The Mirror Crack'd

Plot synopsis:
Set in the fictional English village of St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Jane Marple (Angela Lansbury), in 1953. The movie opens with a black-and-white scene from a movie being played at the local community house titled 'Meeting at Midnight' where a detective in the movie assembles a group of people together at a quait country mansion to root out them for the murder of the wealthy owner. The film breaks which depresses the local audience, until Miss Marple reveals, according to her natural skill of observation, who the murderer in the movie is.Meanwhile, a big Hollywood production company arrives to film a costume movie about Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I with two famous movie stars, Marina Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor) and Lola Brewster (Kim Novak). Marina and Lola are old rivals who hate each other. Marina, who is making a much heralded comeback after a prolonged "illness" and retirement, when she, in reality, has had a nervous breakdown, and her husband, Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson), who is directing the movie they are making, arrive with their entourage. When she learns that Lola will be in the movie as well, she becomes enraged and vents her anger.Lola and her husband, Martin N. "Marty" Fenn (Tony Curtis), who is producing the movie they are making, then arrive at the gathering. Excitement runs high in St. Mary Mead, as the locals have been invited to a reception held by the movie company in a manor house, Gossington Hall, to meet the celebrities. Lola and Marina come face to face at the reception and exchange some potent and comical insults, nasty one-liners, as they smile and pose for the cameras. The two square off in a series of hilarious and cleverly written and performed cat-fights throughout the movie.After her initial exchange with Lola at the reception, she is cornered by a gushing, devoted fan, Heather Babcock (Maureen Bennett), who bores her with a long and detailed story about having actually met Marina in person during World War II. After recounting the meeting they had all those years ago, when she arose from her sickbed to go and meet the glamorous star, Babcock drinks a cocktail that was made for Marina and quickly dies from poisoning. The incident is unfortunate for Marina's mental state, and she is beside herself. Everyone is certain Heather was the intended murder victim. Once filming begins on the movie, Marina discovers that apart from threatening notes made up of newspaper clippings, her cup of coffee on the set has also been spiked with poison, sending her into fits of terror.A police detective from Scotland Yard arrives to investigate the case. Inspector Dermot Craddock (Bernard Fox) is baffled as he tries to uncover who is behind the attempt on the life of the actress and the subsequent murder of the innocent woman. The suspected are Ella Zielinsky (Geraldine Chaplin), Jason's production assistant who is secretly having an affair with him and would like Marina out of the way, and the hot-headed actress Lola Brewster. Inspector Craddock even suspects Marty Fenn may have have something to do with the attempt on Marina's life since he is Lola's blindly loyal husband.Inspector Craddock then meets with Marina who tells him about reciving the death threats against her in the form of two notes delivered recently and claims not to know who is behind them. When Inspector Craddock questions Jason about the notes, he clearly acts somewhat suprised as if hearing about it for the first time, and he calmly tells the inspector that he wanted to keep the threats on his wife a secret as not to bring on bad publicity for the Hollywood studio.Inspector Craddock asks his aunt, the renowned amateur detective Miss Jane Marple, who injured her foot at the reception and is confined to her home, for assistance. The main suspect, Ella Zielinsky, is later killed by a lethal nose spray after going to a pay phone in the village, where she called the murderer and threatened to expose them.At the climax, Miss Marple, now back on her feet, visits Gossington Hall, where Marina and Jason are staying, and views where Heather Babcock's death occurred. Working from information received from her cleaning woman, Cherry Baker (Wendy Morgan), who was working as a waitress the day of the murder, the determined elderly sleuth begins to piece together the events of the fatal reception and solves the mystery: Marina herself is the murderer.In the film's denouement, Miss Marple explains to Jason Rudd and Inspector Craddock about the two murders that have occurred. Heather Babcock's story was Marina's initial motive. Ten years earlier, Miss Babcock suffered from German measles; a rather harmless disease to most adults, but problematic for a pregnant