Name: Film Review: The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
Item: The Mirror Crack'd
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Quality film is more than mere sum of its parts. Films might have intriguing concept, high production values, talented people in front and behind the camera while still ending as disappointments. One such example can be found in The Mirror Crack’d, 1980 British mystery film directed by Guy Hamilton.

The film is based on Agatha Christie’s 1962 novel The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, seventh in the series featuring amateur detective Miss Marple. The plot is set in 1953 and takes place in St. Mary Mead, quiet and picturesque English village where elderly Miss Marple (played by Angela Lansbury) uses every opportunity to impress her fellow villagers with her superb deductive abilities. Monotonous country life is interrupted with the arrival of a film crew which is about to make Hollywood spectacle about Mary, Queen of Scots. Its star is Marina Rudd (played by Elizabeth Taylor), great diva that is coming back from retirement. She takes lodging in local manor together with her husband and film’s director Jason Rudd (played by Rock Hudson). They hold reception for locals, during which Marina’s bitter rival Lola Brewster (played by Kim Novak) arrives with her husband, film’s producer Marty Fenn (played by Tony Curtis) who insisted that she plays the role of Mary’s rival Queen Elizabeth. The reception ends with a sudden death of Heather Babcock (played by Maureen Bennett), local woman who was Marina’s most enthusiastic fan. The autopsy reveals that the death was caused by poisoning and the investigation, led by Miss Marple’s nephew Inspector Craddock (played by Edward Fox), suggests that the actual target was Marina.

The Mirror Crack’d at times looks like two different films fused into one. One is the semi-humorous period drama about everyday life and peculiar characters you might find in English countryside. The other is biting satirical comedy dealing with Hollywood and its inflated egos. What connects those parts together is rather weak murder mystery, which would be easily solved even by viewers unaccustomed to Agatha Christie’s work. Director Guy Hamilton, known for his work in James Bond film series, does his job competently, but he can’t overcome limitations of the poor script by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler. Dialogues are very weak and the main protagonist, Miss Marple, is inconveniently incapacitated for most of the film and appears only near the end in order to witness to the somewhat melodramatic plot resolution. This ending, apparently inspired by the real life tragedies in life of a Hollywood star Gene Tierney, is at odds with light-hearted tone indicated by “Murder at Midnight” black-and-white film within film shown at the very beginning of The Mirror Crack’d. Angela Lansbury later described how she enjoyed making of this film, but also described it as “dreadful”. Her efforts, however, weren’t completely in vain, because very good and effective performance as an amateur detective earned her the similar role of Jessica Fletcher in successful and long-lasting TV series Murder, She Wrote.

RATING: 4/10 (++)