Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Edgar Soberon Torchia An interesting complex attempt to tell two stories with similar problems and motivations and with the same faces, in different milieus and economic standings, within the frame of a crime melodrama, which also touches aspects of social climbing and professional advancement. What I feel "Crack in the Mirror" lacks is the impact of the crime itself: although a couple of times women react with disgust at the description of the details, we the spectators need that visual representation of the murder and mutilation of the victim to believe it is truly a sensational case for the press. Times have changed very much since the days Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides spared the audiences the ugly aspects of the plot of Greek tragedies. With violence being part of their daily life, people want graphic representations of crimes. The story is sensual enough and it is quite explicit and daring for 1960, but the authors preferred to go for a chauvinistic final reflection on old men being replaced by ruthless women who want younger lovers. All three leads have little space to develop their characters, and the film belongs to Dillman and Greco who do not have Welles' histrionic scope to cover all the emotional range of the two parts each plays. Although it is very hard to find, it is worth a look.

JohnHowardReid A gimmick movie. One of the reasons that it doesn't wholly succeed is that two of the leads, namely Juliette Greco and Bradford Dillman, are rather wet, especially the latter. Multiplying their roles by two is NOT an improvement. At least Orson Welles is only on-screen in both his roles for a very short time, but he so grossly overacts the low-life character that he destroys most of his credibility. Fortunately, in the final scenes, especially in his last speech to the court, Welles delivers his dialogue with a ring of sincerity that compels attention. However, another problem with the movie is there are some super-dull patches in the script which I'm surprised were not jettisoned by the editor. These scenes were not necessary for continuity. They were just plain boring. Another problem less capable of remedy is that apart from three or four inspirational flashes and his effective use of locations, Fleischer's direction is rather dull. Maurice Jarre's over-insistent music score doesn't help either.

Deusvolt 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).

sdiner82 One of the outstanding--albeit forgotten--films of the early 1960s, CRACK IN THE MIRROR is a sizzling, frankly sexual, twist-filled drama with Orson Welles, Juliette Greco and Bradford giving the performances of their careers. (Make that the "two" performances of their careers!) In the first story, lower-class lovers Ms. Greco and Dillman are so in lust that they plan an intricate murder to rid themselves of Ms. Greco's dull husband, Mr. Welles. Now here's the twist. When they are put on trial for manslaughter, the distinguished judge is portrayed by Mr. Welles. And unbeknownst to him, a fellow detective (Mr. Dillman) and Mr. Welles' wife, the lustrous Ms. Greco, are also in heat and plotting to do away with him. To say anything more about this highly original, superbly-acted thriller would do it a disservice. Just SEE it, and savor three actors at their best (under Richard Fleicher's brilliant direction) in a film long-overdue for the praise it deserved some 40 years ago. Rating: ****