woman. Heather Babcock innocently infected Marina when she met her during World War II during a stage performance. Marina was about a month pregnant at the time; the disease caused her child to be born with mental retardation. Upon hearing the unknowing Heather cheerfully tell this story, Marina was overcome with rage and poisoned Heather without thinking. She then spread the idea that she was the intended victim in order to throw off suspicion from herself, delivering death threats and poisoning her own coffee at the studio. Ella, who made phone calls to various suspects from the town's pay phone, accidentally guessed correctly, apparently prompting Marina to murder her as well. Miss Marple also deducts that Jason Rudd knew about Marina's murderous secret after Inspector Craddock told him the other day about the death threat notes that Marina received. Jason saw right through the charade as he realized that Marina fabricated everything because she never told him about the death threat notes, and thus decided to protect her.Jason, Marina's devoted husband, confesses to Miss Marple that he actually administered a dosage of poison just last night to save her from prosecution. However, when they enter Marina's room, they see that Marina is now dead. However, Marina didn't touch the hot chocolate Jason made for her and rather poisoned herself. As Marina is now dead, she will not be brought to justice. On that note, both Miss Marple and Inspector Craddock depart from Gossington Hall as the end credits role.

Tags: melodrama, mystery, satire, murder, flashback

Review:
Co-starring with a couple of by-gone Hollywood legends, Rock Hudson and Kim Novak (and an uncredited cameo by a young Pearce Brosnan), The Mirror Cracked tells the tale of a famous actress temporarily residing in the English countryside while on location for a film she's starring in.Early on in the film, a welcome to the countryside party is thrown by the local townsfolk and at the party, one of the guests drops dead.
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.
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.
The main merit is the performance of underrated character actress Angela Lansbury; she is terrific as Miss Marple, and Edward Fox does a great job as Inspector Craddock.
The supporting cast are fine in their roles, Elizabeth Taylor overdoes Marina Gregg slightly but she plays with gusto, Rock Hudson is suitably subdued as Jason Rudd, and Kim Novak is delightful as Lola.
Beautiful and veteran film star Marina Gregg (Elizabeth Taylor , being final lead starring role in a cinema movie for this actress) is attempting to make a comeback after being off-screen for many years due to an emotional breakdown and substance abuse.
Then, there appears another famous actress Lola Brewster (Kim Novak,though Natalie Wood was the first choice but turned the role down after disagreements over cast billing and the portrayal of the character itself) , a real contender to Marina and producer's (Tony Curtis) wife .
Nice acting by the great Angela Lansbury , though she stated that playing Miss Marple was 'terrific' and that she 'enjoyed' it very much but thought the film was 'dreadful'.
With this film, Angela Lansbury became the second actress to play Miss Marple on the big screen after Margaret Rutherford had made the role famous during the 1960s.
Lansbury is supported by a cast of wonderful British actors such as Geraldine Chaplin and Pierce Brosnan in a cameo, and other well known character actors, this film is fun to watch especially seeing Kim Novak and Elizabeth Taylor in a funny cat-fight with inside Hollywood humor.Beautifully photographed in the English Countryside by Chris Challis follows the assembling of a movie company of high strung Hollywood stars making a movie, thus a movie within a movie.
Marina Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor) is a has-been movie star trying to make a comeback in a film set in St. Mary Mead, which happens to be the home of Miss Marple (Angela Lansbury).
The film also suffers from a nondescript musical score, and from Lansbury's stiff and forced performance, helped not at all by overdone makeup that makes Miss Marple look pale and sickly.Even so, "The Mirror Crack'd" does have entertainment value.
This all happened a year before The Mirror Crack'd filmed and was released.This film is right in keeping with the high standard of pictures Brabourne made of Christie stories like Murder On The Orient Express and Evil Under The Sun. As the story involves an American film crew over in Great Britain in 1953 Brabourne was able to get a quartet of top Hollywood names in support of Angela Lansbury as Jane Marple.Producer Tony Curtis and Director Rock Hudson are collaborating on a film about Mary Queen of Scots that will star Hudson's wife Elizabeth Taylor in the title role.
