Killer ahoy!

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Movie
German title Killer ahoy!
Original title Murder Ahoy
Country of production GB
original language English
Publishing year 1964
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director George Pollock
script David Pursall
Jack Seddon
production Lawrence P. Bachmann
music Ron Goodwin
camera Desmond Dickinson
cut Ernest Walter
occupation
synchronization

Killer ahoy! is a British crime film from 1964. As the only one of the four Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford , it is not based on a novel by the English author Agatha Christie . However, motifs from Fata Morgana (in the original: They Do It with Mirrors ) were used.

action

After the death of her uncle, Miss Marple inherits his mandate in the Foundation for the Improvement of Youth in Milchester founded by her grandfather . During the annual board of trustees meeting, board member Ffolly-Hardwicke breaks down dead with heart failure just as he finally wants to speak and takes a pinch of snuff . Miss Marple, the new member of the board of trustees, does not believe in a natural death, because shortly before his death, the deceased had to raise an urgent matter concerning the foundation. The hobby detective noticed two strange circumstances: the missing contents of the dead man's valuable snuffbox and an open window in the room facing the fire escape. Inspector Craddock, however, does not believe in a crime in spite of the strange events.

Miss Marple's suspicions remain. With specific chemical poison detection, Miss Marple finally finds traces of strychnine in a residue of the snuff that the perpetrator had overlooked. As an avid detective novel reader, she also realizes that the murder follows the scheme of the book The Death Box (in the original: The Doom Box ), which she knows from her own library. Since the member of the Board of Trustees last carried out an inspection visit on the foundation's own sailing ship HMS Battledore , Miss Marple now also decides to look for the motive for the murder on board the Battledore with the support of Mr. Stringer, who remains on land for the time being .

However, she is not welcomed on board, and in particular her wish to spend the night on the ship in order to continue her investigations there is only reluctantly tolerated. After the first investigations, it quickly becomes clear that there is a gang of thieves on board who are breaking into the land. Two more murders also happened. Eventually even Mr. Stringer, who thwarted the intruders' plans by stealing their dinghy, came under suspicion.

During her research in the ship's library , Miss Marple also finds a copy of the book The Death Box , which apparently served as a guide for the first murder. The circle of suspects begins to narrow. Nevertheless, Inspector Craddock, who is now officially investigating the two other murders, is groping in the dark during his investigation without the help of Miss Marple. Only when Miss Marple accidentally recognizes the motive for the first act, can she set a trap for the murderer, albeit one that is life-threatening for her, and convict Commander Breeze-Connington. Over the years he had given the number of boys on board too high to receive additional funds from the foundation and to suppress them. The murdered Ffolly-Hardwicke had discovered this fraud.

German version

The German synchronized editing was created in 1965 in the MGM synchronization studio in Berlin .

Trivia

  • Killer ahoy! is the last of a total of four Miss Marple films with Margaret Rutherford in the lead role. Margaret Rutherford and Stringer Davis stepped into their roles again in a short sequence in the Poirot film The ABC Murders ( The Alphabet Murders , 1965) with Tony Randall in the lead role on.
  • The script comes from the two authors David Pursall and Jack Seddon, who were also responsible for editing the templates at 4:50 p.m. from Paddington and Four Women and a Murder .
  • The actor of Lt. Compton , Francis Matthews, later starred in the television series Paul Temple , based on novels by the writer Francis Durbridge .
  • Gerald Cross , performer Lieutenant Commander Dimchurch, set in 16:50 from Paddington the role of Albert Ackenthorpe .
  • Gordon Harris , who portrayed Sergeant Bacon in the first two films in this series , has been replaced by the much younger Terence Edmond.
  • The important for the plot book The Doom Box by the author J. Plantaganet Corby , in which the murders are described, was invented for the film. Neither the title nor the author actually exist.
  • The name Dusty Miller was changed to Heller Miller in the German dubbing . The name change is particularly noticeable in the German version in the scene in which Miss Marple is writing down a message on a piece of paper that she received through a light signal. In the scene, the viewer sees the text “Job Must Be Done Tonight, Dusty” faded in in large format, while the German tone “Thing must be turned today, Heller” can be heard.
  • On German television there was a murderer ahoy! first seen on March 21, 1970 at 8:15 p.m. on ZDF.
  • The scenes playing on the deck of the fictional HMS Battledore were filmed on the four-masted barque Peking , which at that time was serving as a stationary training ship in Great Britain under the name Arethusa .

