Murder Ahoy!

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Murder Ahoy!
Directed by	George Pollock
Written by	David Pursall (screenplay) Jack Seddon (screenplay) Agatha Christie (motifs)
Starring	Margaret Rutherford Stringer Davis Lionel Jeffries Bud Tingwell
Music by	Ron Goodwin
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	1964
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English German
Preceded by	Murder Most Foul
IMDb profile

Murder Ahoy! is the last of four Miss Marple films, made by MGM and starring Margaret Rutherford. As in the three previous films, Margaret Rutherford plays Miss Jane Marple, Bud Tingwell is (Chief) Inspector Craddock and Stringer Davis (Rutherford's real-life husband) plays Mr Stringer.

The film was made in 1964 and directed by George Pollock, with David Pursall and Jack Seddon credited with the script. The music was by Ron Goodwin.

[edit] Plot

Unlike the previous three that were very loosely based on novels by Agatha Christie, this one was not and it employs an original screenplay. It does, however, borrow a few obscure plot details from They Do It with Mirrors (but otherwise bears no resemblance at all to that Miss Marple novel); and it pays at least nominal homage to Christie's long-running play, The Mousetrap.

The action takes places mainly on board an old wooden-walled battleship, HMS Battledore, which has been purchased by a Trust for the rehabilitation of young criminals, and intended by the founder to put backbone into young jellyfish.

Shortly after joining the board of management of the Trust, Miss Marple witnesses the sudden death of a fellow Trustee, who has just returned from a surprise visit to the ship. She manages to obtain a small sample of his snuff, which is found to have been poisoned. Against police advice, she visits the ship, much to the distress of the Captain and officers.

On her first night on board, one officer is murdered - run through with a sword and then hanged. As the police investigation proceeds, the assistant matron is killed, apparently by a poisoned mousetrap.

Who is behind the killings? And why? Is someone defrauding the Trust? Miss Marple reveals all!