‘The Mirror Crack’d’ is a British adaptation of Agatha Christie’s ‘The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side,’ featuring Angela Lansbury playing the ‘elderly spinster’ sleuth Miss Marple for the first and only time. Directed by Guy Hamilton, with a screenplay by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, the movie boasts an ensemble cast including many thespians from the Golden Era of Hollywood, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, and Kim Novak, along with well-known British stars like Edward Fox and Geraldine Chaplin.

The plot opens at a theater in the quaint English village of St. Mary Mead. Among those in attendance are several of the village’s inhabitants, one being Miss Marple (Lansbury). A glitch in the projector causes the movie to end abruptly. The movie is a whodunit, and most of the audience is upset as they will not know who the killer was. Miss Marple uses her deductive skills to identify the killer and departs, leaving the rest of the audience gaping in awe.

The plot soon shifts to a fair in the village where a freak accident causes Miss Marple to sprain her ankle. As a result, Miss Marple is confined to her house under the care of Cherry (Wendy Morgan), her house cleaner, by her doctor, Haydock (Richard Pearson).

Around this time, a cinema crew arrives in the village to shoot a period drama. Marina Rudd, a star actor who is playing the lead role in the film, arrives in the village with her husband, Jason (Rock Hudson), who is the film’s director. After a hiatus following a family tragedy, she is seeking to make a comeback to the big screen.

The couple attends a high-profile reception at Gossington Hall, a manor house in the village. Lola Brewster (Kim Novak), another star and rival of Marina, also attends the event with her husband, Marty Fenn (Tony Curtis), who is producing the film.

There is no love lost between Lola and Marina, who both share animosity for one another. Also in attendance is Ella (Geraldine Chaplin), Jason’s loyal secretary who has affection for him. Cherry, Miss Marple’s house cleaner, is also at the crowded event, working as a waitress.

During the festivities, an obsessed fan of Marina’s, Heather, approaches Marina and, much to the vexation of the latter, launches into a long-winded story about how she had met Marina on an earlier occasion, years earlier. Marina asks her henpecked husband Jason to serve both of them drinks. George gives each of the women her drink and moves away to socialize with the crew.

Moments later, things take a shocking turn as Heather mysteriously drops dead at the scene. When Miss Marple hears of the mysterious death, she sees an opportunity to escape her boredom of confinement and begins a preliminary investigation. Cherry, who was at the event and observed the sequence of events, gives Marple a detailed narrative of how events unfolded.

She particularly remembers how Marina turned away from Heather during the long-winded tale with a look of morbid discomfort or perhaps fear and stared at a painting on the wall. Miss Marple also learns from her doctor that an autopsy revealed that Heather was poisoned by a barbiturate overdose. It has been presumed that Marina was the target of the murder and, unfortunately for Heather, she became the unintended victim.

Soon, Inspector Craddock, who has been assigned by Scotland Yard, arrives in the village to investigate the murder. He is a nephew of Miss Marple, pays her a visit, and asks Miss Marple to investigate.

More secrets begin to unravel as Craddock interrogates those present. He learns that Marina had taken her long break from acting following a depression after learning that the child she bore had severe brain damage.

There will be one more murder as the plot proceeds. The scene is set for the recovering Miss Marple to put all the pieces together and identify the murderer.

Interestingly, Angela Lansbury, who plays Miss Marple, has comparatively less screen time, and it is Elizabeth Taylor as the depressed, moody, and spoilt Marina who steals the show.

Marina has temper tantrums at home, paranoid delusions on the set, and takes out all of her frustrations on Jason. Rock Hudson also puts in a fine performance as the doting husband.

As for Miss Marple, who is confined to her home, she has to work with what she learns from Cherry, her doctor, and Craddock to solve the mystery. However, she will visit Gossington Hall to confirm her findings and identify the killer.

Though the disappointing box office returns of the movie did not encourage sequels for Lansbury to reprise her role, she would go on to play another popular sleuth for the small screen, Jessica Fletcher, in the iconic TV series ‘Murder, She Wrote’ from 1984 to 2022.

While there are no standout scenes in the movie, identifying the murderer and the murderer’s motives is not an easy task and this makes for a great twist in the climax. ‘The Mirror Crack’d’ is a good one-time watch.