Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

A Disappointing Continuation

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Those are the two glaring complaints I have about A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY, a made for TV movie which dawdles on for a long time before getting to the point of a series of murders committed at a vacation resort.Helen Hayes, her American accent intact, still makes a passable Miss Marple even when she utters the name of a quaint village in England as her home, St. Mary Mead. Barnard Hughes is the mean-spirited man whose rudeness becomes a bit overdone after the first few scenes, making you wish he's going to be one of the victims. Not so. He and Miss Marple join forces to solve the crime.The conclusion is rushed through with brief explanations and not much dramatic conflict, so it's a bit of a letdown--although the murderer's identity is never hard to guess. The acting ranges from competent to barely competent, but the script is rather mediocre.Recommended for rabid Christie fans only. Nicely photographed with Santa Barbara, California filling in for the Caribbean, but this is very tepid stuff, to say the least, nowhere as good as other Christie outings.

This is a pretty poorly made TV movie typical of the early 80s, with an overly syrupy score and bland cinematography and awful acting by everyone under the age of 60. So it can be taken as proof of Agatha Christie's genius that a straightforward telling of one of her stories is pretty enjoyable even when done by hacks. The best part is watching the way Miss Marple manipulates the situation, pulling the strings of those around her while managing to seem harmless and perhaps dotty. In spite of her floating accent, Hayes makes an excellent Miss Marple, and Hughes and Evans are also quite good. The rest of the acting varies from mediocre to truly incompetent, but the story is strong enough to survive. The ending is unfortunately weak and feels as though it was rushed through, so the feeling of satisfaction one gets in a Christie book is sadly lacking, but overall it's pretty watchable, and I give it 6/10, which is about as much as you can give something filmed with the care of an episode of MacMillan and Wife.

Helen Hayes just doesn't cut it.Rather than going the whole hog and playing Miss Marple as an American, she plays her as an Englishwoman. This is a mistake,since her accent veers from deep south of USA to England via Ireland. In short, her accent is all over the place.Her lines are also peppered with Americanisms which no British person would ever say. Two examples:1) She refers to "tourist class" when British people call it "economy class".2) She says she's going to "mail" some postcards, when a genuinely British person say "post", not "mail".Two minor examples, I know, but they add to a general feeling that this Miss Marple is as British as a fudge brownie. All the references to her hometown of St. Mary Mead in England can't change that.Another point is that Santa Barbara is not in the slightest bit convincing as a stand-in for the Caribbean. The one shot of a caribbean town, Havana perhaps, is obviously grainy archive footage.Steer clear of this poorly made rubbish, and watch the BBC productions starring Joan Hickson instead.

Cable TV here has just shown the two versions back to back. I prefer this one as the more 'solid and faithful' even though the British version has the great Joan Hickson and a strong supporting cast. This version has the great merit of sticking to the story with no fancy touches (or overacting). It's been updated (to the 80s from the 50s) but the cast have the right kind of glitter and vivid beachwear (and big hair).This US Christie series often looks like Agatha played by the cast of Dallas - appropriately enough since she often wrote about people who didn't need to work thanks to Daddy's money! xxxxxxx