The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Writers:

Jonathan Hales (screenplay) and
Barry Sandler (screenplay)
(more)

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
Rock Hudson	...	Jason Rudd
Kim Novak	...	Lola Brewster
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Marina Rudd
Marella Oppenheim	...	Margot Bence
Anthony Steel	...	Sir Derek Ridgeley (Murder at Midnight)
Dinah Sheridan	...	Lady Amanda Ridgeley (Murder at Midnight)
Oriane Grieve	...	Kate Ridgely (Murder at Midnight)
Kenneth Fortescue	...	Charles Foxwell (Murder at Midnight)
Hildegarde Neil	...	Lady Foxcroft (Murder at Midnight)
Allan Cuthbertson	...	Peter Montrose (Murder at Midnight)
George Silver	...	Da Silva (Murder at Midnight)
John Bennett	...	Barnsby (Murder at Midnight)
Nigel Stock	...	Inspector Gates (Murder at Midnight)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pierce Brosnan	...	Actor playing 'Jamie' (uncredited)
John Dalby	...	Bandmaster (uncredited)
Bill Dean	...	1st man in Vilage Hall (uncredited)
Frank Ellis	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Sam Kydd	...	Film technician (uncredited)
Charles Lamb	...	2nd Man in village hall (uncredited)
Richard Leech	...	Director of Photography (uncredited)
Derek Lyons	...	Queen's Guard (uncredited)
Angus MacKay	...	Coroner (uncredited)
Robert Raglan	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Guy Hamilton

Writing credits
Agatha Christie		(novel) uncredited
Jonathan Hales		(screenplay) and
Barry Sandler		(screenplay)

Produced by
John Brabourne	....	producer
Richard B. Goodwin	....	producer (as Richard Goodwin)

Original Music by
John Cameron

Cinematography by
Christopher Challis

Film Editing by
Richard Marden

Production Design by
Michael Stringer

Art Direction by
John Roberts

Set Decoration by
Peter Howitt		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Phyllis Dalton

Makeup Department
Eric Allwright	....	makeup artist
Jill Carpenter	....	makeup artist
Helen Lennox	....	hairdresser

Production Management
Jim Brennan	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Derek Cracknell	....	first assistant director

Art Department
John Paterson	....	construction manager

Sound Department
John W. Mitchell	....	sound recordist (as John Mitchell)
John Richards	....	sound recordist
Bill Rowe	....	sound recordist
Nicholas Stevenson	....	dubbing editor (as Nick Stevenson)

Camera and Electrical Department
John Palmer	....	camera operator
Bob Penn	....	still photographer
John Clark	....	best boy (uncredited)
Gary Cross	....	electrician (uncredited)
Nobby Cross	....	gaffer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Betty Adamson	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Roy Birchley	....	assistant editor

Music Department
John Cameron	....	conductor

Other crew
Gordon Arnell	....	publicist
Robert Ellis	....	title designer
Brian Harris	....	supervising accountant
Michael John Knatchbull	....	location manager (as Michael-John Knatchbull)
Elaine Schreyeck	....	continuity
Elisabeth Woodthorpe	....	production secretary

Production Companies

• EMI Films
• G.W. Films

Distributors

• Columbia-Warner Distributors (1980) (UK) (theatrical)
• Associated Film Distribution (AFD)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1983) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• EMI Films (1980) (UK) (all media)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2004) (Germany) (video)
• Lumiere Home Video
• Lumière Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Studio Canal (1980) (UK) (DVD)
• Thorn EMI Video Australia
• Universal Home Video (2007) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (worldwide) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Alexandre  hair styling: Miss Taylor (as Alexandre of Paris)
• Lee Lighting  grip and lighting equipment (uncredited)
• Panavision UK  filmed with Panavision equipment (as Panavision equipment)

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)

At least it has an Agatha Christie plot

This is the film that launched Angela Lansbury's career as a television sleuth. The character she began playing four years later was much the same as the one she plays here - and it's not Miss Marple. Not that purists have any right to complain. Agatha Christie's Miss Marple isn't really Miss Marple, either. Miss Marple first appeared in "Murder at the Vicarage" (published 1930), and I can't help thinking of the character in that book as the REAL Miss Marple: a transparent, almost pathologically nosy woman who thoroughly enjoyed prying for its own sake, who as capable of solving mysteries because she was unable to rest so long as there was potential gossip she didn't know about. She wasn't a saint, she wasn't an inspired guesser, and she wasn't wise.

Almost immediately, though (in "The Tuesday Club Mysteries", published 1932), Miss Marple transformed into someone who WAS saintly, inspired and, worst of all, wise, and it's this latter, less agreeable Miss Marple that dominates the subsequent novels. What obligation does anyone else have to be authentic, if Agatha Christie herself wasn't? So far as I'm concerned the character is now fair game for any revisionist interpretation whatever; and if so, give me Angela Lansbury's energy over Joan Hickson's "authenticity" any day. ...Strange, then, that the film doesn't really work. The puzzle itself is a real humdinger - one of Christie's very best, in my opinion - and the denouement is handled very well. But there's something bookish and stifled about everything leading up to it. Most Christie adaptations have a similar plodding quality (notable exceptions: Billy Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution", Sidney Gilliat's "Endless Night", and people who have seen René Clair's "And Then There Were None" think highly of that, too) - there's an AIR of excessive fidelity to the book, even when quite a few details have been changed.

One problem unique to this one is the set of laboured jokes at the expense of 1950s Hollywood - at least, the jokes WANT to be at the expense of 1950s Hollywood, but I think they come from "My Big Book of 1000 One-Liners", or some such.