Good concept, poorly executed.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

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

Blistering performances.

Miss Marple is on holiday in the Caribbean, at the Golden Palms resort in St Honore. Seated beside her at a dinner, Major Palgrave seems to recognise in the crowd a murderer from a photograph he has. When Miss Marple quizzes him on is comments he refuses to be drawn on the subject and head back to his room. He is found the next day, dead, apparently from a heart attack. Due to the reaction he had the previous night, Miss Marple suspects it was murder.Reasonably intriguing mystery, with a great setting. The Caribbean vibe and the underlying current of voodoo and general sinister air help the intrigue. Not a particularly complex mystery ultimately, but it will do.The non-mystery side of the Miss Marple series tends to be pretty dull and uneventful, due to the blandness of Miss Marple's character and the fact that she has no regular secondary characters around her (unlike Poirot with Hastings, Japp and Lemon). However, here we have a reasonably interesting sub-plot involving Ian Fleming, the author, and how he struck upon the name of James Bond for the hero of his books. Unfortunately this sub-plot is quite brief, but it is reasonably entertaining.

This is the third filmed version of Agatha Christie's "A Caribbean Mystery"; I don't much recall the Joan Hickson version, but compared to the enjoyable 1983 version with Helen Hayes as Miss Marple, this new effort is significantly superior in one category only: the photography, which vibrantly captures the beauty of the locations. The film does have a Caribbean flavor, although it was shot in South Africa, and the 1950's-style swimsuits and cars are a sight for sore eyes. Knowing who the killer is before watching, I am not exactly qualified to say how hard or easy it will be for someone to guess his or her identity; I will say, however, that if you tend to suspect the character who is, suspiciously enough, never even considered under suspicion, you'll be on the right track! Julia McKenzie continues to excel as Miss Marple (she does A LOT of knitting in this one), while my favorite supporting performance has to be Hermione Norris as Evelyn; she just exudes the strength of her character. *** out of 4.

A really excellent episode opens this new Mackenzie season!The tropical atmosphere ,with hurricanes,voodoo and a very stuffy jungle is used perfectly for the creation of a compelling story,very faithful and with some clever new tricks added to the original.I liked particularly the accident about the murdered maid and her own zombie,used by Higson in a very clever way for giving an alibi to the murderer.I think it's the first time that zombies are used in a whodunit as a part of the murdering plot,and they have done it in a very subtle way,simple and particular in its own way.The directing is wonderful,the research of the murdered maid,the death of poor major Palgrave,the final discovery of the guilty party are particularly effective,as Bethany Cox has pointed out.Personally,I liked very much Webb as a caring husband,overwhelmed by his wife's madness.Charles Mesure was an excellent Dyson(I would have preferred it to Barnes-Worrell for Etienne De Sousa ,in Dead Man's Folly),and I liked too the smitten canon played by Rigby with a surprising romantic part at the very happy end.Of course Sher is the best of the lot, gruff,amusing and endearing,and he has a wonderful chemistry with Great Julia (the only reproach I could made to the Hickson version was the absolute lack of chemistry among Great Joan and Great Pleasence,two wonderful actors but in some way having in the movie no mutual empathy at all,I don't know why!) .Ford Davies is a sympathetic major and Norris a wife so strong,determined and highly dramatic that in some way wipes away completely her husband,poor Alastair Mackenzie,a good actor but in this case singularly bland and opaque.Higson is really a good new entry for the series.I hope he will pens other scripts with the same cleverness.Marple must not let us orphans too after Poirot's untimely death.We can't lose them both,someone must remain alive for carrying the holy torch of Agatha on ITV channel!New Marple seasons,please,it's mandatory!We want to see Julia in the Idol House of Astarte and in the Crooked House,under the Postern of Fate ,chasing N or M in a flashback prequel and tasting a swig of Sparkling Cyanide!

A Caribbean Mystery isn't among Agatha "The Queen of Crime" Christie's finest works, but even when Christie wasn't at her absolute best she was still pleasurable to read. Of the three adaptations of A Caribbean Mystery(very like with The Mirror Crack'd), I deem this one the best one, Joan Hickson's was very good if sometimes a little dull and I didn't care hugely for Helen Hayes' version. And it is for me one of the better adaptations with Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple(though The Blue Geranium, Pocket Full of Rye and The Mirror Crack'd are on top, with Why Didn't They Ask Evans the worst). It could have been improved certainly, the Ian Fleming part was fun in a way but felt out-of-place, Robert Webb does a decent enough job in his role but doesn't look as comfortable in a serious role than with the comedy that he is very gifted at, the voodoo sometimes got excessive and there are characters(Hillingdon and Jackson especially) that are given very little to do.There are things though that did come across as an improvement over the book. Lucky is much more interesting, and the method in how she died was less risky(fellow friends of mine who also love Agatha Christie argued that the way the murder was carried out in the book was too much of a risk and I actually agree). Molly is also more sympathetic, and the whole Victoria subplot actually helped make that come across as believable. Palgrave addressing everybody in telling his story was also a change that came off remarkably well, it did make it easier for the murderer to overhear what he's saying. As an adaptation, the adaptation is solidly done and generally faithful in spirit. There are changes of course but this is one such occasion where the changes actually made the storytelling better than distracting from it, in recent memory another adaptation that comes to mind in this respect was the Poirot adaptation of Elephants Can Remember. Where the adaptation succeeds even more is how well it works on its own.It is very well made, the tropical scenery is just beautiful and the most colourful easily of the three adaptations, and the photography adds to that quality. The music is rich and sensitively orchestrated, nothing overbearing or annoying. The dialogue is thoughtfully written and always engaging, I didn't feel that it was underdeveloped or too much talk. It feels like Christie's writing too which is another plus. The story is gripping and suspenseful, of this, Hickson's and Hayes' I found this one to be the best paced. The acting is excellent, Julia McKenzie is terrific as ever, less shrewish but charming and intelligent. In support, Hermione Norris' wonderfully cold Evelyn, Charity Wakefield's sympathetic Molly and Anthony Sher's touchingly played Rafiel(loved the final scene) stood out the most. Oliver Ford Davies is good in his appearance, his death scene was very cleverly staged and shot, and while the Dysons were slightly overplayed it didn't detract much at all.Overall, very well done on its own and solidly adapted, one of McKenzie's better outings. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox