Murder Without Conviction

Surfing the channels on a Saturday afternoon and the title caught my eye, thought okay I will give it a shot and I was pleasantly surprised, Not a blood and guts type of mystery but one that required a bit of thinking. I liked the premise of the two savant twin brothers that were only truly one whole person when they were together. The main character, played by Megan Ward is very likable and Patty Duke had a nice turn as a iron fist in a velvet glove Mother Superior. I figured it out long before the last half hour came up but that's okay it was still a fun trip getting there. Not familiar with the book this was based on, but it might be worth checking out of the library, just to compare.

Christine Bennett (Megan Ward) gives up being a nun and goes out into the real world with a house that she inherits. A close cousin Gene Wirth (Matt Lutz) is in a mental institution near buy. Gene has a friend there Edward Talley one of a pair of idiot savant twins (both played by Rutanya Alda) they were suspected of matricide 30years ago but never brought to trial. Christine with the aid of Det. Jack Brooks (Morgan Weisser) is determined to get to the bottom of this and put the suspicions to rest one way or another.

Looks like many people had motive and opportunity; there is a lot of finger-pointing and confessions. We get to speculate and participate.

This is a made for TV movie based on "The Good Friday Murders" the first of a series of mystery books by Lee Harris all with holidays in their title. Deviates some from the book but does a fair job of filling in the background and characters around the middle of the movie. Even if you guess the who did it, it is fun to watch how they figure it out or not.

This looks like a made for TV pilot. Look closely Patty Duke is Mother Joseph.

An interesting story given the Hallmark touch. Potentially, the plot was somewhat hard-hitting, but it was handled the way the Harlequin romances were when made into movies: light, entertaining, perfect Sunday afternoon fare. The story concerns idiot savant twins who were suspected, but never tried and convicted, of killing their mother thirty years earlier. The twins were separated and put into separate facilities and, without each other, they stopped communicating. An ex-nun becomes involved in finding the real killer. The cast is able, though the main character is short on development.

David Proval does a good job as the twins and Patty Duke brings spark as a nun.