I'm a great fan of Agatha Christie's novels and also of Angela Lounsbury who, before her Murder She Wrote years, embarks upon her career of mystery solving as Christie's famous spinster sleuth, Miss Jane Marple.
THE MIRROR CRACK'D gives some fine stars at the tail end of their careers something worthwhile to chew on--a good script and some gorgeous Bririth scenery substituting for the little town of St. Mary Mead where most of the action takes place.The choicest bits of dialog go to ELIZABETH TAYLOR and KIM NOVAK as catty rivals who find themselves co-starring in a new film to be produced by Novak's husband, TONY CURTIS and directed by Taylor's husband, ROCK HUDSON.
Also involved, of course, is ANGELA LANSBURY, as the famous sleuth, Miss Marple, who has a funny bit at the film's start where she attends a screening of a murder mystery where the film breaks down.
Though slow in developing its storyline, it's interesting to note that an incident that occurred to movie star Gene Tierney is incorporated into the plot as an important clue.Fans of Christie will most likely come away from this one recalling the catfight remarks between Taylor (getting a little hefty here) and Novak (still streamlined enough).
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.
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..
Set in 1953, the third in the Brabourne/ Goodwin series of Christie adaptations is set in a chocolate-box English village full of stereotypical characters - the vicar (Charles Lloyd Pack), the mayor (Thick Wilson), the bourgeois lady (Margaret Courtenay), the gossipy homemaker (Maureen Bennett), the Major (Eric Dodson) and Miss Marple (Angela Lansbury).
Into this edenic world comes a troupe of American filmmakers producing a historical drama centered around Queen Elizabeth: led by a pair of warring actresses (Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak), an egotistical director (Rock Hudson) and a megalomaniac producer (Tony Curtis), they find the English way of life quaint yet ultimately irritating.
The murder of an innocent female villager at a reception for the aging Ms.Taylor's character,(shades of "All About Eve"), and the arrival of an hysterical and deliciously venomous Kim Novak adds fire to the harried relationships of movie producer and director Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, (husbands of Taylor and Novak).
In addition, the script lacks the waspish bite of Anthony Shaffer's work on "Death on the Nile" and "Evil Under the Sun", whilst Elizabeth Taylor seems miscast as the tragic,Judy Garland-type heroine.On the credit side, Angela Lansbury is good (the producers of "Murder, She Wrote" obviously agreed!) and the film-within-a-film at the start, a creaky British B & W B-picture from the 50s, is a delight, filled with veteran stars..
As her inspector nephew investigates the apparent attempted murder of a film star, Miss Marple begins to piece the clues together herself in this Agatha Christie murder mystery.
Angela Lansbury, playing Agatha Christie's persnickety sleuth Miss Marple years before her stretch as TV's crime-solver Jessica Fletcher, unravels the mystery of a poisoning death on a movie set.
The homage to old-school whodunits at the beginning is clever, but once the plot starts cooking, this cast (featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, and Tony Curtis) seems a bit long in the tooth to be the headliners of a motion picture, no matter what the era.
Kim Novak, pushing 50, sports a phenomenal body, while Angela Lansbury makes a pretty good Miss Marple in her one and only chance at the role, though she has rather limited screen time.
"The Mirror Crack'd" is not among the best of the many Aghata Christie's mystery novels that have been taken to movies.The idea is the usual one regarding the structure of the film, that is an all star cast that are all suspects and one of them is the murderer (just like "Death on the Nile" or "Evil Under the Sun") and Poirot is here replaced by Mrs. Marple.The point here is that you somehow realize that the suspects -all but one- are not the killer because they are clearly distracting characters, so you will probably discover who is the one though not what his/her motive is.The cast is most rewarding mainly for the presence of some huge all timers such as Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, Tony Curtis and Kim Novak.
