Sleeping Murder (3)

Now finished reading the book of the film, or more properly the prior book on which the post film was based, and have got one more angle on why one should let sleeping murders lie. That is, if one wakes up a sleeping murderer, he or she might murder again to preserve his or her anonymity - a more drastic result than that envisaged in my rather anodyne 'incidental damage' (of 28th December). But I suspect that low church fundamentalists might not see this as a reason not to stir: the most important thing to do is to bring the guilty party to book and there is no need to worry about innocents who get hurt on the way as they get a free (or perhaps just discounted) pass for the Pearly Gates by way of compensation. Early arrival at the Gates otherwise being a bit of a Catch-22, with a desire to be there early, rather than put up with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, being a disqualification. People who use the bare bodkin wind up in the other place.

That apart I find that the whole 'Funnybones' part of the adaptation is an invention of the adaptor. A large part, occupying maybe a third of the 90 minutes running time (after advertisements), providing plenty of opportunity for seeing a variety show from all the angles. An opportunity to scratch our fascination with performance. An opportunity for vicarious peeping from the wings. Another demonstration of the popularity of plays within plays. And to be fair to the adaptor, he introduced this cuckoo into the nest without doing damage to the spirit of the story. He would no doubt say that he was using the 'Funnybones' device to translate a whole lot of material which would not play all that well on the small screen into something that would.

A smaller invention was the replacement of the new & loving husband of the leading young lady (Miss. Marple is all very well but she is not very glamorous) with the now older and absent husband's bespectacled young side-kick who gradually and engagingly morphs into her lover. Young man easing out older man providing much more love interest than a steady husband.

We have probably seen this adaptation three times now. When will we thee meet again?

PS: the murder again bit probably cut more ice in the days of capital punishment. With nothing to lose, why not murder again? But murderers these days have plenty to lose - assuming that is that they are sane enough to work things through. Which reminds me that prisoners need to have plenty to lose to make them manageable. Bring on the conjugal visits!