Mystery & Puzzle

Michael Rogers (Hywel Bennett) is a chauffeur with little money, but big dreams. Foremost of these is building his dream house on the perfect piece of land. Michael gets his chance when his new girlfriend, Ellie Thomsen (Hayley Mills), turns out to be an extremely wealthy heiress. The two are wed and are soon living in a modern house on Gipsy's Acre. Their idyllic life shatters around them with a series of bizarre events and threats. Micheal comes under the disapproving eye of Ellie's greedy family and her interfering best friend Greta (Britt Ekland). On top of that, local legend says their property is cursed. What danger lurks for the young newlyweds, and is it a human plot or something supernatural?

To make Sidney's slump all the more painful, Clifford Anderson, a student of one of Sidney's writing seminars, has recently sent his mentor a copy of his first attempt at playwrighting for Sidney's review and advice. The play, "Deathtrap", is a five character, two-act thriller so perfect in its construction that, as Sidney says, "A gifted director couldn't even hurt it." Using his penchant for plot, and out of his desperate desire to once again be the toast of Broadway, Sidney, along with Myra, cook up an almost unthinkable scheme: They'll lure the would-be playwright to the Bruhl home, kill him, and market the sure-fire script as Sidney's own. But shortly after Clifford arrives, it's clear that things are not what they seem. Even Helga Ten Dorp, a nosey psychic from next door, and Porter Milgram, Sidney's observant attorney, can only speculate where the line between truth and deception lies.

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot's vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple's idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping Egyptian desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating jealousy features a cosmopolitan group of impeccably dressed travelers, and enough wicked twists and turns to leave audiences guessing until the final, shocking denouement.

Agatha Christie's classic whodunit speeds into the twenty-first century. World-famous sleuth Hercule Poirot has just finished a case in Istanbul and is returning home to London onboard the luxurious Orient Express. But, the train comes to a sudden halt when a rock slide blocks the tracks ahead. And all the thrills of riding the famous train come to a halt when a man discovered dead in his compartment, stabbed nine times. The train is stranded. No one has gotten on or gotten off. That can only mean one thing: the killer is onboard, and it is up to Hercule Poirot to find him.

The old and wealthy Mr. Enderby (

Based on the Dame Agatha Christie novel, our favorite Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov), is on a cruise up the Nile. He is surrounded by an interesting assortment of characters, including a wealthy heiress and her husband, on their honeymoon. It appears that everyone hates the heiress.

Miss Jane Marple's (Dame Margaret Rutherford's) on-board a train when she sees what appears to to be, a murder - a woman being strangled - in a passing train. When the Police refuse to believe her story, she decides to do some investigating of her own. In this, Rutherford's first appearance (as well as her first on-screen appearance) as Dame Agatha Christie's beloved sleuth. Though fans of the stories can see instantly see that Dame Margaret Rutherford does not fit Dame Agatha Christie's physical description of her, and Dame Agatha was not a fan with the casting decision - at first. But, when the two women met, they became big admirers of each other (Christie even dedicated one of her books; "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" - to her "friend, Margaret Rutherford".

Although the evidence appears to be overwhelming in the strangulation murder of a blackmailer, Miss Jane Marple's (Dame Margaret Rutherford's) sole "not guilty" vote hangs the jury 11-1. She becomes convinced that the real murderer is a member of a local theatrical troupe, so she joins them in order to gather information. The clues lead back many years to a single disastrously unsuccessful 1951 performance of a dreadful play written by the group's hammy director, H. Driffold Cosgood (Ron Moody). Although at that time, several of the current cast members were only children, more murders follow before Miss Marple ultimately exposes the killer.

Despite not knowing him, the world's most famous detectives can't pass up the offer of a "dinner and murder" invitation from wealthy Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). Each has no idea until their arrival at Two Two Twain who else will be in attendance. Those detectives are: amateur sleuths and New York City socialites Dick (David Niven) and Dora Charleston (Dame Maggie Smith), accompanied by their pet terrier, Myron; Belgian detective Monsieur Milo Perrier (James Coco), accompanied by his chauffeur, Marcel (James Cromwell); Shanghainese Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers), accompanied by his Japanese adopted son, Willie Wang (Richard Narita); frumpish Brit Miss Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester), accompanied by her invalid nurse, Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood); and San Francisco gumshoe Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), accompanied by his femme fatale sidekick, Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan). The dinner part of the invitation runs into problems due to the non-communication between Twain's blind butler, Jamesir Bensonmum (Sir Alec Guinness), and Twain's new deaf-mute and non-Anglophone cook, Yetta (Nancy Walker). On the murder side, the guests initially believe Twain will try to kill each of them. However, Twain eventually announces his rationale for the gathering: that one of the people at the dinner table will be murdered before midnight, and that Twain will consider himself the greatest detective if his guests, who are now trapped in the house until dawn, cannot figure out who committed the murder, that person also at the dinner table. If one does figure out who committed the crime, he or she will be the recipient of one million dollars and the exclusive rights to the story. So the guests anxiously await the stroke of midnight, with those still alive after that time trying to figure out motive and the opportunity to murder before the rise of dawn, and before the murderer has the opportunity to strike again on one or all of them.