music

The soundtrack for these Miss Marple films is by Ron Goodwin . The theme song has appeared on various LPs and CDs. A suite from the films is available on the CD The Miss Marple Films , Label X LXE 706. Musically remarkable is the night scene on board, leaving their cars in the first Miss Marple, then several other crew members and seek surreptitiously other rooms (the scene ends with the death of a female crew member): The background music has the form of a fugue in which every appearance of a new person is accompanied by the use of a new instrument. The murderer is treated separately and thus highlighted. When Commander Breeze-Connington appears, the transverse flute plays the 3rd theme entry. It is the only wind instrument in the exposition of the fugue. Miss Marple takes refuge behind a curtain after checking the poison cabinet. The doctor enters, with the theme played by the vibraphone. At the moment when the medicine cabinet with a bottle of poison can be seen, a false insert of the topic sounds in the flute, which was previously clearly assigned to Breeze-Cunnington.

The original voice of Margaret Rutherford can also be heard in the German version of this film when, somewhat idiosyncratically, she performed the performance of Rule, Britannia! sings along.

DVD

Miss Marple: DVD box with all four films with Margaret Rutherford (multiple editions). In a first four-box from Warner Home Video from 2003, however, all of the films are not in the original widescreen version on the DVDs. Only killer ahoy! is contained approximately in the original format of 1.66: 1. In a new edition of the four-box from Warner in 2006, the films have been digitally revised and this time - in contrast to the information on the packaging - in the format of 1.78: 1. The difference between the two editions is that the image of the first edition (and the previous TV broadcasts) is cropped at the sides, but contains more information at the top and bottom of the image (which seems to indicate an open-matte version ), while the image of the New edition is trimmed at the top and bottom of the picture, but offers more picture information on the sides. Both versions therefore differ from the original format.

Reviews

  • "Humorous and exciting entertainment, unfortunately staged too routine (...)." - " Lexicon of international film " (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997
  • “A plus point, (…): the absolute lack of amateurism in cast and direction. From the saleswoman in the opening scene to the vagabond, you can find types, each of whom could carry a film alone. (...) Almost even more surprising than the solution to the case is the announcement of the fourteen-year love affair between the lisping captain and the chief steward. ”- Süddeutsche Zeitung , Munich
  • “Without hard realism and without sophisticated construction, in terms of design only solid craftsmanship, the film lives entirely from the central figure. Margaret Rutherford, an Anglo-Saxon Sandrock type, is indeed a treat in itself! This time, too, she was very cleverly given an equal actor among the interchangeable roles, after James Robertson Justice and Robert Morley now Lionel Jeffries. "- Film observer
  • "The plot can safely be silly and not very logical - if you like Miss Marple, you still have fun." - Hamburger Abendblatt
  • “(...) only has to do with motifs from Christie stories in places. Nevertheless (…) [the film] is amused as usual thanks to the deliciously quirky protagonist. ”- Berliner Zeitung
  • "Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple in the usual mysterious circumstances (...)." (Rating: average) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 585
  • "The film has a few dead spots, but in the end boredom lies on the planks of a crazy ship, struck by the comedy." - Abendpost (Frankfurt am Main)

literature

  • Georg Seeßlen : George Pollock and the British Miss Marple films. In another: Murder in the cinema. History and mythology of the detective film. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-499-17396-4
  • Klaus F. Rödder: They have their methods - we have ours, Mr. Stringer: Dame Margaret Rutherford - In the footsteps of Miss Marple . Bösche Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-923809-87-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Bräutigam : Lexicon of film and television synchronization. More than 2000 films and series with their German voice actors, etc. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-289-X , p. 265 / Mörder ahoy! in the German dubbing index; Retrieved September 24, 2007
  2. ↑ Christine Hieber: The PEKING as ARETHUSA. In: peking-freunde.de. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .

Web links