Lola Brewster portrayed by actress Kim Novak in the 1980 film The Mirror Crack'd
In the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Lola Brewster is an American actress. One of her husbands divorced her, in order to marry Marina Gregg. Lola attends the fete at Gossington Hall, arriving together with Ardwyck Fenn, much to the surprise of Marina and her husband Jason Rudd, who did not know that Lola and Ardwyck were in the country.
Inspector Craddock thinks that Lola is quite "a beauty still", "in a lush kind of way". She has "Fiji Islander hair" and "wide brown eyes".
Lola tells Craddock that when her then husband Robert Truscott divorced her, she was worried about her children, and how he was breaking up their home. However, she and Robert had been have "the most frightful quarrels", and she had realised that they were incompatible. She had threatened to shoot Marina, or "get her in some other way".
As soon as her divorce with Robert had gone through, she married Eddie Groves. She thought that she had been in love with him for a long time, but had not wanted to break up her marriage because of the children.
The husbands of Lola Brewster[]
- Robert Truscott - he divorced her, to marry Marina Gregg
- Eddie Groves
Portrayals[]
The Mirror Crack'd (1980)[]
In the 1980 feature film The Mirror Crack'd, Lola Brewster is portrayed by Kim Novak. In this adaptation, a lot of screen time is given to depicting the antagonism between Lola and Marina Gregg, for example when they meet at the fete and also on the film set. Here Lola is a young actress with a few scenes in the film where Marina has the lead role. However Lola is determined to upstage Marina.
BBC's Miss Marple[]
In the 1992 BBC adaptation, the character of Lola Brewster is played by Glynis Barber. In this adaptation, there is more to her antagonism with Marina Gregg than simply their ex-marriages. It is true that Lola's ex-husband had divorced her to marry Marina at some time in the past, but according to Marina, they were breaking apart in any case and glad to split up. Here, Lola is made out to be a direct threat to Marina's acting career. She is the girlfriend of Ardwyck Fenn who is the producer of "Elizabeth of Austria", a film in which Marina is starring in the lead role. Marina knew that Ardwyck very much wanted Marina to drop out of the film due to ill health or some other reason. Not only would he stand to claim a large insurance payout, but Lola Brewster would be waiting in the wings to take over. Fenn and Lola are invited by Jason Rudd to the fete but unlike other adaptations, Lola and Marina ignore each other. Fenn and Lola are also invited for dinner towards the end of the episode which is the setting for much sarcastic conversation between Marina, Fenn and Lola. It is during this time that Ella Zielinsky dies from poison in her asthma inhaler. This added plot element, which does not take place in the original, is probably to set Fenn and Lola up as plausible suspects.
ITV's Agatha Christie's Marple[]
In ITV's 2010 adaptation of the novel, the part of Lola Brewster is played by Hannah Waddingham. Here her backstory is changed somewhat. Here she is Vincent Hogg's girlfriend and also the former girlfriend of Marina Gregg's husband Jason Rudd. Jason dropped her to marry Marina while Marina dropped Vincent for Jason. There is no suggestion here that Lola Brewster is an actress, much less a rival for Marina Gregg's parts.
Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie[]
In Le miroir se brisa, the French TV film adaptation of the novel by France Télévisions, the parallel character is Sylvia Franco.