Rendered Impotent

Before she can gather herself she is confronted by another member of the family, Cedric, who comes bearing what should be her instrument, the torch. But he turns it against her, shining it right in her face for his inquisition.

In this sequence Marple is flustered and panicked like nowhere else in the series. At the end of the scene she sighs and resignedly walks up the stairs, with none of her usual energy. And she doesn't use the torch again in this film. She has been disarmed and in some ways this takes things too far. The story stops being interesting since it no longer allows Marple her mythic pursuits.

So let us turn instead, for enlightenment, to an earlier point in the same film.

 

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