Vanishing Act

Completely forgotten and overlooked, this is a murder-mystery par excellence.

Not generally a favourite genre of mine, I stumbled across this movie on TV late one night years ago and never forgot it. I then managed to track it down on an ancient VHS quite recently and watched it again. It was every bit as good as I remembered.

No special effects, no overblown budgets. Just a cracking script, superb performances, tight and efficient direction and one of the best twists ever.

An absolute masterclass in small budget movie-making.

Elliott Gould in "Vanishing Act", reminds me somewhat of his performance in the excellent "The Silent Partner". His character in both films seems to be grossly underestimated. The acting here is totally acceptable, and the Levinson - Link "Columbo" writing influence is fairly obvious. I am not sure if the intricate plot will hold up to close scrutiny, but the movie is enjoyable. The mountainous ski resort location is not taken advantage of at all, and as another reviewer has mentioned, the limited sets smack of the TV budget. All that being said, a non obvious script is the strong point here, and it will not disappoint those looking for the unexpected. - MERK

This movie begs us not to depend on appearances-the events in this film are not what they seem to be! Nor are all the people are who they say they are!! And $750.000 is at stake!!

I learned a lesson from reading Agatha Christie books-and I think it applies to this movie: If you suspect the person who is least likely to be suspected then he(or she)is likely to be guilty and, take whatever appears to be the truth-believe the opposite-then you are likely to come to the truth!!!

I thought this was a pretty good TV movie. I had already seen "One of My Wives Is Missing" with Jack Klugman and James Franciscus, so I had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen next. Even with that it was an enjoyable movie, although "One of My Wives Is Missing" was better.

This is about as good as a TV-movie can get. I saw it when it first appeared on TV in 1986, and looked for it for the next 12 years, as it couldn't be found on video, then without warning, this excellent film hit video and cable on The Mystery Channel. The plot is not original, but it is a clever idea to borrow, and it has a helluva twist at the end, and it leaves you hanging all the way until that last minute. Fred "Herman Munster" Gwynne does a wonderful job, as well as Mike "MASH's B.J. Honeycutt" Farrell.