Finally caught the last Margaret Rutherford (as Miss Marple) film that I had never seen. Ron Goodwins Marple Theme continues to delight. As does MR as a predecessor for Angela Lansburys Jessica Fletcher. At the end of Murder Most Foul after the murderer has been caught and all is well there is a short hospital scene. Doc Kildare doesn't attend the wounded but Ron G does a nice job of inserting Jerry G.s famous Doc's theme. All in all a double delight. Say AHHHHHH!!!
What's wrong with these people? Maybe they don't have idea who these people are or were. Well, thats it for me. I will never mention Margaret Rutherford again until I do so again. Same for Dr. Kildare only more so. Sorry I missed the last thread. This is the first time I have noticed this film as a rebroadcast in a while. For those ignoring us. Evelyn did it! Take that.
Part of the fun of watching the Miss Marple films was listening for the snippets of familiar tunes Goodwin weaves into the scores. Since these were MGM releases it would be great if FSM could release the scores for these four films, but I suspect that they were recorded in England and the tapes may no longer exist.
As a Britisher (I assume neither of you are) I have to say - especially as someone who grew-up through the 1960s - that Miss Marple ~ Margaret Rutherford ~ Ron Goodwin are like bread ~ butter ~ jam (jelly?).
We've known about them for years and there is nothing surprsing here. Perhaps that's the reason for the lack of response.
One or more of the (four) films appears quite regularly on TV (usually satelitte/cable), though the original (Murder, She Said - based on 4:50 From Paddington) is probably the least repeated.
My first recording of Mr. Goodwin's fabulous theme was his own re-recording included on his album Adventure which I first purchased (musicassette!) in about 1972. Since replaced on CD ... at least two versions and then, in Jul 01, I purchased his wonderful album Three Symphonic Suites one of which is his music to the said/... Said film(s) ... plus a stand-alone version of the main theme.
Back in the early 1980s I entered a radio competition (and won vinyl albums of Sharkey's Machine and The Border) for correctly identifying a piece of music ... it was Ron Goodwin's Miss Marple's Theme.
So, yes, the films and music are well-known and whilst I have no desire to watch those films again (though would always choose them over their modern TV interpretations) the music will flow from my hi-fi on many more occasions to come.
What's wrong with these people? Maybe they don't have idea who these people are or were. Well, thats it for me. I will never mention Margaret Rutherford again until I do so again. Same for Dr. Kildare only more so. Sorry I missed the last thread. This is the first time I have noticed this film as a rebroadcast in a while. For those ignoring us. Evelyn did it! Take that.
I wasn´t here the last time. But now I am and I can only say that I love these movies, all of them. Although the last "Murder Ahoy" is not that good... but Margaret Rutherford and her antics are always lovely to see. I consider these movies to be among my most beloved.
Besides the obvious goldsmith reference, has anyone noticed how gorgeous these films work with simple settings? Just a create the shadow of a windows out of nothing. Gorgeous.
Besides his excellent scores for the Miss Marple films there's also a lot of brilliant unreleased works from films for Morcombe & Wise, Norman Wisdom, Village of The Damned, Day Of The Triffids, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing....the list goes on.
I was fortunate to meet Mr Goodwin on a number of occasions, a lovely and generous man who was kind and patient enough to answer my stupid questions.
I was fortunate to meet Mr Goodwin on a number of occasions, a lovely and generous man who was kind and patient enough to answer my stupid questions.
top bloke.
I also love the miss marple films and their scores - we often get the odd screening on TCM or Film4 or Ch4. most recently I think at the gallop and ahoy were on in the afternoons.
I also love margaret rutherford in the Norman Wisdom film where she is the thief in the department store - where she lets the toy train go up her sleeve and helps herself to that other shopper's hat and walks off!!
also agreed timmer, that there is some utterly delicious music in the morecambe and wise films - riveira touch is just wonderful. And the norman W stuff of Ron's, say no more - I've banged on about what golddust this is for years, but mostly on deaf ears. That opening 11 minute sequence to The Early Bird is just film-music perfection.
Part of the fun of watching the Miss Marple films was listening for the snippets of familiar tunes Goodwin weaves into the scores. Since these were MGM releases it would be great if FSM could release the scores for these four films, but I suspect that they were recorded in England and the tapes may no longer exist.
