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.

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.

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 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.

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.