FILM · 1980 · UK
The Mirror Crack'd
54 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (54)
- #001
At this point in her career, Elizabeth Taylor's fortunes were troubled: she was 48, had not had a proper hit film in years, her marriage to the American politician John Warner was in difficulty, she was taking antidepressants and had gained weight. When Rock Hudson was offered the film, he said he would only do it if Taylor, a long-time friend of his, was also cast. The producers had assumed Taylor's salary demands would far exceed the film's budget and were lining up Donald Pleasence as a possible alternative to Hudson. Hudson, however, said he could get Taylor to agree to appear alongside him for the same salary she had been offered, and he convinced her that coming to England for a few weeks to make a mainstream film with him, Angela Lansbury and Tony Curtis — all people she had known for about 30 years — would be good for her sanity and give her the chance to meet old friends living there.
- #002
This was Elizabeth Taylor's last leading role in a cinema film. According to the film's publicity, it was her first major part in a feature film in four years.
- #003
Although Miss Marple is presented as elderly and the leads as middle-aged, Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson were all born in 1925.
- #004
In a 1998 interview with the Archive of American Television, Angela Lansbury said that playing Miss Marple was "terrific" and that she "enjoyed" it very much, but that she thought the film was "dreadful."
- #005
The film marked the return to the big screen of Kim Novak, who until then had only rarely appeared in films.
- #006
Angela Lansbury was only 54 when she played the elderly Miss Marple.
- #007
Production was delayed by about a year because Angela Lansbury was playing Mrs. Lovett in the acclaimed Broadway production of "Sweeney Todd." It was a big box-office success, and the producers wanted Lansbury as their Miss Marple; no other actress is known to have been considered.
- #008
The publicity department made an enormous blunder: it issued a press release about one of the stars claiming that the actor was playing a murderer for the first time in his long career, thereby revealing the identity of the culprit (and the actor playing the murderer had in fact played one before).
- #009
The film opens with Miss Jane Marple attending a screening of a mystery film, at which she reveals who the murderer is before the film is released. Angela Lansbury opened her long-running series Murder, She Wrote (1984) in a similar way, with Jessica Fletcher attending a rehearsal of a play.
- #010
This is one of the few films of the 1970s and 1980s in which Tony Curtis did not wear a full wig to help him look younger. He does, however, wear a wig to help conceal his visibly thinning hair.
- #011
Martin N. Fenn (Tony Curtis) receives a telephone call from an agent named "Swifty," probably a joking reference to Swifty Lazar, a famous Hollywood agent since the 1940s.
- #012
The result recalls the real-life drama of the Hollywood leading lady Gene Tierney, whose daughter, born in 1943, was severely disabled because Tierney contracted rubella during her pregnancy. Tierney would later meet the person who had apparently infected her, when a former soldier approached her and told her how he had met the pregnant star while she was serving at the Hollywood Canteen: the soldier had been quarantined with rubella but had gone AWOL to the Hollywood Canteen to meet his favourite star, Tierney. Had Natalie Wood, as originally planned, been the actress to play Marina Rudd — a role inspired in part by Gene Tierney — there would have been a link between the actress and the role, since Wood had played Tierney's daughter in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947).
- #013
Inspector Craddock (Edward Fox) asks Martin N. Fenn (Tony Curtis) what the "N" stands for. Fenn replies: "You want to know what it means? I'll tell you what it means -- nothing -- but it sure looks great up there on the big white screen, doesn't it?" This is almost certainly a witty reference to the famous David O. Selznick, whose screen name contained an "O" that likewise stood for "nothing."
- #014
The film is set in 1953, so the Saturday village fête was held to benefit the Coronation Fund (referring to Queen Elizabeth II's coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday, 2 June of that year). It is said to take place on 6 July, although in reality that was a Monday.
- #015
Natalie Wood reportedly accepted the role of Marina Rudd without reading a script, and therefore turned the role down after reading one.
