Diagnóstico muerte

VERY worth while 74 minute diversion here, a strikingly offbeat, Neo Noir ultra low budget made for TV movie (CBS) with John Forsythe cast brilliantly against type as a philandering doctor who finds himself engaged in a cat & mouse battle of wits against the husband of his mistress. Barbara Bain from "Space: 1999" plays the woman, Richard Kiley is the husband, Wendell Burton is the junkie set up as the fall guy, Joseph Campanella is the hard-nosed police detective who seems troubled by certain loose ends, and Reta Shaw steals the show as the doctor's nurse, who is perhaps a bit too observant and inquisitive to have stayed on with this particular doctor as long as is implied.

Why? Well you see several of Forsythe's patients have died. Rather suddenly. It can all be explained very simply, but this is one of those clever scripts where nothing is quite as simple as it seems. And at a mere 74 minutes it's not much of an imposition on anyone's schedule. Sure, it was made for commercial TV in 1971 so there isn't anything *too* distasteful on camera. Viewers who predicate their enjoyment movies based on people's heads exploding might be a tad disappointed, but if you PAY ATTENTION you will be rewarded. And a repeat viewing might answer some questions about passages of dialog that slipped by on the first time through.

Definitely worth having, and a respectable enough little movie to maybe watch with mom on a rainy evening when she needs some company. Can't say that about too many murder movies.

7/10

This perfect suspenser - with a lot of twists - plays like a Columbo movie without Columbo.

Dr. Wellesley (John Forsythe) is on the verge of having an affair with Lisa Manning (Barbara Bain) as her husband won't give her the divorce she's been asking for. To put a stop to this, Mr. Manning (Richard Kiley) decides to blackmail the doctor about some mysterious deaths in his past. The doctor protests his innocence, of course, but Manning wants him away from his wife and out of town.

Right from the start, with the two men politely playing golf while calmly discussing murders and blackmail, this quality movie grips the viewer. The cast are top notch and it's always fun watching a TV murderer do their thing and then waiting to see if they'll actually get away with it.

The final third brings several surprises. Nothing here is quite what it seems. Very clever. And a lot of fun.

Originally aired on Friday, 29 October, 1971. It was scheduled after the 7th regular episode of O'Hara, U.S. Treasury, and against the 6th second season episode of The Odd Couple on ABC.

There are a surprising number of made-for-TV movies out there that, for some reason or another, have entered the public domain and have been issued on many cheapo DVD labels. "Murder Once Removed" is one of those. I watched it on a 10-pack DVD box set, and fortunately (unlike many other movies in the public domain) the picture and sound quality wasn't bad. Watching it, I wondered how this movie could get neglected enough so that the copyright wasn't removed. It's not a classic, but it gets the job done all right. It's only 75 minutes long, so it tells its story in a lean manner with very little unwanted fat. The story is pretty enticing, making you wonder what the doctor character will do next in every situation he's in. And the last part of the movie gives us not one, but several surprising twists. As I said, this isn't a classic, but it's well done enough that it's definitely worth the one or two dollars you'll have to pay to buy the DVD.

I thought it was great. If you like these old suspense classics, this one is worth watching. While it no Hitchcock, it was surprisingly good at keeping my short attention glued to the screen.

Ensemble cast deliver a taut, reasonably tense suspense TV movie concerning a physician (Forsythe) with a dark past whose current dalliance with a married woman (Bain) leads to murder, the framing of an innocent man (Burton) and a sequence of double-crosses that should keep most audiences both entertained and surprised.

Forsythe is economical as the suspicious Doctor whose patients seem to experience a higher fatality rate than usual, while Kiley is the well-informed cuckold, seeking to end the romance between Forsythe and his wife (Bain) through blackmail. Joseph Campanella is perhaps the film's highlight as the local detective who's one step ahead.

Compact thriller is short on time but punches above its weight for overall impact with a tidy conclusion that features more twists than a Chubby Checker tune, so check it out when you have 70 minutes spare.