Tuesday, November 17, 2015

November 17 - At Bertram's Hotel

Today’s motion picture is a mystery film with scenes that happen on November 17. Watch and enjoy this movie tonight.

AT BERTRAM’S HOTEL     

On November 17, 1958 [00:45 to 28:19] super detective and spinster Miss Jane Marple arrives for a stay at the posh Bertram’s Hotel. Also staying there is the adventuress Bess Sedgwick and a forgetful clergyman, Canon Pennyfather. By coincidence Col. Luscombe brings his ward young Elvira Blake, who is the daughter Bess Sedgwick abandoned years ago to stay there. Both Elvira and her mother are involved (unknown to each other) with the racecar driver Ladislaus Malinowski. Elvira meets her mother, who again rejects her. Jane Marple overhears conversations Bess Sedgwick has with the commissionaire, Michael Gorman and with Ladislaus. Elvira, who also overheard the conversation with Gorman sneaks off for a day. Canon Pennyfather discovers he should have left for his conference the day before. Chief Inspector Davy is suspicious of the happenings at Bertrams. Canon Pennyfather apparently returns to the hotel and then vanishes. The Irish mail train is robbed. Elvira learns about her money and then has a meeting with Ladislaus, which is observed by Miss Marple, who tells Col. Luscombe. The police begin investigating Canon Pennyfather’s disappearance, but he turns up after a witness saw him at the scene of the train robbery. Canon Pennyfather reveals he saw his doppelganger when he returned to the hotel before being knocked out. Mickey Gorman is killed. Inspector Davy and Miss Marple confront Bess Sedgwick, who confesses that she, in conjunction with Ladislaus, led a group of criminals who impersonated the well-known guests at Bertrams to commit robberies and used the American guests to smuggle the proceeds to America. She also confesses to killing Michael Gorman. She tries to flee and is killed in a car crash. Elvira Blake, who really killed Gorman after discovering that her mother had been married to Gorman years ago, is arrested. She feared that since her parent’s later marriage was invalid as her mother and Gorman never divorced, she wouldn’t inherit the money her dead father had left her.       

Miss Marple Meets Murder by Agatha Christie (Nelson Doubleday, Inc., Garden City, NJ, 1980) at page 343 gives the date of Miss Marple’s arrival at Bertrams.     

Producer – George Gallaccio

Director – Mary McMurray

Screenwriter – Jill Hyem

Runtime – 1 hour 40 minutes

Released – January 25, 1987

Starring – Joan Hickson as Jane Marple, Caroline Blakiston as Bess Sedgwick, Joan Greenwood as Selina Hazy, George Baker as Chief Inspector Fred Davy, James Cossins as Col. Luscombe, Helena Michell as  Elvira Blake, Irene Sutcliffe as Miss Gorringe, Preston Lockwood as Canon Pennyfather, Brian McGrath as Michael Gorman, Robert Reynolds as Ladislaus Malinowski,  Peter Baldwin as Mr. Humphries
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015




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