Fox Mystery Theater (TV Series) Paint Me a Murder (1984) User Reviews

Desolate double-crossing

[analoguebubblebath · 6/10 · 9 October 2003]

First viewing: October 1984 / Second viewing: October 2003

For the last nineteen years my only memory that I had of `Paint Me A Murder' was one of cliffs and aggressive paintings. After watching it again this afternoon, these two things still stand out - but there's more depth to this one than I previously gave it credit for. A reasonably engaging `Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense' tale which follows a rather stilted path between a trio of gallery owner, artist and wife. Faked death, murder attempts and a Shakespearean climax is what we get. And lest I forget, two more things: Alan Lake plays yet another loser in the last acting role of his life while Mark Heath as the Inspector gives the finest acting performance I have ever seen anyone give in my whole life. 6/10

A brush with murder...

[canndyman · 7/10 · 23 May 2020]

When I first watched HH of M & S in 1984, this was never one of my favorite episodes - but seeing it a few times since, it's grown on me a bit more, and it certainly isn't the worst.

The story revolves around a painter who fakes his own death in the opening scenes, after concocting a plan with his wife - he's looking to get the artistic recognition he feels he deserves (once he's believed to be dead), and his wife is simply after the financial rewards his death will hopefully bring them.

Their plan gets slightly derailed though when his wife (played by singer Michelle Phillips of Mamas & Papas fame) becomes romantically attached to the London art dealer who's handling the now-lucrative sales of her supposedly-dead hubby's work.

There's certainly some mystery here, but not a great deal in the way of suspense, & the story becomes more of a love triangle than anything else. Circumstances soon conspire to push the conspirators' original plans into a slightly different direction, as the police close in on the deception.

The story never really seems to take off in the way it should, and there's something missing here, despite good work all round. Look out for Alan Lake in one of his final roles (sadly screened posthumously, just a few short weeks after his tragic death), and a young Neil Morrissey as a beat copper.

Cute

[gianmarcoronconi · 6/10 · 12 September 2022]

Cute episode surrounded by betrayal and mystery that has little paranormal but is still very valid and very entertaining. Accustomed to the tenor of the series this episode is slightly weak, it has nothing really surprising and from my point of view the really particular part that could give more impetus to the episode has completely gone into the background and is almost not taken into consideration and this is a terrible pity because that thing that is not given importance was the only really valid one to build an episode on, instead the episode is built on a very banal stuff that weakens it a lot.

Could you just paint us a plot line??

[FeydRautha · 6/10 · 6 August 2014]

Things I've learned from this episode:

1. British art dealers are invariably smarmy gits with public school accents. 2. Indian chemists will sell you prescription sedatives and deadly poison in the same visit without asking too many questions. 3. Painting pictures while standing at the edge of a very high cliff isn't as safe as it looks. 4. Michelle Phillips can't act.

I have a vague memory of catching this episode when it first aired. Seeing it again after so many years brought back how much the early 1980's TV viewing audience would forgive a show; the soundtrack was jarring, the camera work dodgy in places, and the script....well, check out this gem, when Luke (Laurenson) describes his passion and drive for his artistic gift as "fire in the belly", his wife (Phillips) calmly tells him to "take a Pepto, darling."

The plot itself is nothing new - artist, at the behest of his money-hungry wife, fakes his own death so the value of his work will increase, while still creating pieces that his "widow" unleashes on the art world in small, regular doses. Meanwhile, blond moustached Old Etonian art dealer has designs on the former Mama. This has all been done before, and much better, by the likes of "Tales of the Unexpected". The story has a few holes, the kind that make you think the editing job was rushed to meet an airdate deadline. (What was the deal with Luke suddenly deciding to paint a selfie on the Battersea Power Station?) The biggest zinger, however, has to be the wife's decision to off her husband. I mean, come on! She's basically got what amounts to a license to print money hiding in her attic, pumping out artwork that ever rises in value. Ka-ching, lady!

The good points: Most of the acting performances are worth sitting all the way through the ep. James Laurenson is his usual excellent self. He manages to shine despite the uphill battle that script and storyline must have been - I swear there were one or two times I thought he was going to look directly at the camera and mouth the words "I'm sorry". David Robb is suitably slimy as the determined art dealer, Michelle Phillips stood on her mark and delivered her lines where she was pointed. Special mention must go to W. Morgan Sheppard and Alan Lake as Luke's compadres; I'll watch Sheppard in anything, and it was touching to see Lake in this swan song before his tragic death.

Well worth a look if you fancy traipsing down Hammer Memory Lane.

An enjoyable mystery.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 17 March 2024]

Sandra Lorenz cooks up a lucrative, money making scheme, to fake her husband's death, Luke Lorenz is an unsuccessful painter, the predicts that his death will send the value of his paintings soaring. Trapped in a room, forced to paint, Luke goes into a rapid decline.

More a thriller, than a horror, Paint me a Murder is definitely an enjoyable entry, it's a good storyline, it's well acted, and it does have a particularly bleak feel about it.

I suppose it's an interesting study into what happens to the artistic temperament when it's locked away, and not allowed to flourish. Luke's downward spiral is very well played out.

It's nicely acted, so often is the case, it's James Laurenson that stands out, I thought he was excellent as the troubled painter. Mark Heath also very good as The Inspector, and what a fabulous speaking voice.

7/10.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!"

[Coventry · 4/10 · 4 August 2022]

"Paint me a Murder", episode number I-don't-know-how-many in the overall disappointing series "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense" starts out intriguing, but - alas - rapidly falls apart. Luke Lorenz, a painter, is at work near the coast when he suddenly packs up all his equipment, steps into a sloop, and heads out to the open sea where he commits suicide. Of course, this is part of a bigger and more fiendish plan. With the wisdom that an artist's work is a lot more valuable when dead, Luke and his gorgeous wife Sandra faked Luke's death, so that Sandra can sell his work at galleries while Luke paints new stuff while living isolated in the attic.

This is another one of those typical "it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time" thriller-plots. Their plan succeeds at first, but backfires just as quickly. Sandra falls in love with the gallery owner, Luke's friends and fellow artists call out shenanigans, and Luke himself goes mentally berserk in his attic. Anyone could have guessed stuff like this would happen, but not Sandra and Luke.

"Paint me a Murder", like pretty much every episode in this series, is derivative and outstaying its welcome with at least half an hour. The only aspects worth mentioning are the beauty of Michelle Philips, and the morbidity of Luke's supposedly post-mortem paintings. They do look cool.