Margaret Rutherford became one of the best-loved eccentric character
actresses in the post-war cinema. While her ample frame lacked the conventional
appearance of the female star, her performances never lacked sparkle,
though her gung-ho ebullience was often laced with something quite touching.
Some of her finest parts came from theatre - she had already played
Madame Arcati and Miss Prism on the stage before she repeated the roles
in the screen adaptations of Blithe
Spirit (1945) and The
Importance of Being Earnest (1952).
She was mystically dotty in Blithe Spirit, academically dotty in Passport
to Pimlico, domestically dotty in I'm
All Right Jack (1959), classically dotty as Mistress Quickly in
Welles' Chimes at Midnight (1966), and inquisitively dotty as Agatha
Christie's Miss Marple in the series of films she made for MGM in the
early 1960s - Murder
She Said (1961), Murder
at the Gallop (1963), Murder
Most Foul (1964), Murder Ahoy (1964) and The Alphabet Murders (1965).
She received an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The
V.I.Ps (1963).
