Margaret McGinty, a barmaid and former actress, is found hanged, and her lodger, Harold Taylor, caught at the scene, seems plainly guilty. Everyone believes it to be an open-and-shut case except for Miss Marple.

Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple
Ron Moody as H. Driffold Cosgood
Bud Tingwell (credited as Charles Tingwell) as Inspector Craddock
Andrew Cruickshank (credited as "Andrew Cruikshank") as Justice Crosby
Megs Jenkins as Gladys Thomas, Mrs McGinty's sister
Dennis Price as Harris Tumbrill, a theatrical agent
Ralph Michael as Ralph Summers, a philandering former matinee idol
James Bolam as Bill Hanson, an actor
Stringer Davis as Jim Stringer
Francesca Annis as Sheila Upward, an actress and heiress engaged to Bill Hanson
Alison Seebohm as Eva McGonigall, a premonition-prone actress, recently broken up with George Rowton
Terry Scott as Police Constable Wells
Pauline Jameson as Maureen Summers, Ralph's wife
Maurice Good as George Rowton
Annette Kerr as Dorothy, an actress and murder victim
Windsor Davies as Sergeant Brick
Neil Stacy (as "Neil Stacey") as Arthur
Stella Tanner as Flory, the landlady