Murder Story

It's OK.

The "Willard Hope Technique," whereby someone trying to write cuts newspaper articles out at random and assembles them to create a plot for a novel gets a young fan of Hope into trouble when he tries it for himself. The technique recalls Harry Stephen Keeler's "webwork" which is essentially the same.

Sort of a poorer version of Three Days of the Condor, where someone stumbles across a real plot.

When you start something, finish it. That is the mantra spoken often in this movie. While the story starts slow, it builds towards an exciting end. The characters, both major and minor, are well drawn, complete with personality quirks, that add depth and interest to the story. Alexis Denisof, in his film debut, does a great job portraying Tony's innocent exuberance, and determination to start what he has finished. This film gets better every time I watch it.

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the film on Academy video cassette.

Dutch-made thriller "Murder Story" is a passable light entertainment where youngsters become involved in real-life murder and espionage (a la Universal's "Gotcha" and "Cloak & Dagger).

With British backing and casting, pic shapes up as an okay video.

Interesting screenplay by tandem directors Eddie Arno and Markus Innocentit focuses on aspiring young novelist Alexis Desinof, living in Amsterdam, who's copying the technique of his author hero Willard Hope (Christopher Lee), whereby seemingly random newspaper clippings are merged as genesis for a mystery.

When Desinof meets his hero at a book-signing session and finds out he also lives in Amsterdam, he inveigles for assistance from Lee. Duo, plus Desinof's pretty girlfriend Stacia Burton, start putting disparate clues together and soon become targets for extinction by real-life killers involved in stolen scientific research Film unfolds suspensefully but is hampered by an open ending which (on purpose to prove a point) does not resolve the mystery.

Lee is authoritative as the cultivated armchair hero pressed into action, in a departure from his sinister roles. Young leads Desinof and Burton are engaging.

Pic is relatively tame compared to other films in its genre. Big-name casting for the youngsters plus a more topical central mystery could have elevated this acceptable pcit rue to must-see status.

One of those movies where you have to wait until the last 30 minutes to appreciate the first hour. In other words: good plot on the whole, but slow to start. I found the film to be interesting only when it became obvious that Tony, the young would-be writer, is willing to risk a lot in order to assume the freedom of being "non-conformist", which is, in his own words, one of the main roles of an artist in any society, and which often means assuming a real risk, even in the US.

"Murder Story" is a Dutch film that was made in English. Why it wasn't in Dutch, I have no idea. Regardless, it's not a movie I loved as there are some rather illogical parts to the story...and that really frustrated me.

Tony is young and eager to become a writer. When he goes to a book signing to meet his hero, Williard Hope (Christopher Lee), he makes a fool of himself. Later, he meets Willard in a cafe and they have another brief and awkward encounter. With such an inauspicious history with Willard, what happens next is confusing. Tony calls Willard at home and Willard invites him over to the house! They then agree to meet the next day to look at a place Tony found in a newspaper article. Unfortunately, there are some very bad people who are there and they spend the rest of the film trying to kill Tony.

Here are a few SERIOUS logical errors in the film: a famous author going out exploring with a young kid he just met, when Tony finds Willard's dead body he never calls the police or tells anyone, towards the end of the story a baddie it trying to shoot Tony and his girlfriend and after they get the gun away from the killer the girlfriend THROWS THE GUN IN THE LAKE instead of using it to protect them from a n assassin. There are more mistakes than this but these are three really big ones. I find it ironic that the film is about a young man wanting to be a writer...and the writing is so poor in the movie!!

Overall, I was far less impressed than this film than the other reviewers. They either liked it or were tepid about it. I just thought it was terrible.