The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great Film overall

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

My dear wife needn't worry, as the only other woman I worship has been dead for over forty years, and even still, she would be way out of my league. Damn, I love Agatha Christie! I love her novels, short stories and stage plays and I love practically every film and TV-series adaptation that is based on her work. My favorites, of course, are the major film-productions starring eminent ensemble casts like "And then there were None" (1945), "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974), "Death on the Nile" (1978), "Evil under the Sun" (1982) and more recently "Crooked House" (2017). All this just to make abundantly clear that you shouldn't expect a very objective review from me... The plot of "The Mirror Crack'd" is once again fabulous! It's a murder mystery/whodunit that is compelling, misleading, intelligent and unpredictable. The first time you read the novel or watch this film, it's downright impossible to guess the denouement, and even after repeated viewings it remains surprising and original. Seriously, where did Agatha Christie keep finding the inspiration to come up with dozens of convoluted crime stories like these, without ever repeating or becoming a caricature of herself? "The Mirror Crack'd" takes place near the quiet village of St. Mary Mead and introduces Angela Lansbury in her first role as the clever, observative and perhaps slightly intrusive Miss Marple. These are exciting times for the little village, since a huge American film crew installed themselves at a country estate in St. Mary Mead to make a historical movie about the British Royals, and the cast even includes the multiple Academy Award Winner Marina Rudd in what should be her big comeback role after a long period of depressions following the birth her mentally handicapped child. During a spring picnic event at the estate, where the entire village is invited, a seemingly random woman instantly dies from poisoning after she spent a long time talking to Mrs. Rudd and shared drinks with her. When eyewitness confirm that the lady, Heather Babcock, actually drank Mrs. Rudd's glass because hers got spilled. This leads to the deduction that Marina Rudd was the intended victim, and there are plenty of suspects with a motive to kill her, including the evasive PA of Marina's husband/director Ella Zielinski, Rudd's eternal rival and the downright obnoxious supportive actress Lola Brewster or even husband Jason himself. Or, who knows, maybe even the butler did it! Miss Marple's nephew at Scotland Yard leads the investigation, but naturally it's the sly spinster herself who guides him into the right direction. I'm sure the prominent critics are correct when claiming that "The Mirror Crack'd" is severely flawed, but personally I didn't notice too many shortcomings. The unfolding of the mystery is truly absorbing and tense, with a few efficient red herrings and secretive characters. The scenes at the gathering, prior to the murder even, are terrific, notably the moments with the "frozen" Marina Rudd and the hostile confrontations between her and rival Lola. I've never been too fond of Elisabeth Taylor, but her performance as the vulnerable Marina Rudd is very powerful. Class-A actors/actresses like Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Geraldine Chaplin and Edward Fox give away stellar roles as well, but I would have preferred that the role of butler Charles Gray was slightly bigger; - like the case in the 1962 source novel.

My favorite film version of "The Mirror Crack'd" is this one, from 1980, but only because of my great admiration for Angela Lansbury, who plays Jane Marple. The same story was also adapted twice for British television, with Joan Hickson in 1992 and with Julia McKenzie in 2010, and a third time in India under the title "Shubho Mahurat." I have seen, and can recommend, both English versions, particularly the 2010 film, which has terrific performances by Lindsay Duncan and Joanna Lumley, and also wisely includes an important character who is left out of the Lansbury version, a woman named Margot, played by Charlotte Riley (more on Margot below). Other reviewers have commented on the all-star (and aging-star) cast of this version: Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak (each of whom would make only two more movies after this), and Tony Curtis (in the final quarter of his 96-movie career, and blessed with a strong, wise-cracking character). None of the four were consistently great film actors, in my view, but they were pros by 1980 and they handle this material well, especially in the scenes they are lucky enough to share with the divine Edward Fox, who plays Dermot Craddock, a Scotland Yard inspector and also Marple's nephew.This review is less about the movie, which is an intricately constructed murder mystery, baffling and thus satisfying. Instead, I wonder about one particular aspect of the work as a whole: how the audience is meant to feel about the murderer, her motivation and her justification. (The spoiler alert is serious because I just revealed the murderer's gender, and will soon specify her name.) I suspect I'm in the minority, but if the story had continued, putting her on trial, I'd have convicted her without a second thought, in spite of all the admiration and sympathy being heaped on her by the other characters and, I think, the creators, perhaps including Agatha Christie herself (I haven't read her original book).The murderer is the central character, Marina Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor), an actress who is trying to make a comeback with the help of her director/ husband (Rock Hudson). She is presented as a fragile character, barely holding herself together as the location shoot begins. The murder happens at a party they host, where she is introduced to various people including a flibbertigibbet named Heather-- an ardent fan whom she had encountered once, several years earlier, during the war. Within minutes of politely listening to her prattle about that first brief meeting, Marina realizes that Heather was the person who had accidentally exposed her to German measles while she was pregnant, a pregnancy that had not been easy to achieve, and indeed had followed the adoption of three children (one of whom is Margo, from the McKenzie film version, a daughter Marina so neglected that she doesn't even recognize her as an adult). Because of exposure to rubella, Marina's son is born with a neurological birth defect, the severity of the which is not specified; whatever it was, however, was sufficient to overwhelm Marina, who abandons him to a mental institution, has a nervous breakdown, and tanks her career. Now, meeting the innocent vector of the virus, her immediate response is murder. Marina poisons her within minutes of meeting her.It seems, as I said, from the dialog and the treatment of Marina Rudd by other characters, that we are meant to have considerable sympathy for her. Well, count me out. I was appalled at how monumentally self-centered she was-- first, to abandon her disabled child; and then decades later to murder the woman who had, in all innocence, exposed her to the rubella virus; and finally to murder one of her staff, Ella (Geraldine Chaplin), because she *might* have witnessed the poisoning. (A precis of the original Christie novel informs me that Marina also murders the butler because he, too, *might* know too much. This Lansbury version doesn't venture into the neglect of the three adopted children.)There is no arrest, no trial. Marina either commits suicide by overdose, or she is assisted in that by her husband, or possibly, her husband kills her with an overdose in hope of sparing her the charge of multiple homicide. It is ambiguous. But I do wonder, if she had survived and there were a trial, would you want the jury to convict her? I know I would.

