Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1992)

Well Deserved Praise

The greatest movie ever made..!

Let's be realistic.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The poor village of Saint Mary Mead is invaded by some American actors and actresses for the shooting of a film. The main actress was actually raised in the village before moving to America. It's obvious Miss Marple does not consider cinema actors as very respectable people, though that is no reason to kill them. But apparently it is by far enough to justify their suicide. The story is sordid about the past, but that is nearly nothing when compared with the sordidness of the present they impose onto themselves and one another. Working conditions of actors and actresses are horrific and producers are the worst exploiters that can exist and they deserve our full and complete condescending contempt. Add into that picture a couple of adopted children, rejected afterwards, and then a real child reduced to an incurable fate by German measles during the pregnancy and you have the squalid reality of this case. So it is nearly nice of Jane Marple to overlook the slight detail that the death of that actress was not entirely natural though it looks suicidal, or maybe not entirely suicidal though it looks absolutely natural, or whatever other mixture with artificial added in the lot. In one word good riddance and just hope God is just as understanding as we are not.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I can hardly believe that three British people above have referred to the beautiful Claire Bloom as and American actress. One of them credited her being American with having enlivened the proceedings, and one blamed her being American for faults in the production.Can it be that British people don't know that she is regarded in the United States as one of the most distinguished English actresses? She made her debut in Charlie Chaplin's LIMELIGHT. And could anyone seeing her as Lady Marchmain in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED imagine that she was anything but English? She also appeared on British television as Joy Davidman in SHADOWLANDS.

This adaptation respects its material, and is overall a solid adaptation of the book. The book, I will admit isn't Christie's best, but what made it so interesting was the victim Heather Badcock, and I felt that the adaptation could have developed her more. The adaptation is also overlong but maintains interest, thanks to the way it was filmed, the pace and the acting. The adaptation is beautifully filmed, and the music is fantastic. It also moves along at a much more reasonable pace than say They Do It With Mirrors (that was good but i had a real problem with the pace). And the acting is very good, as is the case with the Joan Hickson Marple adaptations. Hickson is indeed terrific as Miss Marple, and Claire Bloom, Barry Newman and Norman Rodway are a fine supporting cast. Gwen Watford is the standout in a hilarious performance. The adaptation which further benefits from good plotting is fairly faithful save a couple of questionable liberties, and the Ella Zeilinsky murder was quite a disturbing scene for me I will admit. All in all, solid adaptation and well worth the look. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I have a problem with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. Although Agatha Christie always considered her as the ideal Miss Marple (way before she even played the detective) I think she is too slow, too boring, too anything but exciting. The TV movie has nothing to do with the 1981 Angela Lansbury - version, but has everything to do with the book. In the 1981 version, lots of characters had been dropped that were in the book, but in this tv movie, every detail has been respected. But I missed the catty relationship between the two movie stars like in the 1981 film.