Rehearsal for Murder

Robert Preston plays a Broadway playwright who is just about getting over the death of Lynn Redgrave almost a year earlier. She was an actress involved with Preston who wrote a play for her in which she opened to mixed reviews. That night she went off her building roof and her death was ruled a suicide. Preston's never believed it though.

So he's gathered several friends and acquaintances though which include Lawrence Pressman, David Greene, Jeff Goldblum, Madolyn Smith, and William Daniels to read scenes from a new play he's written. Seems as though Preston has the flotsam and jetsam of a plot of a murder mystery that everyone discovers rather quickly is the plot of the murder of Redgrave the year before. Her death was ruled a suicide, but Preston never believed it.

He's borrowed from no less than the greatest playwright of all Master William Shakespeare who had Hamlet use that device to confirm his suspicions about Uncle Claudius. Preston's suspicions are confirmed, but the murderer is the last one you'd suspect.

This is a pretty good cast of players and they're quite up to the dialog that a clever script provides. Nothing special here, but nicely served up.