robertguttman
In Agatha Christie's "Murder With Mirrors", the First Lady of the American Screen (Bette Davis) goes head-to-head with the First Lady of the American Stage (Helen Hayes). Unfortunately, 77- year-old Davis had clearly not aged as well as 85-year-old Hayes. Davis suffered a stroke a couple of years earlier and it shows. For those interested in seeing Bette Davis at her best, this is definitely not the movie to see. Nevertheless, this still rates a "7" out of "10" for the opportunity to see the spry Helen Hayes as Agatha Christie's redoubtable Miss Marple. In addition, Miss Hayes is assisted by a great cast of veteran British actors, including John Mills, Leo McKern, Dorothy Tutin, John Woodvine and Anton Rogers. In addition, look for a young Tim Roth, doing his best to steal a few scenes from his elders.
bkoganbing
In what turned out to be Helen Hayes's farewell role, she reprises the role of Agatha Christie's famous spinster sleuth Jane Marple in Murder Is Easy. This also gives Hayes the once in a lifetime opportunity to work with another legend, Bette Davis who is the prospective victim of a poisoning plot.Helen's solicitor is worried about some strange goings on at his stepmother Bette Davis's place and is in fear for her safety. It turns out that the solicitor is the murdered party, shot while everyone else is seemingly accounted for. It's a typical Agatha Christie setup and of course there's the ever helpful Jane Marple to aid the police, in this case in the person of Leo McKern. Two more deaths occur before the mystery is solved.It's a delight to see both Hayes and Davis together and that's what the film is designed primarily to do. But frankly it's one of Agatha Christie's weakest plots. If you cannot figure out who did the crime almost immediately after the deed is done, you have not seen too many of these films. It's really rather obvious. Still for fans of Helen and Bette, it's not to be missed.
daniel_clancy2001
It was with a sceptical frown that I put the tape in the machine and pressed "Play" - I had already seen four atrocious US TV films from the '80s. I was surprised enough to manage to watch it all the way through. FInally, the production team was starting to get the hang of Agatha Christie... just. However, I will not pretend that more Hayes-Marple films would be a good thing.The updated plot is ridiculous and fanciful. The cast aren't even trying. Sparks flew between Bette Davis (Playing the kindly Carrie-Louise) and the rest of the cast. This shows, subtly, in that none of the cast will touch her and they always stay a good foot or two away, even in the friendly greeting scenes.This is always advertised as "One of Bette Davis's last films", but most people fail to realise it was Helen Hayes's very last film, and Miss Hayes was critically ill at the time of shooting. This may be why everyone involved seems to lack passion. I don't like the cheap American titles, the cheap American sets, the cheap American costumes, the cheap American accents and the cheap American attitudes.Guess which two words spring to mind (they begin with "C" and "s"). Frances de la Tour is more irritating than her character gives scope for, John Mills gives a reliable performance, as ever, but it is sadly wasted. The viewer can tell that the cast-members have just had a laugh at the writer's expense.Compared to the less-than-perfect 1991 version, this is just a waste of film.
Movie_Man 500
One of Agatha's easier mysteries to solve begins with some decent location atmosphere and solid characters then soon nosedives, like most Christie adaptions, into the silly. I agree that Dame Bette looks sadly old here and is basically wasted, so Helen Hayes makes up for a lot as the nosy Miss Marple. The funniest part of unintentional giggles, next to that exploding car crashing thru the gate, which never happened in book form, is seeing Tim Roth as a so called delinquient teen. He's a riot here and helps the disappointment factor from jumping too high. It's also nice to see Leo McCern from Rumple of the Bailey in a token, gruffy, voice-of-the-law role which plays off the Hayes cuteness level without too much strain. Too bad the plot wasn't as meticulously handled as the scenery...
AD
