Murder with Mirrors

1985
6.3| 1h34m| NR| en
Details

When Miss Jane Marple arrives at palatial Stonygates, one thing is certain. Before there's time to lather a warm scone with marmalade and place a tea cozy, murder most foul is bound to occur.

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Warner Bros. Television

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Reviews

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant
Freaktana A Major Disappointment
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
nickrogers1969 The only reason I saw this was for Bette Davis. She was frail as a bird, yet beautiful in her old age. Love that she's wearing big false eyelashes!!! Otherwise this Agatha Christie movie was so DULL! With so many missed opportunities for some entertaining mystery! It was badly filmed and cheap-looking and virtually suspense-free! The murder scene when the people are in the drawing room was botched by the director. No atmosphere at all!!!! Almost no fun dialog that said much about the characters. The only good actors were the woman playing Mildred and John Mills. Helen Hayes was really shaky as ms. Marple. Her American accent came through much too much -and she was supposed to be a great stage actress!!!! Leo McKern was the only one adding some personality to his character. The young actors were terrible but the American guy was at least not wearing underwear under his jeans...!!!! This is certainly NOT one of the classic Agathas and does not deserve to be mentioned!
gcd70 One of the lesser murder-mysteries form the pen of the baffling Agatha Christie, which is obviously why it was not filmed until 1985 and also why it was given a rather routine, "made for television" treatment.Christie's interfering old sleuth Miss Jane Marple is put to the test when an old friend is murdered, apparently to cover up an attempt to poison a rich heiress. Of course there are several clues and suspects that the wily Aunt Jane must consider. The plot, in truth, holds little inspiration, and most people with reasonable fathoming skills should be able to nut this not so bewildering murder out.Dick Lowry does little with little, and the cast are only average, though screen legend Bette Davis is worth watching just because she's Bette. Definitely not a must for murder-mystery or even Christie fans. Curl up in bed and read a good thriller instead.Monday, August 15, 1994 - T.V.
lucy-19 It's interesting to set this film beside the Joan Hickson version, which was, like her whole Marple series, excellent. This version is not so, so terrible, though. It benefits from a sumptuous location and excellent actors like McKern, Woodvine and Tutin. I don't feeling the actors are having a laugh at the author's expense - unlike everyone involved in the latest run with Geraldine McEwen as Marple, which I find totally unwatchable.Christie's stories don't suffer from being updated to the 80s. The issues she raises here were just as live in the 80s as the 50s, and now. She gets in some sharp observation of the type of person who pretends to everyone (and themselves) they are only interested in helping young criminals, while using them to boost their ego, confirm their theories, and what have you. These leeches are still around.
Poseidon-3 Actresses as varied as Margaret Rutherford and Angela Lansbury have played Agatha Christie's sleuth Miss Marple on the big screen. Rutherford was hugely popular at it, Lansbury less so. Joan Hickson has, thanks to a large series of TV films, become one of the most noted actresses in the role and many peoples' favorite. Here, prior to the Hickson films, is Hayes' second and last go round as the busybody with a nose for sniffing out criminal culprits. As darling as she is, she is hardly the epitome of this very British and very well-known (in the literary sense) character. She meets with a man who is expressing concern over the well-being of his step-mother, an old friend of Hayes'. So she boards a train and heads to the country estate of the family where it seems as though the step-mother (Davis) is being slowly poisoned to death. Davis' husband (Mills) has turned the estate into a sort of Home for Wayward Boys (one of whom is a young Roth.) Also on the estate is Davis' daughter Tutin and her niece Langland and nephew-in-law Laughlin. She is watched over by a stern and unfriendly caregiver (de la Tour.) Before Hayes can even delve into the poisoning issue, another member of the household is killed, shifting her focus to the discovery of the murderer. Before it's all over, her own life has been endangered a couple of times as she sniffs too close to the truth. This rather humdrum film benefits from authentic English scenery and locations, but really doesn't provide a lot in the way of entertainment. Hayes is always worth watching and is awfully cute at times (and has fun -badly- delivering a theatrical monologue as her character), but she fails to convince as a British subject and isn't given a script that's strong enough to help her form an interesting character. Mills, always a reliable actor as well, has another rather colorless role. Tutin tries to inject some drama into her somewhat silly part and McKern seems to be enjoying his blustery role of a police inspector. The bulk of the rest of the cast is portrayed by relative nobodys who would be hard pressed to pass muster on "Murder She Wrote" or "Father Dowling Mysteries". The biggest downfall of all, however, is Davis. Her character is supposed to be a sweet, caring, beloved Englishwoman who is suffering flu-like symptoms which could be poisoning. Instead, she's a brittle, severe, wraith-like, American who looks worse, upon inspection, than what Vera Miles discovered in the basement of the Bates house in "Psycho"! And people are scripted to keep telling her how great she looks! Someone as obviously ill as she really should NOT have been working, but she was determined to continue and apparently her name still drew 'em in, even in this state. The TV film drew over 20 million viewers! Difficult to the end, she was hellishly rude and obstinate with virtually everyone on the set, particularly Hayes. She has a personal makeup artist credited who was surely instructed to do her up the way she was done (with thick black false eyelashes and pencil thin brows), but it certainly was less than flattering. At this stage, she couldn't give her lines anything more than a screeching croak and had no facial expressions left. It is a sad, horrible disaster to see her wobble through this project (and she wasn't done! She filmed three more TV and feature films after this!) At least in "The Whales of August", her character was closer to her own life status than when she tried to pull off a healthy, appealing woman here. It should be noted that she and Mills were the same age even though she looks like his mother. And Hayes is only 8 years older than Davis, but looks younger. It is a shame that Hayes had to end her screen career in mediocre tripe like this, but as she said herself, at least she never had to resort to horror films or anything a family couldn't watch together.