Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan

A mob member, his moll and the person called to tow them, after their car breaks down are killed in this entry of the Edna Buchanan mystery movie series, which would be the last Elizabeth Montgomery would make as Miami Herald reporter Edna Buchanan. The plot is very intricate and involving, making this very entertaining and fast- paced. By the end, you'll be very impressed with its intelligence and its ambitiousness for such a multi-layered story. (You do notice something rather strange right off, if you're very observant, as the murders are taking place.) The only thing really found lacking in the movie compared to "The Corpse Had a Familiar face" is that Dennis Farina is nowhere to be found. Without him it does lack a certain pep, but Ms. Montgomery still delivers a good performance with that usual twinkle in her eye. This was her last TV movie she would complete. In fact, during the making of this, she ignored what she thought was the flu, or just a cold, to finish filming it, and by the time she went to the doctor, her colon cancer had already progressed too much to do anything about it. I wish I could review this without getting into that, but it is part of her story and very relevant to this movie. Watching this may make you sentimental for her "Samantha" and "Bewitched," but her long career of TV-movies trying to break that clean image made her the Queen of the TV-Movies in the 1970-1990s and this is a great example of why she remains a favorite of many today.

First of all, what makes this movie kind of sad is that Elizabeth Montgomery was sick with cancer during the filming and didn't even know it. You can see how skinny she is in several scenes and from interviews with people who worked on it, she was in pain throughout the shoot. She died about one month and a half after filming ended in late March 1995. Plot is about Liz, a newspaper reporter trying to solve a triple murder. This is the second Edna Buchanan movie made with Liz and is quite entertaining as it mixes light drama with small doses of comedy and witty dialogue, this time between Liz and Dean Stockwell playing the local coroner. One funny scene is where Dean opens a morgue vault door only to have champaign and pat'e on the slab instead of a body. When he pops the cork we hear it bounce off the walls and land in something gooey (off camera) he then retorts, "I wish it had landed anywhere, but there". Fun movie, especially if you are a Liz fan but kind of depressing in the fact she passed away soon after.

This is quite an intriguing murder mystery TV movie, starring Elizabeth Montgomery as a reporter who attempts to solve three crimes. The plot is quite entertaining with its mix of humor, suspense, and drama. It's quite a treat seeing Montgomery from her Bewitched heyday star in this, as well as co-star Audra Lindley, from Three's Company fame.

Grade B