Murder, she wrote; Sweeney Todd, she sang

 

"The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle.  The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."

This quote and variations upon it weave through the 1955 movie, The Court Jester, in which Angela Lansbury played a central role.

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reader comments from the N.Y. Times Angela Lansbury obit.:

Randy

Wisconsin

I had recently moved to New York when Sweeney Todd opened....Of course I knew / understood that the lyrics were by Stephen Sondheim, but when Angela Lansbury performed "The Worst Pies in London" and "A Little Priest," it was as though she was creating those ultra-clever lyrics on the spot.

Annie

Boston

Our elderly neighbor who babysat us sometimes would always be watching Murder She Wrote if it happened to be on the nights she came over.  I was never allowed to watch!  But it provided a great memory for me of her and how much she loved the show.

Chris 

Spain

As a child I used to love watching Murder She Wrote on a Sunday evening.  Such a peaceful style of film making.

Ney Fonseca

Brazil

As a dance major at SUNY Purchase, whenever possible, I'd take the train to Grand Central and see as many shows as I could.  One weekend, I scored a half-price center orchestra seat for "Sweeney Todd".  Little did I know it was Ms. Lansbury's last performance on the show.  

A marvelous performance by a great artist.  And to top it off, I saw it seated next to Gene Hackman!  

NY in the 80's:  gritty, complicated and, for me at least, magical.

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Starting about two weeks ago, I had been playing episodes of the TV series Hart to Hart (1979 - 1984), from Amazon Prime.  Watching it made me think about Murder, She Wrote too, because both are shows where the protagonist happens across mysteries, and solves them, on a regular basis.

Just think how much easier it would be to get audiences to believe the characters have to solve mysteries, if the main character is a police officer, or a private detective.

        But the Harts are just a married couple -- he owns businesses, she's a journalist -- and Jessica Fletcher was a mystery novelist -- which would not naturally result in murders "following you around" everywhere you go, right?  

A series featuring a non-detective who solves mysteries seems to ask powerful suspension-of-disbelief, on the part of the audience.

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