The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Writers:

Jonathan Hales (screenplay) and
Barry Sandler (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 December 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the murderer among them all?

Plot:

Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.

Plot Keywords:

Agatha Christie | Miss Marple | English Country Village | Detective | Film Making

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Angela Lansbury	...	Miss Jane Marple
Wendy Morgan	...	Cherry
Margaret Courtenay	...	Mrs. Bantry
Charles Gray	...	Bates, the Butler
Maureen Bennett	...	Heather Babcock
Carolyn Pickles	...	Miss Giles
Eric Dodson	...	The Major
Charles Lloyd Pack	...	Vicar (as Charles Lloyd-Pack)
Richard Pearson	...	Doctor Haydock
Thick Wilson	...	The Mayor
Pat Nye	...	Mayoress
Peter Woodthorpe	...	Scout Master
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Ella Zielinsky
Tony Curtis	...	Martin N. Fenn
Edward Fox	...	Inspector Craddock

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Ireland:PG | Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 (1981) | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Kent, England, UK

Company:

EMI Films

Trivia:

Although Angela Lansbury's character is presented as elderly and the leading men as only middle-aged she, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson were all born the same year - 1925.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At the end when the lady was lying on the chaise longue she is supposed to be dead, but her chest rises and falls slightly.

Quotes:

Lola Brewster: You seem lovely, as always. Of course, there are fewer lights on than usual. In fact, any fewer, and I'd need a seeing-eye dog.
Marina Rudd: Oh, I shouldn't bother to buy one, dear. In that wig, you could play Lassie.
Lola Brewster: Same adorable sense of humor. And I'm so glad to see that you've not only kept your GORGEOUS figure, but you've added SO MUCH to it!
Marina Rudd: What are you doing here so early, dear? I thought the plastic surgery seminar was in Switzerland.
Lola Brewster: Actually, darling, I couldn't wait to begin our little movie. You know the saying: once an actress, always an actress.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

What A Cast! What Glorious Settings!

How many of us have fantasies about English country villages and cottages therein? This movie will take you directly into such things and your eyes will be delighted with the settings. How cozy it all is - no wonder they call light-hearted mysteries "cozies." I was struck by Angela Lansbury's height. Either she is a tall woman or the ceilings in these adorable cottages are quite low. Angela is Miss Marple, of course, and she begins the flick by demonstrating, at a public screening of a movie murder mystery, how quickly she can solve a complicated crime. Elizabeth Taylor is queenly and is married to the scrumptious Rock Hudson who, although he dallies with a strenuously self-adoring Kim Novak, appears to love her dearly. Edward Fox, a much-enjoyed actor whom I loved in '95's "A Month by the Lake" with Vanessa Redgrave, is so fresh and youthful here! Tony Curtis as the brash producer strikes not one false note - (or else they are all somewhat false as befits his role as wheeler-dealer!) My girlfriends and I may study and duplicate Miss Marple's cottage decor in our own homes after ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the famous sleuth's movie digs! Note: Angela Lansbury proves in this film that she can chop and dice with the best chefs. And she uses a very long, sharp blade, worthy of a Maven of Murder!