After their success with "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile", EMI and the Brabourne-Goodwin production team came a cropper with "The Mirror Crack'd".
By comparison with her other works, Agatha Christie's original novel had a relatively simple plot (albeit based around a clever idea). The result is a film that looks handsome but is desperately slow-moving. In addition, the script lacks the waspish bite of Anthony Shaffer's work on "Death on the Nile" and "Evil Under the Sun", whilst Elizabeth Taylor seems miscast as the tragic,Judy Garland-type heroine.
On the credit side, Angela Lansbury is good (the producers of "Murder, She Wrote" obviously agreed!) and the film-within-a-film at the start, a creaky British B & W B-picture from the 50s, is a delight, filled with veteran stars.
By comparison with her other works, Agatha Christie's original novel had a relatively simple plot (albeit based around a clever idea). The result is a film that looks handsome but is desperately slow-moving. In addition, the script lacks the waspish bite of Anthony Shaffer's work on "Death on the Nile" and "Evil Under the Sun", whilst Elizabeth Taylor seems miscast as the tragic,Judy Garland-type heroine.
On the credit side, Angela Lansbury is good (the producers of "Murder, She Wrote" obviously agreed!) and the film-within-a-film at the start, a creaky British B & W B-picture from the 50s, is a delight, filled with veteran stars.