Endless Night

There are some new Miss Marple episodes being produced, including a version of Endless Night (a novel, by the way, without Miss Marple). It's not a Christie I've read so I checked it out. It's a late book, from 1967, and much more of a psychological suspense tale than a standard whodunit. The murder occurs very late, usually something that bothers me, but the book was still good, the ending both unexpected and supremely creepy.

The book, apparently one of Dame Agatha's favorites, was adapted into a movie in 1972. It starred Hywell Bennett and Hayley Mills as the young married couple that build a dream house on supposedly cursed land.

It's a pretty cheesy movie but I like Hywell Bennett's performance and it does have a score by Bernard Herrmann, though not one of his best.

Hywell and Hayley

Also upcoming for a Miss Marple adaptation is the short story "Greenshaw's Folly." It's a pretty terrific story with a classic, "impossible" murder. What most excites me, however, is the casting of Kimberley Nixon as Louisa Oxley. Nixon, from the very funny TV series "Fresh Meat," is my new favorite actress. She has impeccable comic timing, a great face, and a style of acting that makes me think of the 1930's. If she'd been around then, she'd have been a big star. Think Madeleine Carroll, or Margaret Lockwood in The Lady Vanishes.

Kimberley Nixon in Easy Virtue