Diagnosis Murder: Town Without Pity

The story is unexpected and it's just great to see the cast back again together. If you liked the series you will find this movie suspenseful. The comic relief part was obviously to take a lighter tone to the seriousness of the plot and I could have passed on that part.

Several cast members from Dick Van Dyke's Dr. Sloan medical mystery TV series reunited for this feature-length TV movie. Sloan's daughter and new husband have disappeared on their way to visit Sloan. Sloan and his law enforcement son head straight for where the newlyweds disappeared, a small desert town were the locals turn out to be largely uncooperative and some of them downright hostile. The plot makes little effort to disguise the bad guys' identities, so suspense is minimal. The movie goes on way too long, and would have been better as a one-hour feature. Van Dyke gets roughed up a bit but bounces right back, which I found hard to swallow considering his age.

Well, you start with 30+ minutes of commercials (that's pretty standard).

Then you add a bunch of scenes where little or nothing happens (and/or has nothing to do with the overall plot).

This slows down the pace of the movie, making it feel more like a 3-hour movie.

To be honest, I didn't even recognize Carey (only thought to check the cast listing on IMDB after the I saw his name in the featured user review).

After finishing watching the TV series, I have been watching the Diagnosis Murder TV movies, in order. As I have said previously, it is a shame that they replaced the much more attractive and likeable Cynthia Gibb with Victoria Powell.

In the first made for TV-movie after the series ended, Dr. Mark Sloan is on the case again. This time, the case is close to home; a frantic call from his daughter Carol sends Mark (Dick Van Dyke) and son Barry (Barry Van Dyke) off to a small town to investigate her disappearance.

Upon arriving there, the townspeople deny ever seeing Dr. Sloan's daughter or her husband. Steve and Mark become very suspicious as they begin investigating the events leading up to the disappearance. Mark and Steve determine that Carol and her husband may have met a tragic end.

The film is full of suspense, intrigue and emotions driven by hatred, corruption and treachery. If you loved the TV series, you won't want to miss this follow-up movie; you will enjoy.

Some of the Diagnosis Murder episodes and television movies were on the lighter side, but the 2002 feature-length Town Without Pity is extremely heavy. It was made after the regular series ended, and there aren't any scenes that take place in the familiar (or any) hospital. Dick Van Dyke gets a frantic voicemail from his daughter, and afterwards, he and his son track her to her last known whereabouts and begin asking questions. But in the small town "without pity", no one wants to answer his questions, and it seems fairly obvious they'd rather him leave than find his daughter.

The only lighter bit in the movie is the "family affair" element. Barry Van Dyke is in the film, of course, but so are siblings Carey and Stacey. But since Stacey plays the missing sister, is that really light, or does it add an even heavier atmosphere? If you like the usual charming tone of the series (even though they always involve a murder), you might not like this one. There's also a heavy element of racial prejudice thrown in following the 2001 attacks, and some perilous situations that make you wonder whether or not our beloved Dr. Sloan will make it out alive. It wasn't my favorite of the tv movies, but I appreciated what went into it.