THE MIRROR CRACK'D: Blu-ray (EMI, 1980) Kino Lorber

A total misfire for screen legend, Angela Lansbury, The Mirror Crack’d (1980) attempted to do for Dame Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple what Murder on the Orient Express (1974) had for Christie’s other famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot; namely, to put this amateur crime solver on her cinematic mettle. Alas, Lansbury, who would achieve ever-lasting fame in 1984 as America’s favorite deductress, Jessica Fletcher on TV’s Murder She Wrote (1984-96), proved much too sophisticated around the edges to play this white-haired, small-town maven, more quaintly contented to find her resolutions at the bottom of a sewing basket than the court room. Indeed, Christie too favored Poirot over Marple. There are far more Hercule Poirot mysteries in Christie’s literary canon. And truth to tell, Marple had already been immortalized on the screen by madcap/eccentric, Margaret Rutherford in a series of expertly produced Christie/Marple big screen mysteries, beginning with 1961’s Murder, She Said. So, the character’s resurrection herein, minus Rutherford’s inimitable, weather-beaten charm, seemed marginally absurd at best. And rather awkwardly, the screenplay coauthored by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler did not know quite what to make of Lansbury’s countrified and spinsterish sleuth, concentrating more screen time on Elizabeth Taylor’s frustratingly awful, Marina Gregg-Rudd – the actress, cast as another from her profession, plagued by crippling anxieties someone on the set of her new movie is trying to do her harm.  In it too were Rock Hudson, who was no more believable than Taylor as the oafish and techy husband, Jason; Kim Novak, as absurdly oversexed co-star, Lola Brewster, and, Tony Curtis, as Lola’s new man, the slippery skunk, Martin Fenn.

In hindsight, The Mirror Crack’d suffers gravely from too many headliners in disposable cameos. Curtis, as example, is thoroughly wasted in this walk-on; ditto for Geraldine Chaplin as Marina’s social secretary, Ella Zelinsky – a sort of impish ‘fetch and carry’ stooge. Others, ill-served by their inclusion: Edward Fox as Marple’s baffled nephew, Inspector Dermot Craddock, Charles Grey, as the butler, Bates who (at least in Christie’s books) never did it, and, Richard Pearson, as the good Doctor Haydock. Christie’s novel was first published in 1962 and, in hindsight, although a best seller, does not represent either the authoress or the genre particularly well. Nevertheless, the book’s runaway success prompted Warner Bros. to snatch up the rights and announce, in 1977, Helen Hayes would be the latest actress to attempt Marple’s homespun meddling; Hayes, all but set to make both this movie and A Caribbean Mystery. Hayes would get the opportunity to portray Marple in this latter effort. Though, by then, Hollywood’s yen for Christie’s craft had decidedly cooled and A Caribbean Mystery found its way, severely scaled down, as a made-for-TV movie instead. Meanwhile, the film rights for The Mirror Crack’d passed to John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin, producers of the highly successful, Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978). Brabourne and Goodwin were eager to capitalize on Lansbury’s star power, especially given her winning turn in ‘Death’ as the chronically inebriated authoress, Salome Ottoborne. But Lansbury’s commitments to Broadway’s Sweeney Todd in 1979 precluded her immediate involvement on The Mirror Crack’d.  That same year, Brabourne narrowly escaped death from a bomb blast that killed his mother, son, and father-in-law, Lord Mountbatten. Ironically, Brabourne and Goodwin pursued James Bond director, Guy Hamilton for this project – a very odd decision, since Hamilton openly discounted Christie’s novels, but thought the Hales/Sandler screenplay ‘awfully funny.’

The decision to use stars ‘from the 1950’s’ bode with the period depicted in the movie. Regrettably, all of the Hollywood glitterati gathered together are sincerely past their prime. And let us be even more frank in suggesting Rock Hudson’s screen appeal had much to do with the creation of that larger-than-life, broad-shouldered faux masculinity he flaunted in his youth as everybody’s all-American hunk du jour, herein gone to seed as the slightly paunchy ‘guy on the side’ – desperately in love with his movie star wife. As for Elizabeth Taylor: one could no more take seriously the notion any major film company would cast the impossibly plump Taylor in a major period costume epic, than the devastatingly dull Kim Novak, also to co-star in Elizabethan skull-capped curls and low-cut bodice – a sex bomb detonated at least a decade earlier. In the early stages of pre-production, it looked as though Natalie Wood would be cast as Marina. Ill-timing and second thoughts caused Wood to withdraw. Meanwhile, Tony Curtis came to the production after his miserably failed attempt to do Broadway - I Ought to Be in Pictures – a catastrophic turkey. Stepping into the shoes of the tormented and delusional star, Elizabeth Taylor, who had not made another movie in 3 years, suggested the appeal of this one stemmed from its short schedule and ability to work near her husband. But the public’s anticipation for another Miss Marple classic was severely impacted by the absence of Margaret Rutherford – a priceless asset, whose clowning throughout the 1960’s filmed outings, while hardly in keeping with Christie’s depiction of the pert, though otherwise ladylike Marple, had ingratiated Rutherford to film fans all over the world. Regrettably, Rutherford had died in 1972, of Alzheimer’s Disease; a somewhat ironic end for the Marple she created and whom Rutherford had portrayed as deliciously dotty; a total klutz, at one point, driving her bicycle into the village duckpond.

