I watched this a few weekends ago and forgot what a fantastic job they do fooling the audience with the "movie-within-a-movie" concept. I ecognized my gf's look of disappointment at the black and white, "the butler did it"-style mystery unfolding before us and cracked up with laughter AFTER the real film started.
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What's the title of the B&W movie which is shown in the opening, by the way? I've been wondering for years!
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022172/
They name it in the movie but I couldn't find that film then (when I was looking for it some months ago) - could it be that it has just been added to IMDb recently?
The beginning sequence "Murder at Midnight" was actually shot in the late '70's or 1980, at the same time as when "The Mirror Crack'd" was shot, but just made to look like a 1930's film. It's not an actual pre-existing film (just a made-up one for the movie).
If you look at the cast, you can see that it has the people who played the parts in the opening sequence and they are 1970's actors and actresses.
Sorry to disappoint you, if you wanted to watch the rest of the opening sequence film.
Yes, I just noticed - I think the cast of this sequence hasn't always been listed on IMDb. Nevertheless, quite impressive - to me, it looked like a genuine 50ies crime mystery (but then again, that was five years ago when I watched THE MIRROR CRACK'D for the last time and since then, I've become more aware of mockery and fake).
And yes, since I like British crime mysteries from this era, I would've loved to watch the entire film...
As a huge fan of British TV & movies, I recognized quite a few of the lesser-known actors in the film, including some NOT listed in the end credits at all! (Never happen these days with endless credits that go on for 5 minutes or more).
"MURDER AT MIDNIGHT" features Alan Cuthbertson (who was also in Guy Hamilton's THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE), John Bennett (the police inspector in THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD) and the detective was played by Nigel Stock, who was "Dr. Watson" in the 1960's SHERLOCK HOLMES tv series (opposite both Douglas Wilmer and Peter Cushing).
Later in the film, I recognized the make-up test supervisor as Richard Leech (who stood out so wonderfully in the DOCTOR WHO story, "The Sunmakers"), and the coroner who oversaw the hearing was Angus McKay, the first actor to play "Cardinal Borusa", in the DOCTOR WHO story "The Deadly Assassin".
More prominent was the butler played by Charles Gray, who's been in 2 "007" films, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and played Mycroft Holmes on several occasions.
Edward Fox was having quite a run of high-profile films around this time, having appeared in FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE (as the explosives expert Miller) and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (as the new and very snotty "M").
Strangely enough, quite a few reviews mention Pierce Brosnan, and HIM I didn't notice at all! (I may have wondered, "Who is that, he looks vaguely familiar?", but that's as far as I got... heh.)
Funniest thing... it wasn't until I saw THE MIRROR CRACK'D on TV several years after MURDER SHE WROTE debuted that I suddenly realized that she'd had on so much make-up in this film ot make her look older! I've often joked since that she could do the part now, only without the make-up.
I just watched this on Netflix streaming and I didn't read the cast info before beginning it. I was shocked at how old the film was and very confused because I had read the book at the scene playing out reminded me of other Christie books but not The Mirror Crack'd. I was in for a real surprise when the reel stopped working and the actual movie began. Very clever.
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