Rare is the reference to Margaret Rutherford that doesn't characterize her as either jut-chinned, eccentric, or both.
The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was made for the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford portrayed in four films between 1961 and 1964 plus in an uncredited film cameo in The Alphabet Murders (1965).
Rutherford began her acting career first as a student at London's Old Vic, debuting on stage in 1925. In 1933, she first appeared in the West End at the not-so-tender age of 41. She had her screen debut in 1936 portraying Miss Butterby in the Twickenham-Wardour production of Hideout in the Alps (1936).
In summer 1941, Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit opened on the London stage, with Coward himself directing. Appearing as Madame Arcati, the genuine psychic, was Rutherford, in a role in which Coward had earlier envisaged her and which he then especially shaped for her. She would carry her portrayal of Madame Arcati to the screen adaptation, David Lean's Blithe Spirit (1945). Not only would this become one of Rutherford's most memorable screen performances - with her bicycling about the Kentish countryside, cape fluttering behind her - but it would establish the model for portraying that pseudo-soothsayer forever thereafter. Despite Rutherford's appearances in more than 40 films, it is as Madame Arcati and Miss Jane Marple that she will best be remembered(IMDb).
Films
1936 - Dusty Ermine
1937 - Talk of the Devil
1937 - Missing, Believed Married
1937 - Catch As Catch Can
1937 - Beauty and the Barg
1941 - Quiet Wedding
1941 - Spring Meeting
1943 - Yellow Canary
1943 - Adventure for Two
1944 - English Without Tears
1945 - Blithe Spirit
1947 - While the Sun Shines
1947 - Meet Me at Dawn
1948 - Miranda
1949 - Passport to Pimlico
1949 - Her Favorite Husband
1950 - The Happiest Days of Your Life
1951 - The Magic Box
1952 - The Importance of Being Earnest
1952 - Castle in the Air
1952 - Miss Robin Hood
1952 - Innocents in Paris
1953 - Curtain Up
1953 - Trouble in Store
1954 - The Runaway Bus
1954 - Aunt Clara
1954 - Mad About Men
1955 - An Alligator Named Daisy
1957 - The Smallest Show on Earth
1957 - Just My Luck
1958 - The Noble Spaniard
1959 - I'm All Right Jack
1961 - Murder, She Said
1963 - The Mouse on the Moon
1963 - Murder at the Gallop
1963 - The V.I.P.s
1964 - Murder Ahoy
1964 - Murder Most Foul
1965 - Chimes at Midnight
1967 - A Countess from Hong Kong
1967 - Arabella
[ IMDb ]
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