Can anyone help me identify some more traditional tunes used in the Miss Marple films (I know "Rule Britannia" and "The Maid of Amsterdam", heard in "Murder Ahoy") please? For example, where does the opening horn motif from "Murder Ahoy" come from? Or is this Goodwin?
r.erkelenz - I think you'll find that the little horn motif which opens MURDER AHOY is a quote from "A Life on the Ocean Waves". Goodwin does a fuller rendition of it later on in the Main Titles. He also interpolates the Royal Navy march "Heart of Oak" ("Steady, boys, steady!") and I'm sure there are other little nautical quotes dotted throughout.
Love these movies too. I have all of them on DVD and a CD of Ron Goodwin music (re-recordings, of course) and the Miss Marple theme is really the only track I never tire of listening to.
Too bad they didn't make more of these films, but if they had there probably would have been pressure to start doing them in color and the black and white is one of the main factors in my liking them.
You know, I've thought about this for several years now... Why wasn't Elsa Lanchester ever roped in to doing somekind of Miss Marple thing in the sixties, you know, like an early version of "Murder, She Wrote"? It would have been great. Well, at least we have her spoofing it in MURDER BY DEATH.
r.erkelenz - I think you'll find that the little horn motif which opens MURDER AHOY is a quote from "A Life on the Ocean Waves". Goodwin does a fuller rendition of it later on in the Main Titles. He also interpolates the Royal Navy march "Heart of Oak" ("Steady, boys, steady!") and I'm sure there are other little nautical quotes dotted throughout.
Eric Rogers did a similar melange of British nautical themes (without the Miss Marple theme, of course!) for the Main Title of the previous year's "Carry on Jack".
When Goodwin prepared the 22-minute "Miss Marple Suite" for the Odense Symphony recording on Label X Germany (Richard Kummerfeldt), he had to watch the movies again and pencil down the scores from them (and from memory, of course). It's a shame that the originals are gone. But the Odense recordings is quite lovely, certainly better than Rumon Gamba's version of the Miss Marple Theme on the Chandos sampler, which is far too pop-oriented.
I saw each of these films during their original theatrical releases. My only complaint is there aren't more of them. Love Goodwin's music. Wish there were a CD release of his score to VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED.
Sometimes I don't come here from Friday afternoon through Monday morning. I cannot imagine what threads may have been born and died sudden deaths in the interim. I generally leave it up to others to sustain the threads so that I see them upon my return.
That said, anyone here who does not know who Margaret Rutherford is, who does not know who Miss Marple is, who does not know that Ron Goodwin scored films beyond "Battle of Britain" and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" should immediately investigate.
There is an appalling lack of curiousity afoot. Many folks seem to believe that if they haven't heard of someone then that someone must not be any good or important enough to investigate.
I blame "modern" education -- you know, the one that doesn't encourage curiousity, imagination, looking things up and reading, reading, reading.
Margaret Rutherford had a long career in British comedy. That career was given an international-stardom boost in the 1960s with the Miss Marple films and, as an adjunct, her Oscar-winning turn in "The V.I.P.s" (scored by Miklos Rozsa).
And for fans of David Lean films, she's absolutely delightful as Madam Ducati in "Blithe Spirit".
The Rutherford "Marples" were MGM "programmers" in England, they're far more popular in Germany and the Scandinavian countries (where the Goodwin theme even made the pop/easy listening charts!) than in the UK. In Germany, the four films are always shown in the Christmas season.
Sadly, George Pollock's other Agatha Christie mystery, "Ten Little Indians", made a year after the last Rutherford Marple, is much weaker - it suffers from terrible "international star casting" that includes the teenage pop singer Fabian. The music is not by Goodwin, but by Malcolm Lockyer (a jazz score). Also, at the same time, Frank Tashlin(!) directed "The Alphabet Murders" for MGM England, featuring Tony Randall(!!!) as Hercule Poirot. It was clearly an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Marple films - Margaret Rutherford and her real-life husband Stringer Davis (who also played her sidekick in the Marples - it was a stipulation Rutherford made to agree to starring in the four films) even have a short cameo in the Randall film. It too has a Goodwin score, and even though I've seen the film (many years ago) I have no recollection what the music is like.
Eric Rogers did a similar melange of British nautical themes (without the Miss Marple theme, of course!) for the Main Title of the previous year's "Carry on Jack".
I think both Goodwin and Rogers were inspired to do this due to the popularity of Sir Henry Wood's "Fantasia on British Sea Songs", which is a "Last Night of the Proms" standard.
