The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

Plot introduction

Miss Marple investigates the murder of Heather Badcock, who consumed a poisoned cocktail apparently meant for American film actress Marina Gregg, Heather's idol. As Marple investigates, she discovers dark secrets in Marina's past, secrets which also link to other seemingly innocent citizens of St. Mary Mead.

Plot summary

Sometime after Colonel Arthur Bantry dies of pneumonia, his wife moves into a cottage on the estate grounds and sells Gossington Hall to film star Marina Gregg, who takes up residence with her husband Jason Rudd. At a fête hosted by Marina, St. John Ambulance helper Heather Badcock drinks a daiquiri and subsequently dies. The coroner reveals Heather died as a result of ingesting four grains of the antidepressant Calmo, a quantity six times the recommended dose.

Shortly before her death, Heather was in conversation with Marina, giving her a long, boring account of how she had met Marina many years ago in Bermuda, getting out of bed despite her illness and putting on lots of makeup, to seek Marina's autograph.

Marina is seen with a "frozen" look on her face for a moment while Heather talks to her; it is a look likened to the Lady of Shalott, as though "doom has come upon her."

It then comes to light that Marina had handed her own drink to Heather after Heather's was spilled. Therefore, it is surmised that Marina must be the intended victim. As a famous star who has married five times, she is a far more likely murder target. Suspicion is cast on many people, including Marina's seemingly devoted husband, a big-shot American TV producer who is a former admirer and an American actress who was previously Marina's rival in love (both Americans turn up unexpectedly at the party). A photographer at the party is actually one of three children Marina had adopted in the past for a while and then "got tired of" (Marina does not recognise her as such at the party).

Many years before, Marina desperately wanted children of her own but had difficulties conceiving. After adopting three children (Margot, Angus and Rod), she became pregnant but her baby, Bobby, was born mentally disabled and abandoned to a lifetime of institutions, leaving Marina emotionally scarred. This misfortune was due to Marina contracting German measles in the early stages of her pregnancy.

While police search for clues, two other murders take place – one of Jason's secretary and the other of Marina's butler (both of whom were serving drinks at the party). Jason's secretary, Ella Zielinsky is found murdered by cyanide poisoning, with the poison being administered by means of the atomiser she needed to use frequently for her attacks of hay fever. Marina's Italian butler, Giuseppe, goes to London and deposits £500 into his bank account. He returns to Gossington Hall in a very good mood where he is shot in the back and dies instantly.

Miss Marple finally deduces what Marina had instantly realised at the party, that Heather is the woman who was responsible for infecting Marina with German measles all those years previously when she put on makeup to cover the rash and approached Marina for her autograph. Overcome by rage and grief at seeing her unwitting tormentor looking so happy and proud of her act, Marina impulsively poisons her own glass and hands it to Heather after making Heather spill her own drink. Giuseppe and possibly Ella had seen this; Giuseppe blackmailed her, and both he and Ella died because of the threat they presented.

At the end of the book, Marina dies peacefully in her sleep after having taken an overdose of Calmo; it is not stated whether her death was an accident, suicide or possibly "assisted suicide" as hinted at by Miss Marple.

Explanation of the title

The title of the novel comes from the poem The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is referred to by name several times in the novel, with these lines being frequently quoted:

Out flew the web and floated wide-The mirror crack'd from side to side;"The curse is come upon me," criedThe Lady of Shalott.

At the end, Miss Marple quotes the last three lines:

He said, "She has a lovely face;God in his mercy lend her grace,The Lady of Shalott."

Literary significance and reception

Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox) was somewhat muted in his praise in his review in The Guardian of 7 December 1962 when he said, "she has of course thought up one more brilliant little peg on which to hang her plot, but the chief interest to me of The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side was the shrewd exposition of what makes a female film star tick the way she does tick. And though one could accept a single coincidence concerning that married couple, the second and quite wildly improbable one tends to destroy faith in the story – still more so since it leads nowhere at all."

