The Mirror Crack’d (1980)

When a small English village is used for a big American movie to be shot, Miss Marple is delighted this is happening near her. However when famous actresses Marina Rudd and Lola Brewster starring together was always going to be a disaster as they hate each other!

Everything around the story is rather dramatic and over the top, I guess that was what the picture of old Hollywood was right? That is why this story set in 1953 shows just how far they would go to out do one another. The only issue was that the on the whole it didn’t have that next level to be engaging enough and shock the audience, everything about the plot twists were predictable.

As Marina and her husband Jason seem to be having some issues within their relationship and not getting along as well as they should that does raise some questions as they attempt to film the movie. Marina eventually claims that she is getting death threats and when someone else is poisoned she was the intended target?

Something you cannot complain about when it comes to this film is that the cast is incredible, Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple had me sold to watch it instantly but I actually thought she wasn’t given nearly enough screentime and just felt as though she had a small part. Elizabeth Taylor is always entertaining and she was certainly cast very well in her role. Rock Hudson opposite her as her husband brought a good balance. Then just throw in Tony Curtis and Kim Novak for good measure, and you have a cast who were better than the final film in all honesty. Everyone deserved so much better with this.