Crack in the Mirror (1960)

Three performers for six roles: this is the game of the film. A melodrama about two love triangles. In the first, Hagalin is killed by his mistress and her lover. In the second, attorney ... See full summary »

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Marcel Haedrich (novel), Darryl F. Zanuck (as Mark Canfield)

Stars:

Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco, Bradford Dillman

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Orson Welles	...	Hagolin / Lamerciere
Juliette Gréco	...	Eponine / Florence
Bradford Dillman	...	Larnier / Claude
Alexander Knox	...	President
Catherine Lacey	...	Mother Superior
William Lucas	...	Kerstner
Maurice Teynac	...	Doctor
Austin Willis	...	Hurtelaut
Cec Linder	...	Murzeau
Eugene Deckers	...	Magre
Yves Brainville	...	Prosecutor
Vivian Matalon	...	Young man at Buvette
Jacques Marin	...	Watchman
Martine Alexis	...	Doctor's Wife
Marc Doelnitz	...	Journalist

Storyline

Three performers for six roles: this is the game of the film. A melodrama about two love triangles. In the first, Hagalin is killed by his mistress and her lover. In the second, attorney Lamorciere discovers her woman would like to elope with his assistant. During the trial against two murderer lovers, attorney agrees to a minor sentence for them.

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Plot Keywords:

neo noir | murder | 

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Taglines:

REFLECTING a truly unique entertainment experience!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

19 May 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

Drama im Spiegel

Filming Locations:

Studios de Boulogne-Billancourt/SFP - 2 Rue de Silly, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Darryl F. Zanuck Productions, Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Before filming began, Orson Welles warned director Richard Fleischer that he would be far more difficult to direct in this film than he had been a year previously, when he appeared in Fleischer's "Compulsion". Although Welles had two roles in this film, he found neither one interesting, disliked his leading lady Juliette Greco and was all too aware of the inadequacies of the screenplay (written under a pseudonym by his old friend Darryl Zanuck, the producer). By his own account, Welles cut a number of his own speeches and generally made his role smaller, so that he would not become too bored. Director Fleischer later claimed that he had been quite willing, however, to do his own stunts in the film, as that would be a way of alleviating boredom.

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Quotes

Hagolin: You're late, every day. Slut! I'm dying of hunger.
Eponine: Die!

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Connections

Featured in Hollywood Remembers: Orson Welles

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Soundtracks

Eponine's Song
Written by Henri Patterson
Performed by Juliette Gréco

User Reviews

Another tragic love triangle should be run of the mill but the superb acting of Greco makes this one stand out.

The pale beauty of Juliette Greco had always intrigued me. This movie of ill-starred love, lust and violence with gripping courtroom scenes (complete with re-enactment of the crime at the site)etched itself uncomfortably into my memory. That Greco often stars as a tragic anti-heroine may have something to do with her origins in the Languedoc region of France of unhappy history (cf. the Albigensian persecutions). The handsome young Bradford Dillman is a great foil to Greco's acting talents. Another under-appreciated actor, he reveals his great depth in other films such as Circle of Deception, where he portrays a betrayed secret agent used as a pawn by his superiors and Compulsion, where he plays a megalomaniacal intellectual out to prove the validity Nietzche's idea of a "superman" who is privileged to cull the human race of "unworthies" (based on the play "The Rope" of which Hitchcock made an earlier execrable film version).