- #016
Pierce Brosnan worked on this film for only one day. Perhaps understandably, he says he has only a very vague memory of his time on it.
- #017
After Elizabeth Taylor chose the role of Marina Rudd, screenwriter Barry Sandler suggested Debbie Reynolds for the rival diva Lola Brewster, a reference to the two actresses' supposed feud over Reynolds's first husband, Eddie Fisher, who became Taylor's fourth husband.
- #018
Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury played sisters together in National Velvet (1944).
- #019
Given that EMI still owned Elstree Studios, shooting much of the house interiors on location in Kent may seem an odd production decision, but with all available stages at Elstree already occupied in 1979 and 1980 by The Shining (1980) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), filming on location avoided the problem of inadequately supplied interior sets on the sound stages, since the grand house was already the right setting. Twickenham Studios was probably used, as its prominent sound stages had the correct visual look. A decade later, Twickenham Studios was booked to shoot ITV Studios' long-running version of Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989), starring David Suchet in the title role.
- #020
The production team used the St Clere Estate, a 17th-century Grade I listed country house in Kemsing, Sevenoaks, as Gossington Hall. For St Mary Mead, various locations were found in the picturesque village of Smarden, on the edge of the Weald in Ashford, Kent. The houses standing in for Miss Marple's cottage secured the use of one of the traditional thatched cottages there. The local Grade II listed pub, The Checkers Inn, can also be glimpsed several times.
- #021
According to 1980 reports, Angela Lansbury's contract bound her to play Miss Marple in a trilogy of films. Because the first was received relatively poorly, plans for two sequels were cancelled. In addition, producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin had planned to alternate Poirot and Marple films to keep the Christie series fresh, but when Evil Under the Sun (1982) subsequently failed to deliver major box-office returns, the plans were shelved.
- #022
This was the first of two Agatha Christie adaptations directed by Guy Hamilton. The second was Evil Under the Sun (1982). Before this film, Hamilton was not "totally enamoured" of Christie's books.
- #023
Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson were reunited as a married couple for the first time since Giant (1956).
- #024
Casting director Dyson Lovell was told the film would be shot in the 1950s, which gave rise to the idea of hiring actors prominent in that decade. He managed to cast Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak and Elizabeth Taylor. He also tried to cast Natalie Wood, but she turned the offer down.
- #025
Elizabeth Taylor had been semi-retired from acting following her starring performance in the notorious flop A Little Night Music (1977). She was persuaded to come out of retirement to appear in this project, partly because the film gave her the chance to work with several old friends.
- #026
The film's cast includes one Oscar winner, Elizabeth Taylor, and three Oscar nominees: Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson.
- #027
Co-writers Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler did not actually collaborate on a screenplay. Hales was first hired to write a script, and the producers passed it on to Sandler to "doctor". According to Sandler, Hales's screenplay was "very British" and looked down on the American roles that the film's highest-profile cast members would play. Sandler shifted the story's focus to the fictional Hollywood film being shot (which does not appear in the source novel): he recalled telling the producers to aim for "a bitchier sensibility" and being told, "Great! Go for it!"
- #028
After Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978), this was the third Agatha Christie film in the Brabourne-Goodwin series.
- #029
In the film, Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock is portrayed as one of Jane Marple's nephews. They are not related in the source novel. In Christie's works, Craddock is the godson of Sir Henry Clithering, a Scotland Yard commissioner and one of Miss Marple's closest friends, while her nephew is the famous novelist Raymond West.
- #030
Pierce Brosnan's appearance means Guy Hamilton directed three James Bond films: Sir Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964), Sir Roger Moore in Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He also directed the unofficial James Bond, David Niven, in The Best of Enemies (1961).
- #031
This was the last cinema film for Anthony Steel (Sir Derek Ridgeley), Dinah Sheridan (Lady Amanda Ridgeley) and Charles Lloyd Pack (the Vicar).
