The great Angela Lansbury, winner of five Tony Awards and an honorary Oscar, and nominee for three Oscars and 18 Primetime Emmys besides — passed away in 2022 at the age of 96, leaving a legacy so large, it cannot be measured by other mortals in the acting sphere. Lansbury was one of the more versatile actresses of her generation, playing innocent girls, scheming villainesses and murderers, heroes, crones, and loving matrons all with equal aplomb.
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Lansbury was already a sizable celebrity by 1984 when she took the role of Jessica Fletcher on the long-running detective series “Murder, She Wrote.” Fletcher was a retired English-teacher-turned-mystery-author who became embroiled in a series of murders in her small town of Cabot Cove, Maine. It was a cozy and intelligent series, buoyed by Lansbury’s personable performance. The series ran for 247 episodes over 12 seasons. Frustratingly, Lansbury won none of 12 Emmys for which she was nominated for “Murder, She Wrote.” Regardless, Jessica Fletcher became one of the actress’ most recognized roles, assuring her international fame.
And it wasn’t the first time Lansbury played a detective. By 1984, she was already ostensibly rehearsed in the murder mystery genre, having played Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in a 1980 adaptation of “The Mirror Crack’d.” “The Mirror Crack’d” is about a film production that has cast two rival actresses named Marina Gregg-Rudd (Elizabeth Taylor) and Lola Brewster (Kim Novak). To makes things more awkward, the film-within-the-film will be directed by Marina’s husband Jason (Rock Hudson) and will be produced by Lola’s husband Marty (Tony Curtis). At a reception, a rabid Marina superfan named Heather (Maureen Bennett) accidentally drinks a cocktail intended for her idol, and she falls down dead. Of course, Miss Marple has to be called in to investigate.
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The Mirror Crack’d is a playful Agatha Christie film
Lansbury was only 55 when she appeared in “The Mirror Crack’d,” so director Guy Hamilton used a wig, glasses, and old age makeup to make her look older. She also twists her ankle right near the beginning of the film, requiring most of the actual investigating to be done by Miss Marple’s nephew, a character named Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox). Like all good murder mystery movies, “The Mirror Crack’d” gets a lot of mileage from its high-wattage cast. In addition to Taylor, Novak, Hudson, and Curtis, the film also features Geraldine Chaplin, as well as Charles Gray from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Director Hamilton had previously directed four James Bond movies (“Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Live and Let Die,” and “The Man With the Golden Gun”) and numerous crime films, comedies, and war pictures. He knew how to handle just about anything. He would take on Christie again in 1982 with “Evil Under the Sun,” which starred Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. Kenneth Branagh has also said he wants to do a Miss Marple movie in addition to his Poirot movies.
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Christie herself was famously miffed by most film adaptations of her works, as filmmakers like Hamilton tended to drain her novels of their hard-edged wickedness and insert a bafflingly light sense of whimsy. Christie’s stories were not whimsical. But, darn it, if some of them aren’t entertaining.
No doubt the makers of “Murder, She Wrote” watched Lansbury in “The Mirror Crack’d,” and instantly got the idea that the actress should play a detective again. It was such a good idea, the show lasted for 12 years. Naturally, because Cabot Cove was so small, Jessica Fletcher began visiting other cities eventually; only so many murders can happen in one place. It’s a pity Lansbury didn’t get to play Miss Marple a second time, as her intelligence and energy brought a certain joie de vivre to the role.
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