as stupid, mean, and grasping. It just bugs me that she was loaded to start with but she invested so much time and effort into trying to inherit a fortune she had no right to.
Aside from Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, there's John Castle as Detective Inspector Craddock, Kevin Whately as Detective Sergeant Fletcher, Ursula Howells as Miss Blacklock, David Collings as Reverend Harmon, and darling Joan Sims as Miss Murgatroyd.
The story runs thus: Miss Blacklock is astonished to read in the local newspaper that a murder is announced and it will take place in her sitting room that night at 7pm. Friends are urged to accept this, the only invitation.
Accordingly, her friends and neighbours turn up at her house, expectng a game of murder.
What they get is the lights going out at 7pm, a light being shone in their eyes, and three shots from a gun. The lights are turned back on and they find two bullet holes in the wall where Miss Blacklock was standing, Miss Blacklock covered in blood from a nick in her ear, and the masked assailant dead on the floor.
Did he trip and shoot himself? Did someone hire him to kill Miss Blacklock? Why would anyone want Miss Blacklock dead?
~'~
It's a good book, and the Joan Hickson version is an excellent adaptation. It's well acted, rather enthralling, and kept me captivated all the way through. But I have a major issue with the story, or rather with one of the characters that really annoys me.
Massive spoilers under the cut.
The intended victim was never Miss Blacklock. She organised the whole thing because the assailant was aware of exactly who she was, and she didn't want to risk anyone becoming aware of that. The dead guy on the floor was the intended victim all along.
Basically, years before, Miss Blacklock had assumed the identity of her own sister (Letty) as her sister was due to inherit a fortune from a trust fund once a woman named Bella Goedler died. When Mr. Goedler died, his fortune was left in a trust to his wife (a chronic invalid) but, after, her death, it would pass to Letty, who'd been his secretary and right-hand woman. If Letty died before Bella, the money went to Goedler's estranged relatives.
Miss Blacklock and Letty were in Switzerland when Letty unexpectedly died. Miss Blacklock returned to England and settled in a quiet village while she waited for Bella Goedler to die and the fortune to come to her. Now it's a number of decades later and Miss Blacklock is still waiting.
Aside from how implausible it is (the plot really doesn't stand up to scrutiny), Miss Blacklock had enough money to return to England, buy a house with at least 7 bedrooms, support herself and 3 other people, and have a live in cook. Okay, she's got a lodger (a poor widow) but Miss Blacklock must have been fairly well off herself to start with and yet she thought assuming her sister's identity and avoiding pretty much everyone who'd ever known them well was a good idea. I know she couldn't realise Bella would live on and on, but still.
She's not even portrayed as stupid, mean, and grasping. It just bugs me that she was loaded to start with but she invested so much time and effort into trying to inherit a fortune she had no right to.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-01 05:22 am (UTC)Another thing we have in common. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-03 03:25 pm (UTC)I've seen 2? seasons of the Father Brown mysteries. I liked them.
I like explaining crossovers too! <3