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:

How many people do you see here? SIX? We say there are only THREE!

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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

The narrow margin

Although not always successful,"crack in the mirror" which is despised in France where the action takes place (it's one of the flaws of the movie: why locate the action there and make the viewer believe he is in Paris by using some words here and there :"Monsieur Le Président" "Monsieur Le Commissaire" "Monsieur Le Juge" and so on?)is in need of reassessment Richard Fleischer was always a brilliant thrillers maker .Many of his works are models of the genre,and during his whole career (if we except his dismal last decade ,roughly the years following "Solyent green" ):"the clay pigeon","trapped" and "follow me quietly" are early ;"compulsion" and "crack" are middle period ; "The Boston strangler" and " 10 Rillington Place are late (and perhaps his most brilliant achievements in the field).

I would not place "crack" as high as the others though.But this is a bizarre intriguing movie,which does not look like any other movie.Perhaps the two stories told in parallel (and played by the three same leads,which was not common at the time ) are there to hide the banal side of the subject (man/woman/lover triangle) ,but there are stunning flashes of inspiration:the mirrors which appear with the cast and credits;Lawyer Orson Welles entering the room where the old man was slain ,where the movie almost verges on the fantasy and horror genre -not unlike that scene in "follow me quietly " when the dummy comes alive" ;the same lawyer ,pleaing against the accused woman (and double crossing his colleague who was his wife's lover),his voice sounding like God's ;this sequence also mirrors the final of "compulsion" ,his precedent (and superior effort)where Welles plays a similar part.The fact that Bradford Dillman appears in both movies too adds to this strange similarity.

Juliette Greco is the only French artist of the whole movie (unless some -very- supporting actors count);she was primarily a Chanteuse,but oddly ,when she sings a love songs in front of the nuns/wardens ,she does not sound at all like she does when she sings in French;a question of language maybe;or maybe she was dubbed for the part of the working -class woman for I only recognize her voice when she portrays the bourgeois lady.