Following the all-star Agatha Christie extravaganzas Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile, a similarly impressive cast is assembled for The Mirror Crack'd. The difference this time is that the story is not one of the many Hercule Poirot entries that Christie wrote; instead, it features her 'other' celebrated creation, Miss Marple. One of the main problems with the film is that Miss Marple doesn't really feature enough in the action. She is confined to her home for much of the film, meaning there are long stretches where she is absent from the screen (worse, this makes her ability to solve the murder by piecing together second-hand information, descriptions and accounts very hard to swallow. It's like asking us to believe Sherlock Holmes figured out the Hound of the Baskervilles mystery without going to Dartmoor, without leaving London... heck, without even setting foot outside 221b Baker Street!)A film crew descends on the small English village of St. Mary Mead. They are there to shoot a costume picture about the times of Queen Elizabeth 1st and Mary, Queen of Scots. The lead role is to be played by Marina Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor), once an international superstar and multi-Oscar-winning actress, now a forgotten face (she gave birth to a mentally retarded baby after contracting German measles during her wartime pregnancy, and subsequently suffered a severe nervous breakdown). Another key role is to be played by Lola Brewster (Kim Novak), a bitchy diva who revels in engaging in a war of words with Marina. Others present include the director, Marina's husband Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson); the producer Marty Fenn (Tony Curtis); Jason's production assistant and possible adulterous partner Ella Zielinsy (Geraldine Chaplin); and a whole entourage of actors and crew. During a pre-shoot party, a local busybody named Heather Babcock (Maureen Bennett) approaches Marina and bores her with a story about how much of a fan she is of her career. Later Heather dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail, possibly intended for Marina. Scotland Yard policeman Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox) arrives to find out whodunit. He calls upon his injured, housebound aunt, Jane Marple (Angela Lansbury), who lives locally, to seek her expertise in uncovering the killer.Lansbury is great as ever as Miss Marple, though she needed way more screen time than she is given. The verbal sparring between Taylor and Novak is enjoyably done, while Hudson plays Taylor's husband pretty well. Perhaps the best of the supporting performances comes from Fox as the Scotland Yard detective - a deceptively canny policeman who also happens to be a movie buff. Some of the actors are a little wasted, like Curtis, Chaplin and Charles Gray as a butler. The resolution to the mystery is decent enough, with sufficient red herrings thrown in to keep the killer concealed, but the closing scene is rather confused. John Cameron's score has a habit of launching off into an ill-fitting 'sexy' saxophone style which rarely fits the mood of the film, while Guy Hamilton directs it all in ploddingly efficient fashion. Not the best Christie adaptation ever made; nor the worst. A passable entry, but, given the calibre of the talent involved, it could and should have been much better.

When at last I saw this old flop last weekend on itv3 in my London hotel room, I had difficulty identifying it as a vehicle for some of the biggest stars in the business until they popped up, one by one, in roles that were either cameos or tongue-in-cheek throwaways. It soon became apparent the acting as well as the direction was awful, but curiosity gained the better of me and I stayed on to the bitter end. I kept thinking at least one of the stars would do a memorable turn. Perhaps it was the wretched script or the bad lighting that prevented such a manifestation. The usual finesse of a Miss Marple film was nowhere in evidence. Unintentional comedy reigned, as in one poorly directed scene where a diminutive Edward Fox stood awkwardly side by side with looming Rock Hudson suggestive of a wedding between Batman and Robin. Elizabeth Taylor playing Elizabeth Taylor called out silently for the line, "Time for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!" A weak musical score was equally dismal.One wonders how these usually fine actors carried on regardless when it must have occurred to them they were clinging to a thin straw. They must have been very well paid.