Murder She Said (1961)

While traveling by train, a spinster (Margaret Rutherford) witnesses a woman being strangled on a train on a parallel track. When the police turn up nothing, she decides to take matters into her own hands and investigate. Based on 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON by Agatha Christie and directed by George Pollock. For die hard Christie fans, the film is almost a travesty of the novel. But Margaret Rutherford is so delightful as Christie's Miss Marple that you can forgive the fact that she doesn't resemble the book's Marple in the least! Not physically and not in temperament. The film is also infused with whimsy and humor which are not part of the novel or Miss Marple's nature. But the film was a popular success and spawned three more Marple movies with Rutherford. It's lightweight and charming but it's not Christie. That aside, it's a perfectly decent murder mystery. With Arthur Kennedy, James Robertson Justice, Muriel Pavlow, Charles Tingwell, Ronnie Raymond and Joan Hickson (who would go on to become the definitive Miss Marple on the BBC Miss Marple TV series).