Diagnosis: Murder

I taped this just because Christopher Lee was in it and got around to watching it last night. I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised.

A doctor is suspected by the police of murdering his wife but they can't find a body. During the movie all kinds of deceptive clues are dropped which leads a person to think a certain event took place but in fact didn't. This, to me is what makes a good murder mystery film, leaving the audience guessing...

That's what this film accomplishes.

If you like murder mysteries then watch this movie. (7/10)

This film was basically meant for TV with the quality of the cast and a largely well known in the US British cast and a script by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts and Philip Levene and was originally intended for showing on TV in the US and a theatrical release in the UK but it only got the latter.

An obnoxious police inspector named Lomax (Jon Finch) investigates sleazy and mysterious psychiatrist Dr.Stephen Hayward (Christopher Lee) suspected of having killed his wife Julia who is nowhere to be found and may not even be dead.

But a serious of anonymous notes state straight out that he murdered his wife. Someone is determined that the police become fixated on the rude, indignant and downright creepy shrink. Hayward doesn't win a lot of sympathy and for most of his life never really cared to. But being a jerk and being a murderer are not synonymous.

Placing Hayward under surveillance 24/7 and combing every inch of his property the cops find nothing. Ordered to drop the investigation the real plot begins to peel away.

Dr.Hayward's mistress/secretary Helen (Judy Geeson) does some investigating on her own with unexpected results. Whether she will reveal what she knows goes beyond simply worrying about her own complicity. She shares something in common with Lomax and through that he has insight into what is really happening.

They are both having affairs with married people but his morality interferes with his relationship and hers does not. The juxtaposition is thus not between killer and detective but rather between detective and accomplice. In that respect it reflects the kind of police work that is often done but seldom properly dramatized.

Finch was too young to portray the cynical, edgy alcoholic police inspector but the quality of the performance takes some of the edge of the casting choice. The mystery is appealing on a lot of levels but the brisk run time suggests they had room for more and didn't use it.

The movie poster used to market this film suggests they wanted audiences to think that it was horror which it is not and which it at no time resembles. It is more mystery/thriller but audiences of the day had come to know Christopher Lee mostly as a horror film star and producers evidently wanted to exploit that. The irony is that Sir Christopher was looking to carve out a niche beyond horror around the time this was made.

Jon Finch, Judy Geeson and Tony Beckley would have done their share of horror titles before this one became available on home video which probably confused a lot of audiences who rented it thinking it was horror when it fights the niche of mystery/thriller more properly.

Impossible to miss this movie, played by the extraordinary Christopher Lee and directed by the very competent Sidney Hayers (I've never seen any bad movie by him, the very best being "Burn, Witch, Burn"). And Christopher Lee is a sadistic psychotic killer manipulating police. Very impressive, not gory, plenty of twists, impossible to get bored, it grips. A must see.

This film follows a couple of awful male cops, a sad wheelchair bound man, and a complete psychopath all who happen to have plots about being terrible, unintelligent , chauvinist pigs. But thats not all, its also about dumb groan inducing women who love them. Watch as a cop chain smokes, acts like he has morals after sleeping with a disabled man's wife, watches a man constantly attack a woman in a speed boat, play quarters while on duty and cause the unintended death of a person hes trailing ! Watch as a man fumbles his way through murder, begs the cops to catch him , openly tells people hes a killer and romantically abuses his secretary ! Theres no mystery here, it tells you pretty much off the bat whats happening. You just have to sit there hoping it will get interesting. Sadly it does in a last few minutes of a quazi twist. But then it just ends. If all this and some bad TV movie directing sounds like fun , by all means its for you .