Crack in the Mirror

Crack in the Mirror
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRichard Fleischer
Written by
Produced byDarryl F. Zanuck
StarringOrson Welles
Juliette Gréco
Bradford Dillman
CinematographyWilliam C. Mellor
Edited byRoger Dwyre
Music byMaurice Jarre
Production
company
Darryl F. Zanuck Productions
Distributed by20th Century-Fox
Release date
  • May 19, 1960 (1960-05-19)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1 million (US/ Canada)[3][4]

Crack in the Mirror is a 1960 American drama film directed by Richard Fleischer. The three principal actors, Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco, and Bradford Dillman, play dual roles in two interconnected stories as the participants in two love triangles.

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on May 19, 1960.[2]

Plot

In a run-down Paris dwelling, an angry Hagolin accuses mistress Eponine of seeing a man named Robert Larnier behind his back. In a party at a stately home, prosperous attorney Lamerciere's guests include his longtime mistress Florence and his young law partner Claude Lancaster.

Eponine attempts to murder Hagolin but fails. Larnier intervenes on her behalf and Eponine strangles the man with a scarf. The body is dismembered and dumped, then Eponine is placed under arrest.

Claude, who is secretly Florence's lover, feels that he deserves credit for much of Lamerciere's courtroom success. He leaps at the opportunity when Eponine asks him to defend her. Lamerciere remarks that Claude and Florence could do to him exactly what the accused woman and lover Larnier did to Hagolin.

In court, Lamerciere persuades Claude to allow him to deliver the closing argument. He paints such a lurid picture of Eponine's crime that results in her conviction. His gaze at Florence makes it clear that he knows that she has been unfaithful.

Cast

Credits from the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.[2]

Production

The script was credited to by producer Darryl F. Zanuck (under his frequent pseudonym "Mark Canfield"), but in his 1993 autobiography Just Tell Me When to Cry, Fleischer revealed that it was ghostwritten by the blacklisted Jules Dassin.[1] Fleischer, Derode, and John Shepridge also contributed to the script, but were all uncredited.[2]

Filming took place at various locations around Paris, including the Palais de Justice, the Gare de Lyon, and the Seine.[2] Interiors were shot at Billancourt Studios and Boulogne Studios.

In an interview with American Legends, Bradford Dillman said Welles could be "hell on wheels" and that director Fleischer "didn't fool around with Orson. Nobody fooled around with Orson. He did his own thing."[5]

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson wrote: "A determined try for something different—three performers playing six roles, as two adulterous triangles explode in a murder trial—misfires coldly and rather hollowly ... There is certainly no cause to evaluate this extremely devious, visual charade by such a brilliant courtroom yardstick as Compulsion, also involving director Fleischer, Messrs. Welles and Dillman and the Zanuck production banner. ... [T]he picture is a peculiarly bloodless affair (for all the lovingly detailed gore of the murder), archly juggling some arid dialogue and even the characterizations."[6]

In a letter to the editors of Playboy magazine in April 1967, Darryl F. Zanuck, president of 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, observed that "when I won three prizes for a very second-rate film called Crack in the Mirror," at the Cannes Film Festival, "[t]his dubious victory was achieved by the political activities of a group of friends who accompanied me to the festival (Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco and Françoise Sagan)."[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Fleischer, Richard (1993). Just Tell Me When To Cry: A Memoir. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-88184-944-8.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Crack in the Mirror (1960)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 18, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Rental Potentials of 1960", Variety, 4 January 1961 p 47. Figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
  4. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p228
  5. ↑ "American Legends Interviews..... Bradford Dillman: Orson Welles: The View from Mount Olympus". americanlegends.com. Retrieved May 26, 2025.
  6. ↑ Thompson, Howard (May 20, 1960). "'Crack in the Mirror,' Courtroom Drama". The New York Times. p. 26.
  7. ↑ Zanuck, Darryl F., "Festival Faux Pas", "Dear Playboy", Playboy Magazine, Chicago, Illinois, April 1967, Volume 14, Number 4, page 12.
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