Vanishing Act

Addictive thriller has Mike Farrell as a distraught husband whose wife has gone missing from their holiday house in the mountains after an apparently minor conflict. Newly transferred police chief (Gould) initially spends more time attempting to source his favourite pastrami sandwich, but soon discovers there might be more to the alleged disappearance than meets the eye. When the missing wife miraculously reappears (Kidder) Gould returns to his sandwich priorities except Farrell is insisting that the woman claiming to be his missing spouse, is not his wife.

Classic mystery is an engaging remake of the 1976 James Fanciscus telemovie "One of My Wives is Missing" with a capable cast which features Gould as an enigmatic detective with more going on between the ears than he lets on, while Kidder is an almost haunting presence in the role previously played by Elizabeth Ashley. The situations are taut and the dialogue is careful in containing the mystery until the last scene which is a cracker.

The only liabilities are the telemovie budget which limits the scope of the production and the casting of, while talented performers, actors who are sometimes difficult to separate from their long time small-screen alter egos (BJ Hunicutt and Herman Munster occasionally remembered in the performances of Farrell and Gwynne). In this respect, although the original Franciscus movie has more credibility as a serious thriller, "Vanishing Act" still leverages a superbly conceived idea with enough potential to please the matinée audience for whom this was intended.

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.

This is a great movie for those Who love old fashion mysteries. Harry reports to Lt.Rudameyer that his wife Chris is missing.

Chris shows up with Father Macklin, and this is when the fun begins. Elliot Gould, Margot Kidder And Mike Farrell are great...But Fred Gwynne is wonderful as Father Macklin. Check it out!!!!!

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.

What a fabulous Movie. The Cast includes Elliott Gould, Mike Farrell, Margot Kidder and Fred Gwynne (of the Munsters fame). The story has more twists and turns than a tin of worms, but you are kept in suspense right up until the end. What a great plot. I have seen this movie more than a dozen times, I have it on VHS but would love to buy it on DVD, but unfortunately it does not seem to be available at this stage. Mike Farrell plays the distraught husband (Harry) whose wife seems to be missing, while Elliott Gould is great as the Lieutenant of Police and one of my favourite actors Fred Gwynne plays the Priest. Margot Kidder is also great in this Movie. And how could we forget "Max" the dog? I would equally rate this move with another called "Murder Ordained" which I also have on VHS and also DVD. I would recommend "Vanishing Act" to anyone who loves a great mystery with plenty of twists to the plot. I rate it 9/10