Customer Reviews

Miss Marple: Mirror Cracked From Side to Side [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a classic Agatha Christie show. You should rate the show not the service. No reason to knock Christie.

This is one of the best of the TV Miss Marple films. there are stunning performances by Joan Hickson, Claire Bloom,Glynnis Barber,Barry Newman,Elizabeth Garvie, Margaret Courtnay,and Gwen Watford.Watch this film.

Miss Marple has her work cut out for her in this Mystery. An american movie star and her husband move to St Mary Mead and buy Gossington Hall. A locale, Heather Badcok dies at the annual fete that is held at Gossington Hall. Why would someome want to kill her? Was it an accident or was it meant for someone else? Than another death occurs. You will gasp and admire how Miss Marple uncovers what is going on.

Aunt Jane finds herself at a local an annual summer garden party hosted by the new owners of Gossington Hall. The new owner is an aging movie star who is at odds with the studio producing the latest movie. A visitor mysteriously dies. People start dropping like flies and the Movie Star (Marina) knows she is next. The title of the movie is taken from "The Lady of Shallot"

Joan Hickson is Miss Marple. Agatha Christie always considered her as the ideal Miss Marple; she shows this through her reserve savvy. Jane takes an interactive interest in the mystery and yet each character as part of the discovery, stands on their own. The ending of the story is as is in life, it is appropriate not black and white judgmental.

I know the reviews say that this is the best Miss Marple movie but I liked the one with Elizabeth Taylor & Rock Hudson better.

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

SAME AS ALL HICKSON'S MISS MARPLE. AS IN MY OTHER REVIEWS, SHE IS THE BEST MARPLE EVER. ALL MOVIES IN THIS SERIES GIVE YOU A GOOD MYSTERY.

This is a good Agatha Christie movie but it pales to the film of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. This story is hard to follow and it is difficult to keep track of who is trying to harm who. However, the performance are good enough to keep the plot moving.

I can understand people's appreciation of this film if they just view it as a clever mystery, but "The Mirror Cracked From Side to Side" is so obviously based on the life of Gene Tierney, a beautiful actress from the 1940s and 1950s, that it surprised me when Hollywood made a film of the story. Tierney was a significant star and you'd think Hollywood would have had more respect for her. Though her story wouldn't have affected the English as much, it was still unpleasant to see "Mystery" do it.

Gene Tierney's tragedy was well known at the time. She went to a outing for American soldiers during WW2, and one of the female soldiers , who had German Measles, got out of a sick bed to see her. Tierney, who was pregnant, came down with the malady and as a result had a developmentally disabled child. I don't know how well the link between German Measles and retardation was known during WW2, but it became very well known eventually and Tierney had a breakdown, supposedly because of it.

Tierney was still alive when the Taylor/Hudson movie came out and I couldn't understand how Hollywood could utilize her tragedy for entertainment purposes.

Of course Christie wrote a great mystery "Murder on the Orient Express" based on the Lindbergh tragedy, but the movie didn't come out until over 40 years later and it wasn't a case of Hollywood exploiting one of its own.

Enter commentI rented Miss M along with 2 other videos a week ago. I WAS able to download one purchase but UNABLE to download this & 1 other. I have emailed Amazon 3 times. The first 2 times I received replies re: ways to fix the problem so that I might receive the others. (I had no problem downloading the 1st purchase on the same computer with same settings.) The 3rd email I sent several days ago & have received no response. I have requested a credit to no avail. The UNBOX is UNSATISFACTORY