Following up MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and DEATH ON THE NILE was going to be a tough act and so it proved with the moribund THE MIRROR CRACK'D.
Rather optimistically Angela Lansbury was signed to a three-picture deal to play Miss Jane Marple but then they choose a story that sidelines her with a twisted ankle, so Lansbury's scenes mostly consist of her sitting in her living room, being told how the murder investigation is progressing.
It took two people to write the adaptation but it never rises above the serviceable, with much-vaunted scenes of bitchy dialogue between rival actresses played by Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak proving to be duds.
The main fault lies with Guy Hamilton; no doubt happier filming his four Bond films, here he cannot give the material any menace as a poisoner stalks a Hollywood film company filming near St. Mary Mead.
Shelf or charity shop? A grudging shelf as it's part of a rather snazzy Agatha Christie box-set. Oddly enough, the film's premise which seems far-fetched in the telling is based on a real incident that happened to actress Gene Tierney. It begins brightly enough with a recreation of a 1950s b/w country house thriller starring Anthony Steel, Dinah Sheridan and Nigel Stock; this turns out to be a film Miss Marple is watching in the village hall. Fatally, Guy Hamilton directs the main story like he was directing this type of Merton Park b-picture, totally wasting his illustrious cast. Needless to say there were no more films for Angie's 3 picture-deal
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