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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. All of these films have aired on TCM -- possibly annually (on Christie's birthday and/or Rutherford's birthday).
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Word of mouth soon turned it into an enormous hit. The second Rutherford / Miss Marple - "Murder at the Gallop" went out as the main feature, and was another big hit. All four were inexpensively produced, compact b/w features, i.e. programmers. The term has long been used as a synonym for B-pictures in general. I sometimes ask people I meet in England about them, but except for some older fellows few seem to know them. In Germany and Denmark, everybody (!) knows the Rutherford Marples.
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I share the very profound wish that the honourable Mr. Goodwin's "Miss Marple" music were released on CD. As I said before, a substantial 22-minute suite, covering material from several of the films (for the Main Title they use the version from "Murder Ahoy" with those shanty tune quotes), was recorded by Goodwin himself with The Odense Symphony Orchestra for Label X Germany in the early 1990s. It's a fine performance, and it covers many of the more "autonomous" cues. The soundtrack tapes are gone forever, they were destroyed a long time ago.
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