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.

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.

Levinson and Link, the Columbo and McCloud guys threw together this modern mystery and it's too bad (that it's thrown together), because the story is quite marvelous, actually.

The film suffers from limited locations and characters. The casting is TV-Movie all the way with Mike Farrell, Margot Kidder, and Eliott Gould getting the bulk of the screen time. Fred Gwynne (don't we all love Fred Gwynne?) does a nice turn in a smaller role..

If you make it through the first 20 minutes of needless expanse, you'll wonder into an interesting little mystery with plenty of surprises.

Well worth watching on a rainy afternoon.

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!!!

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!!!!!