Angela Lansbury brings one of her usual fine performances as Mrs. Marple and Edward Fox is good as her detective nephew.All in all, this is a murder-mystery film for fans of the genre but it doesn't rank among the best of Christie's adaptations and her novel doesn't either stand among her best..
Like many screen adaptations of Christie novels, THE MIRROR CRACK'D features an all-star cast--and in this case the casting would seem inspired: Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, Rock Hudson as a film producer, Elizabeth Taylor as his movie-star wife, Kim Novack as a rival screen queen, and Tony Curtis as Novak's lover and the producer of the film they are all making.
But director Guy Hamilton is more interested in having his cast offer star turns than in actually serving the story, and the result is a strangely uneven, extremely plodding film that only comes to life when Taylor and Novak square off in the series of hilariously written and performed cat-fights that run throughout the movie.Part of the problem lies in the source material.
And Angela Lansbury, a normally brilliant actress, has one of her rare failures with the role of Jane Marple.At most, this film is for viewers who want to be in on the last major cinematic gasps of Taylor, Novak, Hudson, and Curtis--and those who derive a certain joy from evaluating the level of decay seen here in the aging cast.
Guy Hamilton directed this adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel that stars Angela Lansbury as Miss Jane Marple, an elderly but still spry and very smart woman who lives in a small English village that is visited by a film production company for location shooting.
Lansbury was only 55 when the film was made, but she seemed to specialise in playing characters much older than her actual age, and Miss Marple is probably supposed to be around 70.The film features an all-star cast; besides Lansbury it features Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak, Geraldine Chaplin, Edward Fox and Elizabeth Taylor as Marina.
It's just sad to see Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak, Geraldine Chaplin, and Angela Lansbury giving horrible performances.
"The mirror crack'd was intended to capitalize on the success of the two Poirot movies of the second half of the seventies ("Murder on the orient express" "Death on the Nile") .But if Poirot's adventures were relatively easy to transfer to the screen ,those of Jane Marple,more intimate ,more confined in the English country,were better in MTV works.Neither Angela Landsbury nor Margaret Rutherford were Miss Marple.The character would find the ideal actress later:Joan Hickson.Landsbury would carry on in the lady detective style in her famous series "Murder..." ."The mirror crack'd is faithful to the novel.Many of its actors were about to retire and it's a pleasure to see all of them:Elizabeth Taylor,Rock Hudson,(the two of them had not teamed up since "Giant" (1955)),Kim Novak,Tom Curtis....the film begins with "the film in the film" trick and Jane Marple is already smarter than the rest.Do not miss the MTV episodes starring Joan Hickson!They remade "mirror" with her in 1992..
What a surprisingly big cast this movie has; Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, Edward Fox, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, Elizabeth Taylor and Charles Gray all in one movie, directed by James Bond specialist Guy Hamilton.The atmosphere is quite good and very typical in a positive way.
At the heels of two massively successful adaptations of Agatha Christie's detective novels - Sidney Lumet's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974) and John Guillermin DEATH ON THE NILE (1978), Guy Hamilton (GOLDFINGER 1964) is in the driving seat of the third one, and he would follow up with a fourth venture EVIL UNDER THE SUN (1982).Like the said three, THE MIRROR CRACK'D has a star-stud ensemble including Taylor, Hudson, Novak, Curtis, Lansbury and Chaplin (also features the movie debut of Brosnan, snuggling over Taylor's bosoms), imagine what a sensation it would be, if it were to be made 15 years earlier when their star power was in its heyday.