Seven guests, a newly hired personal secretary and two staff are gathered for a weekend on an isolated island by the hosts, the Owens, who are delayed. At dinner, a record is played and the host's message alleges that all of the people present are guilty of murder, and suddenly the first of them is dead, then the next. It seems that one of them is the murderer, but the leading person is always the person who is murdered next and at last, only two people are left.

An American woman is getting involved in a diamond theft in South Africa.

The year is 1953. The small English village of St. Mary Mead, home to Miss Jane Marple (Dame Angela Lansbury), is delighted when a big American movie company arrives to make a movie telling of the relationship between Jane Grey and Elisabeth I, starring the famous actresses Marina Rudd (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) and Lola Brewster (Kim Novak). Marina arrives with her husband, Jason (Rock Hudson), and when she discovers that Lola is going to be in the movie with her, she hits the roof as Lola and Marina loathe each other on sight. Marina has been getting death threats, and at a party at the manor house, Heather Babcock (Maureen Bennett), after boring Marina with a long story, drinks a cocktail made for Marina, and dies from poisoning. Everybody believes that Marina is the target, but the Police Officer investigating the case, Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox) isn't sure, so he asks Miss Jane Marple, his aunt, to investigate.

Miss Jane Marple is staying at an elegant hotel from her childhood compliments of her nephew Raymond. Also there is international adventurer Bess Sedgwick and Lady Selena Hazy (Joan Greenwood in her next to last performance). A doorman working at the hotel turns out to be from Bess' past, and when he is killed, she is the prime suspect. But what does his murder have to do with the disappearance of an elderly vicar staying at the hotel, and a string of robberies over the last few months? Miss Marple must find out before the murderer strikes again!!!

When Miss Marple's visiting friend sees a woman being strangled on a passing train, they immediately report it to the police. Inspector Slack sees Miss Marple as a bit of a busy body and drops the investigation after only a few days. Miss Marple however determines that there is only one spot along the line where a body could have been dumped and it happens to be very near the Crackenthorpe estate. She asks a professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go there undercover as a domestic. She soon finds the dead woman's body at which time the police take on a renewed interest but it is left to Miss Marple to solve the mystery.

Miss Jane Marple (Dame Margaret Rutherford) investigates the murder of one of her fellow trustees of a fund which rehabilitates young criminals. To investigate she goes aboard the ship used to train the juveniles, much to the distress of Captain Sydney De Courcy Rhumstone (Lionel Jeffries). She soon stumbles onto more murders, and a ring of thieves.

Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Tony Randall) investigates a series of murders in London in which the victims are killed according to their initials. The first victim is A.A., the second B.B., and so on. Poirot is assisted in his investigations by Captain Hastings (Robert Morley) and Inspector Japp (Maurice Denham).

Aging Major Palgrave, an idiosyncratic but charming mystery writer, reveals to Miss Marple that one of the guests at a luxurious Caribbean resort they're staying at is a Bluebeard-type wife murderer. Unfortunately, the Major succumbs to an apparently accidental overdose of alcohol and blood pressure medication before revealing the killer's identity. When it's discovered that the medicine belonged to another guest and the revealing photograph the Major was carrying is missing, Miss Marple realizes that the serial killer has struck again and more murders will follow.

Christian Gilbranson (John Woodvine), Miss Jane Marple's (Helen Hayes') lawyer, persuades her to visit the baronial estate of his stepmother, Carrie Louise Serrocold (Bette Davis), an old friend of Marple's. Carrie Louise's devoted husband Lewis (Sir John Mills) has turned the manor house into a halfway house for young men with criminal records, and has hopes of expanding the facilities. He confides to Miss Jane Marple that he suspects that someone is slowly poisoning Carrie Louise with arsenic. One of the young charges, Edgar Lawson (Tim Roth), claims to be Lewis' illegitimate child and wants his alleged father to acknowledge him. While they are arguing behind closed doors, a gun is discharged, and the visiting Gilbranson is found murdered in another room. It is up to Miss Jane Marple to aid crusty Inspector Curry (Leo McKern) discover the murderer's and poisoner's identities.