The producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin go to the well once again with another Agatha Christie adaptation. They had considerable financial success with Murder On The Orient Express starring Albert Finny as Hercule Poirot. Their follow up was Death on the Nile another Hercule Poirot film made money but considerably less than Murder On The Orient Express. Probably looking for a break from Poirot mysteries the producers hired director Guy Hanilton to film The Mirror Crack'd with Agatha Christie's other popular detective character Jane Marple.
At times the producers seemed like they were thumbing their noses up at the mystery. The cast was a real collection of Hollywood has beens. Elizabeth Taylor played an aging film star, Rock Hudson played her husband a hack film director. Kim Novak was cast as Taylor's movie star nemesis and Tony Curtis was the producer of a film that is being shot in Jane Marple's home town, this is an amazing cast of past their prime performers.
Many scenes in the film featured Taylor and Novak trading quips about aging Hollywood movie stars. The film they are making appears to be about the life of Mary Queen of Scots a woman who died at the age of 44. Taylor at the time was 48 but looked about 60 with years of partying finally starting to catch up with her. The cameraman must have had his hands full photographing her. I suspect Agatha Christie would have not been real thrilled by the changes made in her novel. Angela Lansbury played Jane Marple a character she basically rehashed for her Jessica Fletcher character in her TV series Murder She Wrote.
Well anyway we see Miss Marple go through all the expected motions as she solves a couple of murders relating to the movie company. Guy Hamilton's direction is competent enough. He was always a decent craftsman if not an "auteur" film maker. The photography is nice and pretty and if you are in the mood to watch a bunch of has been actors hamming it up this film is as good a time killer as any.
The film was written by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, the running time is 105 minutes.
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