- #032
Lola Brewster mentions that "Alexander" was brought in to do her hair. Elizabeth Taylor had her hair done for this film by Alexandre.
- #033
The list of autumn terms written on the school blackboard during the investigation includes the word "Heather," the name of the deceased under discussion.
- #034
Among the actresses who have played Miss Jane Marple on film and/or television, Angela Lansbury had the longest lifespan (96 years, 11 months and 25 days), outliving actresses such as Helen Hayes, Joan Hickson and Ita Ever, who lived to 92.
- #035
Margaret Courtenay (Dolly Bantry) later played Miss Knight in Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1992), the BBC adaptation of the same novel starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.
- #036
Kim Novak's line "s**t" was embellished for this film version because Agatha Christie never used profanity in her books.
- #037
Pierce Brosnan's first encounter with James Bond came through working with Guy Hamilton, the director of Goldfinger (1964). It took Brosnan another 15 years to land the role of 007.
- #038
Continuing his James Bond franchise connection, Charles Gray was also directed by Guy Hamilton in Diamonds are Forever (1971). Charles Gray also played a different character in another director's (Lewis Gilbert's) You Only Live Twice (1967). Edward Fox also appeared in Never Say Never Again (1983), a remake of Thunderball (1965).
- #039
In the source novel, Miss Marple's house cleaner is named Cherry Baker. The film gives this character several scenes but only mentions her name.
- #040
This was the only cinema film in which both Tony Curtis and Kim Novak appeared, though both stars had given Curtis an unbilled brief role in Pepe (1960). Curtis had shared the lead in Novak's television vehicle The Third Girl from the Left (1973).
- #041
While pondering the case, Miss Marple smokes after a meal. Agatha Christie's daughter (and only child) Rosalind Hicks guarded her mother's estate, Agatha Christie Limited, with great care and largely disapproved of this new character trait that had slipped in.
- #042
This was Pat Nye's last film, in the role of the Mayor of St Mary Mead.
- #043
Edward Fox (Inspector Craddock) later played Lord Caterham in The Secret of Chimneys (2010), in which Julia McKenzie played Miss Marple.
- #044
Filming on this film lasted from 12 May to 18 July 1980.
- #045
The film was shot in the southeast of England, in Kent, where Elizabeth Taylor grew up. During breaks in filming, she acted as a driver for Rock Hudson, showing him places from her childhood.
- #046
Dolly Bantry's role in the investigation is considerably reduced from the novel, in which Ella Zielinsky witnesses her using the telephone box to call the people at the party in the hope of blackmailing the killer. In this adaptation, it is Miss Marple who sees her.
- #047
This adaptation changes Heather Badcock's surname to Babcock. Similarly, Ardwyck Fenn's name was changed to Martin N. Fenn.
- #048
In the novel, Dolly Bantry tells Miss Marple the rumour that Charles Chaplin and his children were coming to live at Gossington Hall, before she learns that the buyers are Marina Gregg and Jason Rudd. In the film, Chaplin's daughter Geraldine Chaplin plays Jason's secretary at Gossington Hall, Ella Zielinsky.
- #049
In this adaptation, Heather Badcock first meets Marina Gregg in Plymouth, whereas in the novel it happened in Bermuda.
- #050
This adaptation omits the novel's supporting characters Miss Knight, Hailey Preston, Arthur Badcock, Detective Inspector Frank Cornish, Sgt. William Tiddler, Dr. Gilchrist, Jim Baker and Gladys Martin (whose roles were given to Cherry Baker).
- #051
John Bennett (Barnsby) later played Colonel Richard Erskine in Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder (1987), in which Joan Hickson played Miss Marple.
- #052
Mrs Giles does not appear in the novel.
- #053
Patrick Allen narrated the film's trailer.
- #054
As the publicity photographs also show, the set of Miss Marple's sitting room was furnished with old copies of "Picturegoer" magazine, indicating that Dermot Craddock inherited his passion for films and sleuthing from his Aunt Jane.
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