What The Mirror Crack’d appears to have forgotten – or rather – deliberately set aside, is that without such outlandish bits of business, Christie’s Jane Marple, while endlessly readable as a straight-laced amateur crime solver, leaves much to be desired by any actress attempting to play her right down the middle, without the laughs. “I'm trying to get at the woman Agatha Christie created,” Lansbury defended at the time the picture was preparing to shoot, “…not a fat galumph of a creature” but an Edwardian lady who possessed “tremendous alertness and curiosity allied to a great appetite for murder.” Indeed, Brabourne and Goodwin’s faith in Lansbury was unshakable; the producers, optimistically signing Lansbury to a 3-picture deal, with the understanding all three would be ‘Marple’ movies. It was not to be, as the tepid response to this movie was enough to kill any future plans to reprise the role. But at least the mood on the set was laid back. Cast and crew complimented Hamilton on his ability to keep everyone’s spirits high. They might have first considered an old maxim in Hollywood: that the more fun had behind the scenes, the weaker the movie to emerge from the exercise. And indeed, The Mirror Crack’d is a rather congenial mishmash of lost opportunities for a really entertaining whodunit.

Hamilton, together with cinematographer, Christopher G. Challis, lights most of his movie as though it were a made-for-TV drama, the village of Smarden looking like something out of Better Homes & Gardens, subbed in for the quaint village of St. Mary Mead, while St. Clere Estate in Heaverham, as Marina and Jason’s fashionable home, appears about as ‘lived in’ as the National Gallery in London. Biographers thus have long-since theorized Agatha Christie borrowed heavily on the ‘real life’ tragic circumstances of actress, Gene Tierney for her inspiration. Indeed, Tierney’s last act was hardly that of a Hollywood screen queen; her downward spiral into a haunted mental decay, begun in June 1943 when, while pregnant, she contracted German measles from a chance meeting with a fan already infected, directly resulting in her child being born deaf, partially blind and developmentally challenged. Tierney never recovered from the guilt of this moment, nor could she ever forgive the woman who had so callously jeopardized her health for the sake of an autograph. Christie’s set-up for a similar ‘big’ reveal to the movie’s star, Elizabeth Taylor’s Marina, is almost taken verbatim from Tierney’s incident.

The Mirror Crack’d is set in 1953 in the English village of St. Mary Mead. The town is agog with news of a big Hollywood production company come to film Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth costarring Marina Rudd and Lola Brewster – old rivals of the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford ilk. For Marina, the picture means everything – a comeback after a prolonged illness (code for ‘nervous breakdown’ after her son was born with severe brain damage). Marina and her husband, Jason, who is directing, arrive ahead of the more flamboyant Lola and her new husband, Marty Fenn. The villagers, along with Miss Jane Marple, crowd Gossington Hall to meet their favorite celebrities. And while Lola and Marina remain civil during this reception, Marina is suddenly stricken by the ongoing babbling of her most devoted fan, Heather Babcock (Maureen Bennett). At first, Marina feigns interest. However, as the story continues, Heather reveals the first time she and Marina met; an instance in which Heather sacrificed not only her own health but also Marina’s to indulge in her star worship. Stunned by this revelation, shortly thereafter Heather drinks a cocktail made for Marina and almost immediately succumbs to the poison-laced concoction. It seems Marina was the intended murder victim, a suspicion confirmed when Marina reveals she has been receiving anonymous death threats. Later, she discovers a cup of coffee laced with the same poison awaiting her on the set between takes. Investigating Scotland Yard Inspector Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox), who also happens to be Jane Marple’s nephew, is completely baffled, and taps his aunt’s intellect for amateur crime-solving to get to the bottom of things.  Gradually, the list of suspects is narrowed to Ella Zielinsky, Jason's secretly admiring assistant, and, Lola.

