Movie review – Marple#2 - “Murder at the Gallop” (1963) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The second of Margaret Rutherford’s Marple series seems intent on duplicating the success of Murder She Said right down to the details – we have the same jaunty music score (sped up a little), Charles Tingwell and Stringer David back, the same small town setting, another murder involving a squabbling family (with roughly the same number of suspects as before, including a foxy girl, a gay looking middle aged man and a comic fatty); the comic fatty (here Robert Morley) is never really a suspect and proposes to Marple at the end but she turns him down; the next best member of the support cast (Flora Robson) turns out to be the killer. It remains entertaining although it doesn’t have Rutherford going undercover like a maid. She does however do the twist in one scene.