Every time she wrote a book based on a nursery rhyme,Agatha Christie released one of her best :"hickory Dickory death" "the crooked house" "five little pigs" "a pocketful of rye " ...and the all time murder mystery best seller "and then were none" was entirely based on "ten little n....." "A pocketful of rye" is certainly one of the most underrated Christie's books.It's perhaps the only one which ends with Miss Marple on the verge of tears ,a scene which was kept in the episode,with the fateful photograph.Besides ,the film begins with Miss Marple and Gladys ,so as to make us feel how Marple cares for her simple-minded servant.
In the book ,Miss Marple appears relatively late in the plot,and most of the time ,she works behind the scenes ;whereas the inspector goes on questioning the numerous suspects,the old maid just watches them,and has conversations ,often which bear no connection with the crimes .Mrs Christie shows her sense of humor when she depicts her heroine explaining the solution to the cop as a teacher would teach arithmetic to a studious pupil.
One of the characters,the old aunt,has been removed ,but the movie does not suffer for it ,because this lady who spends her time playing patience ,lives in another world.On the other hand,it was necessary to keep the old crazy McKenzie woman (and the news item about the uranium deposits which is read by Marple at the beginning-and not by the inspector-) By and large,the book is very faithful to the novel.Two brief crude sex scenes were not really relevant (we do know that the Young attractive Mrs Fortescue is her golf teacher's lover without it).
Julia McKenzie is a marvelous Marple .But other actors stand out: Rose Hainey in the thankless part of Gladys ,brittle,naive ,victim of a cruel world ,who desperately stammers when she is questioned ;Helen Baxendale as the mysterious cold Mary Dove (more a hawk than a dove ,in fact).Ralf Little ,as the unfortunate sergeant fond of chocolates,a good comic relief .Rupert Graves ,the young gay in Ivory's remarkable "Maurice" ,is exactly as Mrs Christie describes Lancelot:handsome,charming and cheerful.
This is certainly one of the best episodes in the brilliant Marple series,because the plot was complex,and the screenplay well written .
NB :"sing a song of sixpence"(....)influenced John Lennon for two songs: "cry baby cry" (the White Album) ,and mainly "clean up time" (Double fantasy),which has almost the same lines about the king and the queen.
In the book ,Miss Marple appears relatively late in the plot,and most of the time ,she works behind the scenes ;whereas the inspector goes on questioning the numerous suspects,the old maid just watches them,and has conversations ,often which bear no connection with the crimes .Mrs Christie shows her sense of humor when she depicts her heroine explaining the solution to the cop as a teacher would teach arithmetic to a studious pupil.
One of the characters,the old aunt,has been removed ,but the movie does not suffer for it ,because this lady who spends her time playing patience ,lives in another world.On the other hand,it was necessary to keep the old crazy McKenzie woman (and the news item about the uranium deposits which is read by Marple at the beginning-and not by the inspector-) By and large,the book is very faithful to the novel.Two brief crude sex scenes were not really relevant (we do know that the Young attractive Mrs Fortescue is her golf teacher's lover without it).
Julia McKenzie is a marvelous Marple .But other actors stand out: Rose Hainey in the thankless part of Gladys ,brittle,naive ,victim of a cruel world ,who desperately stammers when she is questioned ;Helen Baxendale as the mysterious cold Mary Dove (more a hawk than a dove ,in fact).Ralf Little ,as the unfortunate sergeant fond of chocolates,a good comic relief .Rupert Graves ,the young gay in Ivory's remarkable "Maurice" ,is exactly as Mrs Christie describes Lancelot:handsome,charming and cheerful.
This is certainly one of the best episodes in the brilliant Marple series,because the plot was complex,and the screenplay well written .
NB :"sing a song of sixpence"(....)influenced John Lennon for two songs: "cry baby cry" (the White Album) ,and mainly "clean up time" (Double fantasy),which has almost the same lines about the king and the queen.