It is not until the final scene - the pressure of events then forcing two of the characters into melodramatic life - that we become aware that there was, after all, an effective one-act play in Miss Christie's novel".

[2] Ivor Brown, reviewing the play in the 18 December 1949 issue of The Observer said, "Barbara Mullen is excellent as that sharp-eyed Prodnose Miss Marple, along with that of Reginald Tate as the questionable painter and of Jack Lambert as the nice, dull, dutiful vicar, gives West End quality to a production otherwise on a less exalted level.

The whole thing could have been made more effective by better casting of certain parts, however, the company, which started with a nervous over-emphasis and clouted us over their heads with their lines, steadied by half-time and the second act was very much more persuasive than the first.

"[3] After closing in the West End it was picked up later that year by Peter Saunders for a national tour as he was desperate to recoup his losses from a failed staging of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1913 book, The Poison Belt.

Leonard Clement) Genine Graham as Griselda (his wife) Michael Newell as Dennis (his nephew) Betty Sinclair as Mary (the maid) Michael Darbyshire as Ronald Hawes (the curate) Andrea Lee as Lettice Protheroe Mildred Cottell as Mrs Price Ridley Alvys Maben as Anne Protheroe Reginald Tate as Lawrence Redding (an artist) Francis Roberts as Dr John Haydock Stanley Van Beers as Inspector Slack The play was first published by Samuel French in January 1951 (copyright dated 1950).