Amid the resurgence of lush Poirot movies, Miss Marple tiptoed in with “The Mirror Crack’d” (1980). It’s a faithful, respectable adaptation, and many people liked Angela Lansbury’s turn as Miss Marple at the time (and some still do), but I can’t shake the Joan Hickson comparison.
Lansbury says she played Marple as Agatha Christie wrote her. Unfortunately, at age 55, she’s too middle-aged and physically substantial of a presence. And although the performance is not extremely showy, it’s a little too big in the same way Peter Ustinov’s Poirot is.
And it’s not helped by the filmmakers being fine with purposeful excesses, including Miss Marple smoking a cigarette! This is clear right off the bat with a non-novel scene of the citizens of St. Mary Mead watching a murder-mystery film in the town hall.
“The Mirror Crack’d” (1980)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Writers: Jonathan Hales, Barry Sandler (screenplay); Agatha Christie (novel)
Stars: Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson
The projector breaks amid the Poirot-esque final monolog, and Marple explains whodunit based on the clues. It doesn’t have to be teased out of her; she’s happy to share with the whole room and be the center of attention.
Cast matches novel’s characters
The rest of the cast matches Christie’s “The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side” (1962) nicely, including Elizabeth Taylor as Marina Rudd, the A-list actress who buys and refurbishes a mansion on the edge of the village. Rock Hudson is her husband, and Tony Curtis is another powerful presence as the producer of Marina’s new film.
Geraldine Chaplin provides a suspicious air as the director’s assistant, Kim Novak is unrecognizable from “Vertigo” as Marina’s acting rival, and Edward Fox is a rather down-to-earth Inspector Dermot Craddock thanks in part to a chipped front tooth.
When reviewing Hickson’s “Miss Marple” TV series, I wondered why Craddock randomly becomes Marple’s nephew in the “Mirror Crack’d” (the finale) – when he’s not related to her earlier in the series, nor in the books. Now I realize it’s because he’s Marple’s nephew in this movie, as writers Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler combine Craddock with Christie’s Matthew West to create family coziness in the Marple-Craddock chats.
Hales is certainly the most unheralded person with a major credit in George Lucas’ “Star Wars” franchise, having co-written “Episode II,” and his work with Sandler on “Crack’d” is smart and workmanlike. Aside from comparing the Marples, I like this version slightly more than the Hickson series’ version.
Adaptations of this novel are difficult to judge, because the brilliance of Christie’s revelation of the killer and the motive is such that every reader remembers it. So when we watch an adaptation, it becomes a clinical exercise in seeing how they pull it off.
Plot holds up despite some cracks
Director Guy Hamilton stages the crucial sequence fairly, as Marina stares into space while uberfan Heather Babcock (a delightfully bubbleheaded Maureen Bennett) talks her ear off. It can be read as Marina staring into space from boredom, but can also be read for what’s actually happening – she’s deep in thought about what Heather is saying.
As such, I bet viewers unfamiliar with the novel will appreciate the revelation. It’s not really solvable, since the motive is revealed late, but it’s chilling and unique enough to make up for that. In the meantime, everything else we learn is a red herring, but the relationships are real.
And Hamilton directs with a slightly comedic vibe, reveling in his talented cast. He would do a much better job at this on “Evil Under the Sun” (1982) – also centering on an actress who draws sycophants and haters. That film sings with its lightly comic rhythms, whereas “The Mirror Crack’d” has clunky moments and mistimed editing.
This great Christie plot doesn’t crack under the flaws, though, and while Hickson is my Marple, Lansbury is a fine actress and easy to watch if you think of her as an alterna-Marple.
And in a backdoor way, “The Mirror Crack’d” led to a role Lansbury made her own, Maine mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote” (1984-96). Plus, it was a step toward the Christie estate realizing these alterna-Marples aren’t clicking. They’d try again with Helen Hayes (1983, 1985), and then they cinched it with Hickson in 1984-92.