Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Robert J. Maxwell I've been trying to figure out why Miss Marple's mysteries tend to be sluggish while Hercule Poirot's are more engaging. Of course, Poirot himself is a more interesting and quirky character, what with his vanity, his gastronomic delicacy, his mustache wax. Poor Miss Marple has only her knitting, and not much of that.That aside, it occurs to me that Miss Marple is more often a passive but keen observer, giving advice. She doesn't do much. And the mystery is dependent on history. With Poirot -- and even in some of Agatha Christie's stories in which there is no obvious protagonist -- the conundrum is not so much "why" but "how"? How, for instance, can an inaccessible house wind up with ten dead people in it and no murderer to be found anywhere? "Sleeping Murder" boasts some fetching scenery. It's talky and dull but at least the talk goes on in some beautiful English gardens. You have never seen so many flowers, or so little action taking place among them.A blond, fair newly married young woman from New Zealand runs across a vacant house in Devonshire and talks her husband into buying it, but she soon begins to have flashbacks involving the house as it was a generation ago -- a hidden door behind the wallpaper, buried steps leading to the sea, a dead body at the bottom of the stairs.It takes the entire movie to unravel all the narrative threads, which I won't bother to describe because they take the plot into the byzantine. The thing could have been written by Dickens in a wanton mood. People stroll around in those gardens, everyone seems to know or have heard of everyone else, each contributes a bit to the story, characters come and go, and when the Big Reveal appears at the climax it comes as a complete surprise to those who have been driven to a mad frenzy like me. Miss Marple explains everything to the young couple. When Miss Marple began to lay out the threads, my clock read 24 minutes past the hour. She was finished at 25 minutes past the hour. Don't miss that final minute.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU Here Agatha Christie nearly becomes Gothic. A young couple comes back to England and buys a house on a fancy from the wife. And it so happens it is the house where she lived when very young before being sent to New Zealand where she spent her whole life. But it is also the house where her stepmother was assassinated just before she left. She is having strange recollections that are rather disturbing. So she decides to find out about her past in spite of the advice given to her by several people, including Miss Marple that the past should not be meddled with. And sure enough that will cost one more life and the capture of a criminal (once again at the cost of some staging). This story is special because these old Tudor houses are known to be built on strange layouts due to the practice in the past to have secret corridors and secret hiding places for religious difficult times that lasted up to the end of the 18th century, if not even later. But no matter how hard Agatha Christie hints at such a possibility in this Hillside house she manages to keep us away from the secret passage to some all the more secret dungeon with or without skeletons. But a body there is for sure, even if we do not see it.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

gridoon2018 Let's see, this is an Agatha Christie murder mystery (which teases you with the supernatural at the start, but of course AC did not believe in the supernatural). There is a major character, who is of the right age to have committed the murder, had the motive and the opportunity, but NEVER gets implicated in the investigation, while several other minor characters are considered as the definitive suspects. Do you by any chance suppose that he or she will turn out to be the real killer? I don't know if Christie's story was so obvious on paper, but on the screen I spotted the killer as soon as he appeared, never changed my mind until the end, and I was actually right - something which happens in only about 10% of the mysteries I watch! Otherwise, this film is well-made, with an engaging performance by the lovely Geraldine Alexander, and a tense climax. Miss Marple herself is not the central character is this one, which works out fine. (**1/2)

Iain-215 'Sleeping Murder' is one of the best of the BBC Hickson Marple adaptations in my opinion. It looks wonderful and has a top notch cast headed by the excellent Hickson herself as the elderly sleuth. The music is also particularly good and atmospheric - the bit where Gwenda comes across the 'poppies and cornflowers' wallpaper is fantastic with great crashing organ chords.This is much more faithful in style to the novel than the newer McEwen version. Geraldine Alexander is very appealing as Gwenda (though Sophia Myles is also superb for McEwen), the various suitors for Helen are well done and there's a brilliant cameo performance from Jean Anderson as the bossy Mrs Fane. Frederick Treves hams it up a bit as James Kennedy (his Scottish accent is pretty dreadful) and James Moulder-Brown is a bit wooden as Giles.Highly recommended and one of the best.