Rehearsal for Murder (1982) (TV)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

David Greene

Writers:

Richard Levinson (written by) and
William Link (written by)

Release Date:

26 May 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A year after his fiancée's death, a playwright schedules a rehearsal for his new play, which proves to be a trap for her killer.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Play Writing

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Robert Preston	...	Alex Dennison
Lynn Redgrave	...	Monica Welles
Patrick Macnee	...	David Mathews
Lawrence Pressman	...	Lloyd Andrews
William Russ	...	Frank Heller
Madolyn Smith Osborne	...	Karen Daniels (as Madolyn Smith)
Jeff Goldblum	...	Leo Gibbs
William Daniels	...	Walter Lamb
John Finnegan	...	Damon
Nicholas Mele	...	The First Officer
Vahan Moosekian	...	The Moving Man
Charles Robinson	...	The Second Officer (as Charlie Robinson)
Wallace Rooney	...	Ernie
Buck Young	...	Lieutenant McElroy

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Not Rated | Iceland:12

Company:

CBS Entertainment Production

Quotes:

Alex: Oh and by the way, it's something new for me; a mystery.
Walter: Good. They do well.
Alex: Unusual form, a mystery. You take the audience by the hand, and you lead them... in the wrong direction. They trust you, and you betray them! All in the name of surprise.

Contrived whodunit that works well for fans of the genre

A leading lady (Lynn Redgrave) seems to have committed suicide after mixed reviews on opening night. Her fiancé (Robert Preston), the playwright, knows better. A year later, he assembles the cast (Patrick Macnee, Madolyn Smith, Jeff Goldblum), the director (William Daniels) and the producer (Lawrence Pressman) to read scenes from his new play. When moving men and a police lieutenant show up, it becomes clear this is more than a rehearsal. The playwright has found a novel way to catch a killer. We soon learn that no one and nothing are who and what they seem.

I love Agatha Christie, but not whodunits in general. Christie seems preternaturally capable of getting away with all the absurd contrivances the genre demands and pulling off a great story. Otherwise, I prefer the how-will-the-killer-get-caught stories, best exemplified by "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Dial 'M' for Murder" (1953) and the "Columbo" TV series.

Richard Link and William Levinson, the creators of "Columbo" and "Murder She Wrote," have given us a reasonably good whodunit here. (It was good enough for a playwright named D. D. Brooke to adapt it for the stage, specifically for schools and community theaters.) The director David Greene does a fair job, but his overuse of close-ups doesn't especially help create and sustain the mood. The cast of old-timers and halfway-old-timers is pretty good, but the two younger members, Goldlbum and Smith, seem uncomfortable with their parts. Lynn Redgrave is not well cast as the leading lady we meet in flashbacks. The character ought to have an air of mystery, and Redgrave does not.

The screenplay employs the same device of false flashbacks that Link and Levinson used in their later "Guilty Conscience" (1985) with Anthony Hopkins. The Hopkins movie keeps pulling the rug out from under us, until we're sick of it. Here, they are not used to fool us, so much as present a possible reality that we have to judge for ourselves. Both this and the later mystery are available in cheap DVD copies. If you must buy one, this is it.