The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

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

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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:

Pierce Brosnan's first brush with James Bond has him working with Guy Hamilton, director of Goldfinger (1964). It would take another 15 years before Brosnan landed the role of 007 .

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Jason Rudd is trying to find a pulse on the victim's neck, her eyes move although she is supposed to be dead.

Quotes:

Lola Brewster: Chin up, darling... both of them.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Angela Lansbury: A Balancing Act" (1998)

In its own way, a camp classic

The Mirror Crack'd is one of the many Agatha Christie stories made into an all-star film. This one is more campy and less opulent than "Murder on the Orient Express," for instance, but for what it is, it's pretty good. Set in the '50s in Miss Marple's village of St. Mary Mead, the film stars lots of big names from that era: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak - a veritable who's who of '50s megastars. Angela Lansbury plays Miss Marple, and she's perfect in the role. The film also has an appearance by Pierce Brosnan in a small, uncredited part.

The script has the Taylor and Novak characters camping it up with bitchy insults which I don't quite remember from the book. The story concerns a movie star, her husband, her co-star nemesis, etc., coming to St. Mary Mead to make a movie. During a party, a local resident is murdered, but the intended victim is assumed to be Taylor. It's up to Miss Marple to unravel the mystery as more murders occur.

The scene between Taylor and Edward Fox is especially good, and I've never been sure if Taylor falling on top of Hudson on the bed was supposed to be funny or not - in the movie theater, it got a laugh.

It's great to see all these old stars in the same film. By the way, perhaps this was mentioned by one of the posters - this story is based on a real-life incident that happened to Gene Tierney.