Studio: Associated Film Distribution
Running time: 105 minutes
The Mirror Crack’d (1980)
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the murder among them all? Angela Lansbury (Death on the Nile) is Agatha Christie’s (Evil Under the Sun) legendary detective, Miss Marple. Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra), Rock Hudson (Giant), Tony Curtis (The Vikings), Kim Novak (Vertigo), Geraldine Chaplin (Doctor Zhivago) and Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal) are the suspects. With stars like that, this case is going to be murder! Jane Marple is thrilled when glamorous Hollywood actors 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 director yells ‘that’s a wrap’? Jonathan Hales (Loophole) and Barry Sandler (Crimes of Passion) adapted this beloved Miss Marple novel. Directed by Guy Hamilton (An Inspector Calls), The Mirror Crack’d is filled with some of the most priceless performances and delectable dialogue of any Christie mystery.” [From the Blu-ray]
Cast
Miss Marple: Angela Lansbury
Cherry: Wendy Morgan
Mrs. Bantry: Margaret Courtenay
Bates the Butler: Charles Gray
Heather Babcock: Maureen Bennett
Miss Giles: Carolyn Pickles
The Major: Eric Dodson
Vicar: Charles Lloyd-Pack
Dr. Haydock: Richard Pearson
Mayor: Thick Wilson
Mayoress: Pat Nye
Scoutmaster: Peter Woodthorpe
Ella Zielinsky: Geraldine Chaplin
Marty N. Fenn: Tony Curtis
Inspector Craddock: Edward Fox
Jason Rudd: Rock Hudson
Lola Brewster: Kim Novak
Marina Rudd: Elizabeth Taylor
Margot Bence: Marella Oppenheim
Sir Derek Ridgeley: Anthony Steel
Lady Amanda Ridgeley: Dinah Sheridan
Kate Ridgeley: Orianna Grieve
Charles Foxwell: Kenneth Fortescue
Lady Foxcroft: Hildegard Neil
Peter Montrose: Allan Cuthbertson
DaSilva: George Silver
Barnsby: John Bennett
Inspector Gates: Nigel Stock
Crew
Director: Guy Hamilton
Producers: John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin
Screenwriters: Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler
Based on the novel “The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side” by: Agatha Christie
Cinematographer: Christopher Challis
Production Designer: Michael Stringer
Art Director: John Roberts
Musical Score: John Cameron
Costumes: Phyllis Dalton
Editor: Richard Marden
Did You Know?
The Mirror Crack’d was a star-studded affair that reunited Elizabeth with former co-stars Rock Hudson and Angela Lansbury, and gave her the opportunity to work for the first time with Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, Geraldine Chaplin, and Edward Fox. Director Guy Hamilton, when asked how he assembled such a top tier cast of legends from the golden age of Hollywood, said: “Well, I just asked them. They read the script and said they’d love to. They saw how juicy the roles were.”
Agatha Christie loosely based the character of Marina Gregg on actress Gene Tierney. The part of Marina Gregg was offered to Natalie Wood, who turned it down, before it went to Elizabeth. “I play, believe it, Marina Gregg, a movie star, an American actress, who comes to England on location for a film,” Elizabeth said. “The part that I play is absolutely wonderful in its diversity. There’s humour, chewing up the scenery, pathos—so it has all kinds of elements of every kind of actor’s dream.”
Part of the film was shot in location in Kent, the English county where the Taylors had their weekend home, Little Swallows, before relocating to America. Elizabeth remarked on its similarity to Virginia, where she was currently living with husband John Warner: “I was delighted to have the chance of going back to Kent, a part of England I knew very well when I was a child. Kent,” she explained, “is so like Virginia. [It] could be an adjoining state.”
Hildegard Neil, who played Lady Foxcroft in the film, starred as the queen of the Nile opposite Charlton Heston in Antony and Cleopatra (1972). That film, directed by Heston, is said to have cut corners by incorporating footage from Cleopatra (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor.
The Premiere
The New York premiere of The Mirror Crack’d, the delicious big screen adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple whodunnits, was held at the iconic Ziegfeld Theatre.
