The Mirror Crack'd

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.

Surprisingly faithful adaption of the excellent Christie book adds some campy insults to the story by having Taylor and Novak square off as jealous rivals, but the outcome still carries a mild punch. Lansbury is excellent as Jane and it's nice to see Liz reunited with Hudson after their stint in the 50's on Giant. One of the better all star casts for an Agatha picture, with a nice recreation of St Mary Mead. Makes you feel like you're really in a small English village.

This isn't the best film adaptation of an Agatha Christie mystery or even in the top five. Those would probably be Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, Witness for the Prosecution, the Judith Anderson version of And Then There Were None and Murder, She Said with Margaret Rutherford but this does have some pleasures to be found within.

Chief among those pleasure is the cast. Guy Hamilton, who followed this up with Evil Under the Sun, managed to corral a great deal of high quality talent. Angela Lansbury makes an okay Miss Marple but her obvious makeup detracts from her being completely believable in the part. Geraldine Chaplin is also fine as Taylor's assistant although her part doesn't offer much depth. Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson team well giving off that old time movie star glamour, this was Rock's second to last theatrical feature and the last time he looked really well on the screen, but it's not their story that really sets off sparks on screen. The real scene stealer who walks off with every second she's on view is Kim Novak in an absolute gem of a comic performance. She looks sensational and the barbed dialog she and Liz share is worth the price of admission itself.

The only real drawback is that the story is an obvious ripoff of Gene Tierney's personal tragedy and from that angle, since it sticks so close to the details, it is in rather bad taste. However the story was widely known so could have been considered in the public domain.

Overall a well made, pleasant entertainment.

Being a fan of both Agatha Christie, Angela Lansbury, and Rock Hudson I watched this film with pleasure. The cast here has done a great job, everybody is convincing, even Liz Taylor, although her acting is at times overdone, as usual. The movie has a good pace, dialogues are witty and humorous, and the mystery itself engaging. I think the proportions of each character's involvement in the story are true to the original (I was afraid they'd make Miss Marple into an action figure or something, but was glad to see she stayed in the background to make her grand entrance in the finale). All in all, it's a very good and convincing adaptation of Christie's book.

Highly underrated, this low-key little whodunit manages to bring together two unlikely genres, the English village murder mystery and the catty Hollywood self-satire. While who did do it is not that surprising, the reason why is clever and touching. (Interestingly, the central plot is loosely based on the real-life tragedy that befell Gene Tierney, star of the legendary film noir "Laura.")

The cast of 50's Hollywood icons give very good performances, though, sadly, for most it represents the last really good parts they have had. Hudson is especially good in a bittersweet role. Lansbury is crisp and efficient as Miss Marple and could have made a series of these films had she not found meatier material as another mistress of murder on "Murder, She Wrote."

Indeed, though I adore Margaret Rutherford, I think Lansbury does better by the role of Miss Marple. This is not a great mystery movie, but works very well as light entertainment and as a last hurrah for several fine actors.