Alas, Ella, after threatening to expose the real murderer, is herself killed by a lethal nasal spray substituted for her hay-fever medication. Having already deduced the identity of the killer, Miss Marple attends Marina and Jason, gleaning even more clues from the cleaning woman, Cherry Baker (Wendy Morgan). Regrettably, Marple arrives at her conclusion too late, Marina having taken her own life with a fatal dose of the same poison. Miss Marple explains. Heather Babcock's story triggered Marina's motive for revenge. She wanted Heather to pay for her child’s suffrage with her life, as, her callous disregard for social distancing during a bout of German measles absolutely crippled Marina’s chances for happiness. Thus, Marina spiked Heather’s drink with the poison, switching glasses to make it appear as though the lethal drug was conceived with her own death in mind. As Ella inadvertently guessed correctly, Marina had no choice but to kill her too. Having deduced his wife’s complicity in these crimes, Jason spiked her cocoa with poison. Alas, that glass was not touched. However, unable to live with her deeds, Marina took her own life by preparing another drink of poison to escape being brought to justice; Miss Marple, declaring to Jason, “She’s given her finest performance” before quietly departing this house of death.

The Mirror Crack’d is an unusually somber, and occasionally silly affair. Given its source material, it should have been a better movie. Yet, despite this being billed as a ‘Miss Marple mystery’, Angela Lansbury’s snow-haired sleuth is the least developed character in this story; director, Hamilton and writers, Hale and Sandler relying almost exclusively on the reputation of Christie’s fictional crime-solver to carry Marple’s long absences from the screen. If only more had been done to evolve the other characters in this plodding and perfunctory piece of fluff, the movie might have been able to sustain our interests without a Miss Marple lurking about the fringes.  Alas, virtually every character in this story is given nothing beyond the ‘stick figure with no soul’ treatment.  Hamilton moves these characters through the narrative as though they were chess pieces, connecting the dots of his story with the most superficial tissue of suspense. And he is further ill-served in this straight-forward attempt by stars whose magnetism has expired. Elizabeth Taylor, at her most plump, is a wan ghost flower of that stunningly handsome dynamo, once to command on sheer presence in pictures like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Butterfield 8 (1960). Deprived of anything better than a few choice lines scattered between moments which do not directly involve her character, Angela Lansbury barely makes a ripple as Miss Marple. In the end, The Mirror Crack’d unravels into a sort of unsustainable series of implausible vignettes, loosely strung together to make sense of the picture’s dénouement – Marina’s suicide. Yet, even in this, the audience is given no time to absorb the gravity of the moment; Lansbury’s Marple, with an almost ‘matter of fact’ shrug, casually strolling away from the scene of so many crimes, satisfied merely to have figured things out for herself.

The Mirror Crack’d arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s association with StudioCanal. Dirty little secret here: StudioCanal’s U.K. release some eight years ago, although mislabeled as ‘region B’, was actually ‘region free’ – meaning it played everywhere. In the interim, StudioCanal elected only to do a new 4K remaster of Christie’s most celebrated crime/thrillers, Death on the Nile, and, Murder on the Orient Express, the latter for which StudioCanal’s rights in the U.S. do not extend. Paramount holds these rights on this side of the pond. Will Murder on the Orient Express ever see the light of day in the U.S.? One can hope. And like the other aforementioned titles, Death and Murder – in their first Blu-ray incarnation abroad from StudioCanal were ‘region free’ – albeit, with inferior 1080p renderings, newly corrected by another ‘region B’ locked StudioCanal release in the U.K. in 2018. The Mirror Crack’d from Kino sports an identical transfer to that of the first StudioCanal ‘region free’ Blu-ray, and the results are more than adequate. In fact, for most of the picture, they are exemplary. The 1080p transfer is clean, with excellent contrast, rich colors, and a light smattering of accurately rendered film grain. So, no complaints. The 2.0 DTS audio is also adequate for this release. Kino bests the StudioCanal release with a newly recorded audio commentary from historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson. Once more, this triumvirate delve into antiquity with a lot of choice tidbits on the making of this movie. Bottom line: The Mirror Crack’d is not 5-star Agatha Christie. I would argue, at times it is not even competent picture making – a real oddity, given its pedigree and the talents responsible for its creation. The Blu-ray, however, will surely not disappoint fans. Recommended for disc quality, though hardly for story-telling.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

1