The third and surely the least of a wave of Agatha Christie all-star mashups of the era, this 1980 mystery is worth watching mainly for the star-gazing and a twist or two. The DVD copy we watched last night looks disconcertingly bright, like it's videotape and not film, but it does offer some Agatha Christie pleasures. We're in England in 1953 (bad mistake: One scene has a 1959 Cadillac), where a bunch of Hollywood heavyweights arrive to make a movie. The plot machinations need not be repeated here, but Rock Hudson, reunified 24 years after "Giant" with Elizabeth Taylor, does his usual good work as a put-upon director, while Taylor rather overacts the besieged, threatened movie star he's married to. Angela Lansbury, mid-"Murder, She Wrote," stretches no new muscles as Miss Marple, while Kim Novak, looking fabulous, copes with some lame bitchy dialogue as Taylor's rival. Tony Curtis has practically nothing to do as a PR flak, Geraldine Chaplin has not much more to do as a production assistant, and the best work, surprisingly, is done by Edward Fox, as a Scotland Yard detective who also happens to be Miss Marple's nephew. One of the three murders isn't explained at all, though we can make an educated guess, and the production design and costumes are no more than competent. It's pretty lumpy storytelling, but the cast is fun to watch, and, this being Agatha Christie, you may not figure it out.
Review of The Mirror Crack'd
