This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Let's be realistic.

Beautiful, moving film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

SYNOPSIS: As a newly appointed trustee of a youth reclamation program, Miss Marple hunts down a killer who is hiding amongst the personnel of a naval training ship. NOTES: Fourth and final entry in the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple series. Oddly, although shown intact abroad, the movie was never released in the United Kingdom in its original form. Instead, it was slashed down to 74 minutes to provide second-feature fodder. COMMENT: The last and best of the series, this one combines Margaret Rutherford in full flight and director Pollock at his finest form with a screenplay that neatly intertwines mystery, suspense, comedy and character in a tantalizing setting. A frothy mix of sleuthing and suspense, madness and mishap, the script is further aided by a terrific cast of veterans including Lionel Jeffries (an absolute howl as the put-upon captain), plus the lovely Norma Foster and cameos from the likes of Miles Malleson and Henry Oscar. Ron Goodwin's music score is a joy, Desmond Dickinson's photography a delight, and even, as stated, George Pollock has risen to the occasion with handling that is never less than highly professional and even occasionally exhibits traces of genuine style. I also enjoyed Stringer Davis who makes the most of a role in which he has actually something to do, rather than simply prop up his wife (Rutherford) as in the preceding entries. Here he is presented not just as her straight man, but as a comedian who is patently amusing in his own right. A SECOND VIEW: Despite Pollock's routine and occasionally inept direction (too many close-ups, for example, plus camera set-ups that refuse to edit smoothly and the inept use of an obvious double for Miss Marple in the boat), this entry makes for a reasonably intriguing mystery thriller. Admittedly, most of the comedy falls flat (especially the encounters between Rutherford and the over-reacting Tingwell), though Lionel Jeffries manages to impart a bit of freshness to his hackneyed lines and a smidgin of polish to his equally stale routines. The mystery itself, however, and its novel background setting, are cleverly contrived, even though the identity of the murderer will disappoint most viewers. All the same, the climax does possess a welcome flourish. The heroine is attractive, although her part is minimal (as indeed are all the support roles with the exceptions of Jeffries, Davis and Tingwell). Production values look quite lavish by British "B" standards. Eye-pleasing sets, atmospheric photography and Ron Goodwin's zippy music score prove big assets.

This is the third (out of four) Agatha Christie adaptations starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple that I've seen and, even though I wasn't too keen on the depiction of the all-knowing small-town spinster since the first film already, it never really bothered me that much until now. Mrs. Rutherford was a great actress and she surely put a lot of devotion into her role of Miss Marple, but to me she never should have been a headstrong, boisterous and intrusive woman. From the many books, I know Miss Marple as a timid and fragile little old lady who's always right and much more intelligent than everybody else, but she modestly remains at the sideline to solve the crimes. In the film series, she more of an imposing hag and her intellect doesn't come so much from observation and deduction, but from nosing around and reading detective novels. It also didn't help that "Murder Ahoy" isn't based on an existing Agatha Christie novel but works from an original screenplay. There are references towards famous writings, for example "The Mouse Trap", but the setting and story twists clearly aren't from the hand of the almighty Queen of Crime. Miss Marple is welcomed as a new trustee of a ship on which juvenile delinquents are rehabilitated into potent young mariners, but during her first board meeting a fellow trustee is ingeniously killed via poisoned snuff. He looked like he was about to reveal a discovery he made during the last inspection of the ship, and so Miss Marple goes aboard with intention to figure out what secret was important enough to kill another man. The crew of the HMS Battledore isn't very happy to have her on board, and particularly Captain De Courcy wants her off as soon as possible, but Miss Marple's suspicion proves to be right when she and Mr. Springer discover that people are secretly leaving the ship at night for unknown reasons. I am possibly prejudiced because the story isn't based on a Christie novel, but I found it difficult to get into the plot and feel any sympathy for the characters. I prefer the murders to be committed in St. Mary Mead, where Miss Marple is much more at home than on a military vessel. She also doesn't any real investigating, but solves the crime by reading a book she found in the ship's library and one that the killer undoubtedly read as well. There isn't any suspense or mystery, not even during the confrontation with the culprit at the end. The one and only true strong point of "Murder Ahoy" is Lionel Jeffries' wildly enthusiast performance as Captain De Courcy-Rhumstone. What a brilliant but sadly underrated actor he was.

Murder Ahoy was the last of the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple movies I hadn't seen and I taped this when BBC 2 screened recently one afternoon while I was on holiday.In this one, Miss Marple goes aboard HMS Battledore to investigate a murder on there. Her friend, Mr Stringer helps out by staying in a hotel overlooking the bay where the Battledore is anchored. More murders take place and at one point, Miss Marple becomes of the murder suspects. He finally gets caught at the end after a sword fight with Miss Marple!The rest of the cast includes Lionel Jefferies (First Men In the Moon), Charles Tingwell, Stringer Davies (Rutherford's real life husband), Nichalas Parsons (Sale of the Century) and Derek Nimmo. Good parts from all.If you like mysteries, then you will enjoy this. Great fun.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

I can't praise the opening theme by Ron Goodwin enough . If it doesn't get your feet tapping it's only because you've had your legs amputated or your ears cut off . It's amazing that Goodwin's theme to the MGM Ms Marple movies weren't nominated at any of the more prestigious film awards . In fact it's somewhat criminal that the only major award nomination Goodwin ever received was for FRENZY where he was nominated for a Golden Globe The rest of Goodwin's score might be criticised for being intrusive but like Sergei Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf it need not apologise for telling the audience how they should feel . I'm afraid however that Goodwin probably deserved a better film because MURDER AHOY is camp nonsense mainly down to David Pursall and Jack Seddon's original screenplay , a screenplay that Agatha Christie herself didn't like hence didn't allow MGM to produce anymore original movies featuring Ms Marple and you can see her point , I mean the sword fight is just laughable . I also guess that in 1964 audiences in Britain were getting fed up with these quaint very English murder mysteries and were far more interested in an anti-hero like James Bond