The Mirror Crack'd
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| The Mirror Crack'd | |
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| Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
| Produced by | John Bradbourne Richard Goodwin |
| Written by | Agatha Christie (novel) Barry Sandler (screenplay) |
| Starring | Angela Lansbury Elizabeth Taylor Kim Novak Rock Hudson Edward Fox Geraldine Chaplin Tony Curtis |
| Music by | John Cameron |
| Cinematography | Christopher G. Challis |
| Editing by | Richard Marden |
| Distributed by | Columbia |
| Release date(s) | December 19, 1980 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Mirror Crack'd is a 1980 feature motion picture directed by Guy Hamilton boasting an all-star cast, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, Edward Fox, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, and Elizabeth Taylor, with Wendy Morgan, Maureen Bennett, Charles Gray, and Charles Lloyd Pack.
This crime/mystery/thriller was adapted by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962).
Scenes were filmed at Twickenham Film Studios, Twickenham, London, England, and on location in Kent.
1 hour, 45 minutes; widescreen; color
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[edit] Plot
Set in the fictional English village of St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Jane Marple (played by Lansbury), in 1953, 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 (played by Taylor) and Lola Brewster (played by Novak).
The two actresses 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 (played by 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 (played by Curtis), who is producing the movie they are making, then arrive. 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 delivered with considerable flair by Novak and Taylor, 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.
Marina, however, has been receiving anonymous death threats. After her initial exchange with Lola at the reception, she is cornered by a gushing, devoted fan, Heather Babcock (played by Bennett), who bores her with a long and detailed story about having actually met Marina in person during the war. 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 drops dead from poisoning.
The incident is unfortunate for Marina's mental state, and she is beside herself. Everyone is certain she was the intended murder victim. Once filming begins on the movie, she 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.
The police detective from Scotland Yard investigating the case, Inspector Delbert Craddock (played by 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 suspects pile up. Is it Ella Zielinsky (played by Chaplin), Jason's production assistant who is secretly having an affair with him and would like Marina out of the way? Or, is it the hotheaded screen goddess Lola Brewster?
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, Zielinsky, is then 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. Miss Marple, now back on her feet, visits Gossington Hall, where Marina and Jason are staying, and views where Babcock's death occurred. Working from information received from her cleaning woman, Cherry Baker (played by 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. By the time she has collected all the evidence to indicate who committed the crime, however, another death occurs at Gossington Hall, which sadly closes the case on who the murderer in St. Mary Mead actually is.
[edit] Quotes
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Lola: "I could eat a can of Kodak and PUKE a better picture!"
The Vicar: "Oh, Mr. Rudd, I understand that you are a film producer."
Jason: "Oh, no, sir. A director."
The Vicar: "Is there any difference?"
Jason: "Yes, sir. The producer supplies all the money; the director spends it. Then the producer yells that the director is spending too much money; the director doesn't pay any attention and goes right on spending. The director gets all the credit; the producer gets an ulcer. You see, it's all very simple.
Lola: "You seem lovely, as always. Of course, there are fewer lights on than usual. In fact, any fewer and I'd need a seeing-eye dog."
Marina: "Oh, I shouldn't bother to buy one, dear. In that wig, you could play Lassie."
Lola: "Same adorable sense of humor. And I'm so glad to see that you've not only kept your gorgeous figure, but you've added so much to it."
Marina: "What are you doing here so early, dear? I thought the plastic surgery seminar was in Switzerland."
Lola: "Actually, darling, I couldn't wait to begin our little movie. You know the saying, once an actress, always an actress."
Marina: "Oh, I do know the saying. But what does it have to do with you?"
Marina: "Lola, dear, you know, there are really only two things I dislike about you."
Lola: "Really? What are they?"
Marina: "Your face."
Marty (on the telephone, forgetting he is in England): "Get me the coast. (A beat.) What do you mean, what coast?"
[edit] Origin of the Plot
There can be little doubt that Christie used the real-life tragedy of American film actress Gene Tierney as the basis of her plot. As related in Tierney's autobiography (Self-Portrait, New York: Wyden, 1978; but well-publicized for years previously), in June 1943, while pregnant with her first child, Tierney came down with German measles which she contracted during an appearance at the Hollywood Canteen. The baby, Daria, was born prematurely, weighing only 3 pounds, 2 ounces, and requiring a total blood transfusion. The infant was also deaf, partially blind with cataracts, was severely retarded and ultimately had to be institutionalized. Some time after, Tierney learned from a fan who approached her for an autograph that the woman, who had been a member of the women's branch of the Marine Corps, had sneaked out of quarantine while sick with German measles to meet her at her Hollywood Canteen appearance. This incident, as well as the circumstances under which the actress was imparted the information, is repeated almost verbatim in the story. To hold that Christie developed it out of whole cloth stretches credulity even for a writer of her imagination.
[edit] Origin of the Title
The title is part of a line from The Lady of Shalott by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892). To those who know the poem, it conveys the idea of a vision which once seen, must inevitably lead to tragedy:
- Out flew the web and floated wide--
- The mirror crack'd from side to side;
- "The curse is come upon me," cried
- The Lady of Shalott.
[edit] Trivia
At one point, Lola refers to having "Alexander" brought in to do her hair. Taylor's hair was done for the movie by Alexandre de Paris.
Lola also says, looking at her face in the mirror, "Bags, bags, go away, come back on Doris Day", causing Hudson, who famously worked with Day, to smirk.
[edit] Movie goofs
[edit] See also
- The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (novel)
- The Mirror Crack'd (TV movie)