Babcock is a simple-minded village girl, a big fan of the two-times Oscar-winning Hollywood movie star Marina Rudd (Taylor), who comes across the ocean to shooting her comeback movie about Mary, Queen of Scots, which is directed by her husband Jason Rudd (Hudson), but the producer Marty Fenn (Curtis) wants his wife Lola Brewster (Novak) to play Elizabeth I, Lola and Marina are sworn enemies with some old scores to settle, so can two divas co-exist in the same set?
i haven't seen too many Miss Marple novels,but i can say that Angela Lansberry makes a good Miss Marple.she brings a nice warmth to the character.i think this is her only portrayal of Miss Marple.the acting is pretty good all around.there are a number of famous actors from an earlier era in this movie.all were good,but Kim Novak stood out for me,as did the actor who played Miss Marple's nephew and Scotland Yard Inspector.as for the movie itself,i enjoyed it,and was never bored.overall,this movie is a pleasant diversion,and it's interesting watching Miss Marple solve the crime.(with a bit of help)it's not really fast paced,so you'll need some patience.for me,The Mirror Crack'd is a 6/10.
Her husband, Rock Hudson, is the film's director, and the producer's (Tony Curtis) wife (Kim Novak) her archrival.Although credited as being based on an Agatha Christie novel, the movie was also inspired by the real-life tragedy of the beautiful and talented actress Gene Tierney.
With "The Mirror Crack'd" (sic), Guy Hamilton had control of a staggering cast of super-popular players led by Kim Novak, Edward Fox, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis and even Rock Hudson.
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.
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.
Fun, star filled mystery, this cut off from the Hercules Poirot films went back to an already familiar Agatha Christie character, Miss Jane Marple.
Her portrayals as Miss Marple are dead on Christie's wonderful character development, and in this critic's opinion, there is no other Marple.Lansbury takes a back seat this time as Miss Marple lets her favorite nephew Scotland Yard Inspector Delbert Craddock (played very competently by Edward Fox), conduct his official investigation into an accidental murder which takes place in a rather posh English home, peopled by American movie stars.Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Tony Curtis, Kim Novac, Pierce Brosnan (as an uncredited 'Jamie'), and of course Angela Lansbury star in this wonderful who-dunnit, which was originally written by the notable Agatha Christie.While this production is not of the epic quality of her two best-known book-to-film adaptations, "Death on the Nile" and "Murder on the Orient Express," this is a quality production which was great fun to watch.The barbs exchanged by Taylor and Novac were darkly wonderful, and the relationship between Taylor and Hudson was beautifully represented with Taylor's lines..."Bags, bags, go away!
It has been noted in several of the reviews on this thread, THE MIRROR CRACK'D is notable as the last film of real importance for Kim Novak, one of the last good films of Elizabeth Taylor, and an above-average retelling of one of Agatha Christie's mystery stories about Mrs. Marple of St. Mary's Mead.
With a supporting cast including Taylor's GIANT co-star Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Edward Fox (another tiptop performance there) and Geraldine Chaplin, it is well done.
The crew comprises leading lady Marina Gregg (ELIZABETH TAYLOR), her husband and director Jason Rudd (ROCK HUDSON), Marina's co-star Lola Brewster (KIM NOVAK) and the producer Marty Fenn (TONY CURTIS).
Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Edward Fox, the latter giving a VERY fine performance, maybe even "saving" the film for me in the second half.The story: A frumpy local woman is murdered (poisoned) as she attends a high-end theatrical party with hundreds present...
As a result, we get Edward Fox doing most of the detecting (with Angela Lansbury's Marple just a bit player), Elizabeth Taylor emoting for England, Rock Hudson being pained and sincere, Tony Curtis revelling in his seedy producer act and Kim Novak camping it up as Queen Bitch of the Universe.Clearly, the stars are having fun, but once they have all had their share of screen time there is only enough left to tell half the story.
Angela Lansbury is the ideal Miss Marple, the would-be sleuth who plays Aunt Jane to Edward Fox's Scotland Yard detective.Huge supporting cast includes Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, and a melodramatic Elizabeth Taylor.