By the time Guy Hamilton directed "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980), he had left the days of "An Inspector Calls" (1954) long behind. Not only had his expertise and confidence improved, he felt that he could handle any important actor or actress, no matter what their hang-ups or how vulnerable their egos. With "The Mirror Crack'd" (sic), Guy Hamilton had control of a staggering cast of super-popular players led by Kim Novak, Edward Fox, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis and even Rock Hudson. That line-up certainly helped at the box-office! So did a delightful script, full of amusing jibes, as well as an intriguing Agatha Christie mystery. The movie's particularly lush production values (thank you, cameraman Christopher Challis) are well served on the excellent Anchor Bay DVD.Maybe it was too much of a good thing! The movie was certainly popular, but it could not be described as super-popular - at least not in theaters. It drew a much larger audience on TV, but it had such an expensive cast, I doubt if it ever broke even!

Fun, star filled mystery, this cut off from the Hercules Poirot films went back to an already familiar Agatha Christie character, Miss Jane Marple. Less "tweedy" than Margaret Rutherford who played the part in several well remembered 1960's films, Angela Lansbury is every bit as clever as her predecessor if less snoopy, only sticking her nose in if she happens to smell a clue.This entry has Miss Marple's town a agog over the arrival of a film crew and its major stars, filming "Mary Queen of Scots". Playing the leading role is the still gorgeous Elizabeth Taylor whose director husband Rock Hudson is trying to protect her allegedly fragile state. Taylor's old rival (Kim Novak) shows up to play Queen Elizabeth and this begins a series of amusing bitch fights between the two divas, interrupted on occasion by murder. Who would want to murder la Liz, and accidentally kill an over zealous fan and her assistant? While the local police zoom in, it's up to Miss Marple to really dig deep to figure it all out.Among the suspects are Tony Curtis as a crass producer, Geraldine Chaplin as a blackmailing secretary, the nasty Novak (who wants to change history to increase her part at Taylor's expense) and Taylor or Hudson for mysterious reasons of their own. The witty and calculating script will keep you guessing, and long after you have seen it, you'll want to revisit what lead its star to T.V. immortality as a New England variation of the same character. The ending is tragically heart wrenching.

This is my least favourite Agatha Christie movie. It has lots of well known actors, Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Charles (Rocky Horror) Gray, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Geraldine Chapman, but only Elizabeth Taylor gets a juicy role.Taylor and Novak vamp and camp about like a couple of drag queens or like Vera and Mame in Mame insulting each other. I did not find it amusing, just embarrassing and boring.Miss Marple smokes! Heavens. Talk about out of character.It is all just too overblown and melodramatic. The score is similarly overblown and Gone With The Windish. It is just not believable. I have a pretty low bar. I can even handle Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple.

Sorry to say it, but IMHO this is a really bad production, particularly considered as a mystery film and particularly in comparison with the BBC productions (1992 and 2010) which show how this material should really be handled. Curtis and Novak play a film producer and a camera-hugging starlet as heavy-handed stereotypes straight out of a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoon. Of course both can do better - clearly it's the director's fault for allowing/encouraging it. Taylor and Hudson try to provide some balance but can't overcome Hales's screenplay and Hamilton's direction. Both of the latter appear to believe that the viewers have never heard of Christie, Marple, or mysteries, and have to be forcibly guided through the game with cheats and walkthroughs. Plot points and clues which are subtly introduced, or discovered through deduction, in the novel (and in the BBC versions) are here spelled out loudly, notoriously, early, and with audiovisual effects.