Synopsis:

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple has her hands full trying to determine who murdered a local villager on the eve of the shooting of a huge American picture. Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor and a cast of exceedingly funny British cast mates create a humorous yet very well scripted Murder mystery. When Rock Hudson prepares a Daiquiri for his wife (Elizabeth Taylor) a local woman drinks it and dies moments later. Of course, her death could not have come at a worse time. The picture is over budget and running late in production. Miss Marple's investigation proves to be something of a nuisance to the staff and they thwart her at every opportunity. When one of the leading ladies believes her life is in danger, bodies just start dropping and it will take Miss Marple's keen investigatory skills to bring the murderer out into the open. Not one easily swayed, Miss Marple presses on until the murderer is found out and justice is served. The Mirror Crack'd is classic 80's fare and wonderfully entertaining.

Audio/Video:

The audio is presented in 2-channel mono and there are absolutely no surround effects of any kind. The dialogue is light and easily understood. The video is very soft in it's presentation and is akin more to a VHS first generation of the film as opposed to the cleaned up digital rendering you'd anticipate from the DVD. Additionally, there are moments of pixellation throughout the film. Considering the fact that the original elements may have been poorly maintained, it's understandable that the image is so soft. Given Anchor Bay's track record however, I am not at all surprised at the lack of attention to detail in the print of this film.

Extras:

The extras on the disc are the film's trailer, TV spots and cast profiles on a handful of the actors involved in the making of the film.

Overall:

Agatha Christie penned some of the greatest mysteries ever, and it's no wonder her works have been put to film. Sadly, the first rate effort needed to propel this film into the category with the latest batch of Hitchcock releases was never made. The video while imperfect is definitely watchable and the audio could have a bit more punch but in all, the story is great and the actors do an excellent job in conveying the comedic sense of irony and mystery the film is dripping with. Recommended