You'll Never See Me Again

A real delight, for the often ugly early 70's decor, the cheesy stereotypes, and the unexpectedly good job done by David Hartman. It is a simple premise, with a few holes. But as the tension and suspense escalate, we see his desperation and worry build nicely. The wife, who is high maintenance, and dumb, is adequate, and by the resolution has the sharp edges knocked off her. Likewise the husband has his very typical bullheadedness beaten out of him, as he really discovers the truth, and his deep love for his new, and highly strung wife. Direction above average, and economic, and very good by the TV movie standards of the decade.

When the film begins, Ned (David Hartman) and Vicki (Jess Walton) are incredibly in love--so much so that it's like a Hallmark commercial. Because they are so in love, it makes what happens next almost impossible to believe. After receiving a letter from her mother, Vicki deliberately picks a fight with her husband and they start violently arguing. Then, in a shocking development, he slaps her!! She stomps off--vowing never to return. The intensity of this altercation, especially in light of the beginning of the film, sure left me scratching my head!!

Soon, Ned begins to worry about his wife...and this is very normal and to be expected. When she hasn't returned after a day, he goes to the police...again...normal and expected. But what takes place in the second part of the film is just insane. Out of the blue, the police try to arrest him (though they have no real evidence he committed any crime) and what does he do? Yep, he attacks the police detective and then steals a car and sets out to find his missing wife!!! On what bizarro world does this make any sense?! It completely ruined the movie as Ned just seemed nuts....and didn't fit in with the rest of the film. Too bad the ending was actually really good...as by then I was irritated that the script was so sloppy and convoluted. After seeing this, I could see why soon after this Hartman quit acting and went on to become the host for NBC's "Today Show"...a job he kept for many years.

Dorky drip of a sasquatch Ned Bliss (Hartman) designs grotesque modern architecture for a living. He has a beautiful young wife (Walton) and everything seems like it is going his way up until she wants to visit her parents and he says he can't go.

The argument they have deteriorates and he ends up hitting her. She leaves without him, tells him he will never see her again and he waits for her to come back but she doesn't.

There is real suspense here. Any woman married to a schlub like this guy is always a threat to split...I mean look at him! The host of Good Morning America?! Yikes! Of course it turns out there is a lot more to it and things with her parents are not at all what they appear to be.

Ned Bliss is an architect and Vicki is his wife. They are happy but one day Vicki gets a call from her mom but they argue a bit, they hang up. Vicki decides to go to see her mom. The next thing you know both are at each other's throats. He's got his routine, his work. Vicki wants to see her mom. He decides to go with her but Vicki keeps at him, he grabs her hands to calm her down, she bites his hand then he slapped her hard enough to make her nose bleed. She leaves him with "you'll never see me again". He noticed that she left her clutch purse on the coffee table with money left in it. He waits for her to call or show up but nothing, tries calling her but her mother but she says Vicki is not there. He calls their friends - no Vicki. He tries hotels - no Vicki. He goes to the bus station, show the man her photo and he say yea he remembers her but see never did buy the ticket, she seemed to not have enough money then I saw her lingering outside looking as if she was going to hitch a ride. The police can't help because it hasn't been 48 hours, unless they have a reason to suspect foul play. Ned tells the police it might be foul play involved. The police think find her in the hospital - but it's not Vicki. From that point on it looks more and more like Ned murdered his own wife. But Ned drives up to see Vicki's parents and things get stranger, more suspenseful. What happened to Vicki? Pretty darn good mystery movie. Very suspenseful - surprisingly.

8/10

Adapted from a pulp novel by Cornell Woolrich, YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN features a rare performance by David Hartman, best known as a long running host of GOOD MORNING America. Truthfully, Hartman's calling as an on-screen talent was probably better suited to host rather than actor; here, he comes across as sort of a poor man's Jimmy Stewart, and never really seems comfortable on screen (though he does seem rather creepy when his character gets angry). Jess Walton is certainly lovely to look at, even if her performance seems a bit wooden (but that could also be due to the rather skimpy lines she's been given to read). One or two twists in this adaptation are Woolrich-worthy, but on the whole, it's probably a bit predictable for a modern audience, and ultimately rates as standard fare for an early 70s TV movie...even with direction by Jeannot Szwarc (a veteran of TV and feature films). All that being said, I'm still glad to have this one in my collection.