Margaret Rutherford

Acting

Margaret Rutherford

Born 1892-05-11 · Balham, London, England, UK

Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. She is best-known for her 1960s performances as Miss Marple in several films based loosely on Agatha Christie's novels. Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret Rutherford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Big Fella poster
7.3

Singing Marseilles docker Joe is hired by wealthy English couple, the Oliphants, to find their missing son Gerald. When Joe finds him, he learns Gerald escaped of his own will and takes him to stay with a local singer, who offers a refuge from his repressed white parents.

Big Fella

1938

The Smallest Show on Earth poster
6.7

Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.

The Smallest Show on Earth

1957

A Countess from Hong Kong poster
6.0

A Russian countess stows away in the stateroom of a married U.S. diplomat bound for New York.

A Countess from Hong Kong

1967

Chimes at Midnight poster
7.2

Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend.

Chimes at Midnight

1965

Murder She Said poster
7.3

Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own.

Murder She Said

1961

Murder Ahoy poster
7.1

During an annual board of trustees meeting, one of the trustees dies. Miss Marple thinks he’s been poisoned after finding a chemical on him. She sets off to investigate at the ship where he had just come from. The fourth and final film from the Miss Marple series starring Margaret Rutherford as the quirky amateur detective.

Murder Ahoy

1964

Murder Most Foul poster
7.1

A murderer is brought to court and only Miss Marple is unconvinced of his guilt. Once again she begins her own investigation.

Murder Most Foul

1964

Blithe Spirit poster
7.0

While holding a séance for skeptical novelist Charles Condomine, self-proclaimed 'spiritualist medium' Madame Arcati inadvertently summons the spirit of his deceased first wife Elvira, leading to an increasingly complex love triangle with Ruth, his current wife of five years.

Blithe Spirit

1945

The Importance of Being Earnest poster
7.2

Two young gentlemen living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ('Ernest') on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities.

The Importance of Being Earnest

1952

Murder at the Gallop poster
7.1

Miss Marple and Mr. Stringer are witnesses to the death by heart attack of elderly, rich Mr. Enderby. Yet they have their doubts about what happened. The police don't believe them, thus leading Miss Marple to yet again investigate by herself.

Murder at the Gallop

1963

I'm All Right Jack poster
6.6

Naive Stanley Windrush looks for a career in a family business. Much to his dismay, he finds work at a munitions factory where he has to start from the bottom, while both the management and the labor union use him as a tool in their fight for power.

I'm All Right Jack

1959

Curtain Up poster
7.2

In a small town in the 1950s a repertory company meets on Monday morning to start rehearsing the following week's play. This is a ghastly thing written by the aunt of one of the theatre's directors. The producer doesn't try to hide his annoyance about it, and is further exercised when the authoress herself arrives to help. The cast have to try and sort out real-life problems that keep intruding as they wrestle with the play's dire dialogue.

Curtain Up

1952

The V.I.P.s poster
6.1

Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.

The V.I.P.s

1963

The Alphabet Murders poster
5.8

The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates a series of murders in London in which the victims are killed according to their initials.

The Alphabet Murders

1965

Arabella poster
7.5

A young woman uses her womanly wiles to seduce older men in order to aid her debt-ridden grandmother.

Arabella

1967

The Mouse on the Moon poster
6.3

Sequel to The Mouse that Roared; The Tiny Country of Grand Fenwick has a hot water problem in the castle. To get the money necessary to put in a new set of plumbing, they request foreign aid from the U.S. for Space Research. The Russians then send aid as well to show that they too are for the internationalization of space. While the grand Duke is dreaming of hot baths, their one scientist is slapping together a rocket. The U.S. and Soviets get wind of the impending launch and try and beat them to the moon.

The Mouse on the Moon

1963

Aunt Clara poster
5.0

A wealthy old man dies and leaves his holdings--including a brothel and a gambling den, racing greyhounds and a sleazy bar--to his eccentric Aunt Clara. Clara vows to "clean up" her new establishments, but complications ensue when she visits the crooked gambling den--just as it's being raided by the police.

Aunt Clara

1954

Passport to Pimlico poster
6.9

When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory. The British government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area.

Passport to Pimlico

1949

Miranda poster
6.2

A young married physician discovers a mermaid, and gives into her request to be taken to see London. Comedy and romantic entanglements ensue.

Miranda

1948

On the Double poster
7.0

American GI Ernie Williams, admittedly weak-kneed, has an uncanny resemblance to British Colonel MacKenzie. Williams, also a master of imitation and disguise, is asked to impersonate the Colonel, ostensibly to allow the Colonel to make a secret trip East. What Williams is not told is that the Colonel has recently been a target of assassins. After the Colonel's plane goes down, the plan changes and Williams maintains the disguise to confuse the Nazis about D-Day.

On the Double

1961

The Magic Box poster
6.5

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

The Magic Box

1952

The Happiest Days of Your Life poster
6.7

Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions. The shock is that it's an all-girls school that has been sent. The two head teachers are soon battling for the upper hand with each other and the Ministry. But a crisis (or two) forces them to work together.

The Happiest Days of Your Life

1950

An Alligator Named Daisy poster
6.4

Returning from a cricket match in Ireland, Peter Weston gains a pet alligator from another passenger who abandons it with him. He is horrified and while his first instinct is to get rid of it he develops a relationship with a young Irishwoman who appears to be entwined with the reptile. He soon discovers that Daisy is tame and seems to be the way to Moira's heart.

An Alligator Named Daisy

1955

The Demi-Paradise poster
6.6

Ivan Kouznetsoff, a Russian engineer, recounts during World War II his stay in England prior to the war working on a new propeller for ice-breaking ships. Naïve about British people and convinced by hearsay that they are shallow and hypocritical, Ivan is both bemused and amused by them. He is blunt in his opinions about Britons and at first this puts off his hosts, including the lovely Ann Tisdall, whose grandfather runs the shipbuilding firm that will make use of Ivan's propeller. The longer Ivan stays, however, the more he comes to understand the humor, warmth, strength, and conviction of the British people, and the more they come to see him as a friend rather than merely a suspicious Russian. As a romantic bond grows between Ivan and Ann, a cultural bond begins to grow as well, particularly as the war begins and Russia is attacked by Germany.

The Demi-Paradise

1943