moonspinner55 Review of Murder with Mirrors

Murder with Mirrors (1985 TV Movie)

White-haired Agatha Christie mystery; rusty and dawdling...

[2/10 · 7 July 2009]

Amateur sleuth Miss Marple visits London, is asked by an old friend to drop in on an elderly woman acquaintance whose life may be in danger. Despite Helen Hayes as Jane Marple, and Bette Davis in one of her final performances, this television-made Agatha Christie yarn is colorlessly cast, poorly written and directed, creaking and dreary the entire way through. Our introductions to the square, galumphing characters are impossibly awkward, and Hayes doesn't give her famous character the fresh spin required. Still doing what she did in 1970's "Airport" (and most likely beyond), Hayes slips around corners with 'cute' wide eyes and disagreeable looks, like a perturbed squirrel. Davis, John Mills, and Leo McKern (reunited with Hayes from 1977's "Candleshoe") try somewhat to inject a little bounce into the scenario, but it's a leadweight affair with no particularly inventive denouement.