The Mirror Crack'd
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the murderer among them all?
Angela Lansbury is Miss Marple. Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis are the suspects. With Stars like that, this case is going to be murder!
Jane Marple (Angela Lansbury) is thrilled when glamorous Hollywood actresses arrive in her quaint English village to shoot a movie. But when the superstar cast begins feuding, the production takes a murderous turn. Can Miss Marple identify the killer before 'the beautiful people' turn ugly?
Edward Fox and Geraldine Chaplin co-star in this delightful adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's best-loved Miss Marple novels, directed by Guy Hamilton (Evil Under The Sun, Goldfinger) and filled with some of the most priceless performances and delectable dialogue of any Christie movie mystery!
Member Reviews
The Mirror Crack'd - Bundo
This movie was a decent version of this well known book. The cast is stellar, and that makes this version a bit more flashy than the other one out there.
It could have been a great movie, if the directing had not been so stagy and corny. Kim Novak's role and the role of Tony Curtis in particular came close to that ambiguous space of being so bad they were good. Kim's character strikes dramatic poses at every turn. At times one can only conclude that the character was supposed to be suffering medication side effects. The Curtis character calls everybody, including strangers by his first name with the word "baby" appended to it. Rock and Angela somehow evaded the cardboard cutout directing and put in good performances.
Despite all this, the film was enjoyable and is definitely worth seeing.Mediocre Movie Helped By Great Cast - bwod
With an all-star cast, this Agatha Christie story covers familiar territory in the "who dunnit" category. Miss Marple helps her detective nephew investigate the death of a young woman. A reasonably well-written script, great actors, and beautiful English locations help make this a satisfactory experience. If you like a good mystery, like "Murder She Wrote", you'll probably enjoy "The Mirror Crack'd". I give it one firm thumb up.Hollywood glory days - heart2heart
Although it's interesting to compare the portrayals of Miss Marple, and Lansbury is quite good, this movie is just as interesting because of its depiction of glamorous old Hollywood (and of the way Hollywood is viewed by small town England). There are a number of in-jokes (particularly a reference to Doris Day made by Liz Taylor to Day's long time screen lover Rock Hudson), and it is particularly poignant to see an aging Taylor playing a has-been star. This is doubly poignant when you consider that the movie is set in 1953, when Taylor was still at the height of her career. The dialogue is fast paced and witty, particularly when Taylor is sparring with Kim Novack; this also evokes the great films of the fifties, when sharp dialogue was considered as crucial as plot, and female characters were allowed to be at least as verbally dangerous as the men(just see Bette Davis in All About Eve for a great example).
Member Reviews
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The Mirror Crack'd - Bundo
This movie was a decent version of this well known book. The cast is stellar, and that makes this version a bit more flashy than the other one out there.
It could have been a great movie, if the directing had not been so stagy and corny. Kim Novak's ...Mediocre Movie Helped By Great Cast - bwod
With an all-star cast, this Agatha Christie story covers familiar territory in the "who dunnit" category. Miss Marple helps her detective nephew investigate the death of a young woman. A reasonably well-written script, great actors, and beautiful English locations ...Hollywood glory days - heart2heart
Although it's interesting to compare the portrayals of Miss Marple, and Lansbury is quite good, this movie is just as interesting because of its depiction of glamorous old Hollywood (and of the way Hollywood is viewed by small town England). There are a number ...