Maurice Richardson of The Observer of 11 November 1962 summed up, "A moderate Christie; bit diffuse and not so taut as some; still fairly easy to read, though."

Robert Barnard: "The last of the true English village mysteries in Christie's output, and one of the best of her later books. Film milieu superimposed on the familiar St Mary Mead background. Like most Marples this is not rich in clueing, but the changes in village life and class structure since the war are detailed in a knowledgeable and fairly sympathetic way."

Film and television adaptations

Several adaptations have been made of the novel, which include the following:

The novel was adapted for a 1980 feature film with Angela Lansbury in the role of Miss Marple. The film's co-stars were Elizabeth Taylor as Marina Gregg (married and named Rudd in the adaptation) and Kim Novak as Lola Brewster, and the cast also included Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis. The film was released as The Mirror Crack'd, the shortened US book title. The film changed a number of elements in the novel, including Marina's surname (she uses Rudd, not Gregg), her associates, removing the character of Giuseppe, adding death threats, amongst other modifications, including shifting the setting to 1953, nine years before the book's publication.

A second adaptation of the novel was made by BBC television in 1992 as part of its series Miss Marple with the title role played by Joan Hickson (in her final performance as Jane Marple), and starring Claire Bloom as Marina Gregg and Glynis Barber as Lola Brewster. This adaptation was mainly faithful to the novel, with minor changes. The novel was the final adaptation for the BBC series Miss Marple. Margaret Courtenay appeared in this adaptation as Miss Knight, having previously portrayed Dolly Bantry in the 1980 feature film version.

ITV Studios and WGBH Boston produced another adaptation for the Marple television series starring Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple, with Joanna Lumley reprising her role as Dolly Bantry, Lindsay Duncan as Marina Gregg and Hannah Waddingham as Lola Brewster. Investigating the murder along with Miss Marple is Inspector Hewitt, played by Hugh Bonneville. This version, while ultimately faithful to Christie's original text, included a number of notable changes. Some of these changes were influenced by the changes that were made in the 1980 film adaptation:

Ella's surname is changed from Zielinsky to Blunt. The reason for her murder was changed, mixing in elements from the 1980 film and the motive for Giuseppe's murder - Ella was attempting to blackmail the killer, but kept ringing the wrong people because she knew someone at the reception had done it, until she learned something that led her to phoning Marina and pointing out what she had done. Her love of Jason remains, but there is no affair.

Giuseppe is omitted from the adaptation, and there is no reference to car-man Inch selling his business within it.

Unlike the 1980 film adaptation, only one film is being shot in England, and that focuses on Nefertiti.

Lola Brewster is married to one of Marina's old husbands, Victor Hogg (added in the adaptation.) She is a journalist, who writes a couple of pieces regarding the murders and who doesn't have much love of Marina; she and Marina had competed for the love of Jason, who married the latter, leaving Lola bitter about it. Both she and Victor attend the reception and the filming of one of Marina's scenes.

Film director and screenwriter Rituparno Ghosh created a Bengali language version of Christie's story as Shubho Mahurat, which reset the story in the film industry of Kolkata. In this version, Sharmila Tagore plays the ageing star Padmini, the counterpart to Christie's Marina Gregg. The movie features Rakhi Gulzar in the role of the equivalent of Miss Marple.

Publication history

1962, Collins Crime Club (London), 12 November 1962, Hardback, 256 pp

1963, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), September 1963, Hardback, 246 pp

1964, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback

1965, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp

1966, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 255 pp

1974, Penguin Books, Paperback, 224 pp

2006, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1962 UK first edition), 6 March 2006, Hardcover, ISBN 0-00-720855-3

2011 William Morrow and Company, Trade Paperback, 288 pp, ISBN 978-0062073679

The novel was serialised in the Star Weekly Novel, a Toronto newspaper supplement, in two abridged instalments from 9–16 March 1963 under the title The Mirror Crack'd with each issue containing a cover illustration by Gerry Sevier.