Marple - At Bertram's Hotel - 2007

A complicated one, there was everything in it: murderers, thieves, spies, organizations, even Nazi criminals and Nazi-hunters, and of course so many people I had trouble putting together faces and names. It all starts with Miss Marple (Geraldine McEwan) staying for a nice little holiday at the Bertram's Hotel that she remembers from when she was a little girl ( I think in the book she was older and interested in boys). A lot of things going on there: she meets her friend Lady Selina Hazy (Francesca Annis) who is secretly quite broke and will be disappointed to know that her late cousin left her nothing so her last chance is to sell her mother's precious necklace (just one necklace? how long can that money last? At least she'll be spared Bertram's bill, I guess); there's young Elvira Blake (Emily Beecham) the heiress, who's going to inherit a third of her late father's fortune, and her dear friend Brigit (Mary Nighy) whose right arm is useless since she contracted polio swimming in contaminated waters (Elvira had insisted in going swimming but then she stayed out of the water reading and now feels guilty and responsible); Lady Bess Sedgwick (Polly Walker) hasn't seen her daughter Elvira in six years, and has always been quite distant to keep her safe (she was a spy, or something like that), and she's to inherit another third of her ex-husband's fortune (the rest to some charity foundation).
Who else is there.. a couple of twins, who turn out to be jewel thieves, but once found out they'll give Selina's necklace back (found out because they wear their watches on different wrists, since-very conveniently- one is left-handed and the other right-handed. While one was stealing, the other impersonated both of them, changing the hand that held the newspaper or the hat and of course the clothes, but they didn't think of the watch. A bit silly, frankly); there's a nazi hunter, a nazi criminal posing as canon Pennyfather and a hatter who actually does all the nazi-hunting while the other man does nothing. The hatter recognizes a painting that was stolen from his father's house, he takes pictures of all the guests and sends them to someone who can identify the criminal and finally he's the one who points his finger to canon Pennyfather.
Who else.. a jazz singer: the hotel was not only protecting war criminals, it was also a base for selling stolen paintings, and the singer bought one. Basically all the paintings at Bertram's were real, but everybody believed they were fakes because they were hung on the walls with nonchalance, in plain sight. The lawyer who had been entrusted with the fortune of Lady Sedgwick's late husband was not only stealing from it, but also part of the stolen-paintings-business. I think that covers them all.
Now to the murders. First, a maid is strangled: Tilly, who had more money that a maid could have because she was blackmailing someone. Then doorman Micky Gorman is killed in a shooting, while trying to protect someone (did he think it was Bess?). He was Bess' first husband, but they never divorced; now, I know Elvira knew of his existence because of some letters that she found, but how did she know that there never was a divorce? Well, anyway, she was afraid to lose her inheritance, so she killed Micky and Tilly who blackmailed her (yes, Tilly learned it from Micky, so she probably told Elvira to blackmail her.. yes, it's all quite alright).
Elvira was helped by Brigit, so Elvira was the shooter up at the window, and Brigit was in the street pretending to be her. Elvira ran down dressed as a maid, because "nobody takes notice of the staff" ... how sad..
When they exchanged place, again nobody noticed they used the gun with different hands (Elvira the right one, Brigit obviously the left one).
To "help Miss Marple" in the investigation we have inspector Larry Bird (Stephen Mangan), quite nice, and Jane Cooper (Martine McCutcheon) a maid quite brilliant. At the end, they'll go live together, and maybe she'll apply to become a police officer, since "times are changing" :-)
There's a useless gag of Lewis Armstrong practicing at the hotel quite loudly, that was totally unnecessary.
One last thing: I haven't seen all the films (15-16 so far) but I think Stephen Mangan is my favourite policeman right after John Hannah, I liked him here :-)


ITA Miss Marple al Bertram Hotel