O Passo da Morte

Harold Shillman was a police detective who tried to blow his brains out when he found his wife in bed with her lover. Harold is now a depressed, passive, cynical man who is sexually impotent. His detective skills have atrophied and his thought processes appear slow.

Harold Shillman is hired by Mel Ferrer to follow his wife. There is a murder. Angie Dickinson is a lovely, vulnerable suspect (and former hooker) who tries to bring Harold back to life.

William Hale's excellent direction makes the most of Felix Culver's literate screenplay of Eric Bercovici's novel. Mel Ferrer excels as both producer and actor.

Harold Shillman reminds me a lot of Harry Orwell, and it would be easy to imagine David Janssen in the role if he had still been alive.

Jose Perez is very funny as the exasperated cop-on-the-case who tells Harold to "start thinking like a detective again."

Angie Dickinson never gave a warmer, sexier, more human performance. She was irresistible, although she never brings Mitchum back to sexual life.

John Harkins was touching as a loyal friend and employee of Ferrer.

Mitchum may be slightly past his peak at this point, but that works for the character.(It had been 35 years since Mitchum played private detective Jeff Bailey in "Out of the Past".) Mitchum still makes a superb private eye.

Apparently few people think as highly of this film as I do, but to me it is a cruelly overlooked classic of the genre. At least the Mystery Writers of America gave the film an Edgar nomination. If you're partial to down-on-their-luck private eyes, give this film a try.

I decided to watch this film because I like Robert Mitchum--and he's very good here. Unfortunately, the story itself has issues...mostly because it looks as if the writer saw the film and then just decided to rearranged the plot here and there to make an all-new movie. So many plot elements are the same--such as it being set around San Francisco, the out of work and emotionally damaged cop who's inexplicably hired by a husband and the same witnessing the lady falling to her death!

When the film begins, you learn that ex-cop Harold Shillman (Mitchum) is a mess. He just was forced off the force after trying to kill himself and he tends to drink heavily. So why would anyone want to hire this mess of a person to do a private investigation-- particularly when he's NOT a private dick?! A tough mobster type (Mel Ferrer) wants him to find his runaway wife. Amazingly, he finds her with no trouble at all and she says her hubby knows EXACTLY where she is!! So why hire Shillman?! Perhaps it's because as he's leaving the apartment building where the wife is, he sees her falling to her death!

Along for the ride, inexplicably, is a lady played by Angie Dickenson. She really just seems to be there for titillation and she and Mitchum get nekkid together quite a bit through the course of the movie. You don't really see anything (in Mitchum's case, this isn't a bad thing considering his age).

So is it any good despite too many similarities to "Vertigo"? Well, I did enjoy seeing the world-weary performance by Mitchum. Also, the story differs from "Vertigo" in enough ways that there are plenty of surprises. A decent but certainly not outstanding made for TV film.

Harold Shillman had been a good reputable cop but who had then turned to drink. When the mystery opens he has become an unlicensed private investigator taking on a job to find somebody's wife. That job changes after he tracks down the wife and there is an investigation with a possibility of it being a murder one case. This mystery progresses at a leisurely pace where we continually learn of peoples' past lives. Gradually some of those lives merge with each other to form a baffling intrigue. Robert Mitchum with his weary-sounding baritone voice is Shillman who has lost a lot of his confidence. He befriends a nice easy going woman called Faye (Angie Dickinson) who tries to give him back his manly confidence. She has a couple of ex husbands who pimp their way through life. Mel Ferrer plays Charnock who employs Shillman and Jose Perez is a Cuban-born detective. So a good cast and there are number of characters whose motives we cannot be sure of. The turning point comes when Shillman becomes really interested in the case for himself which brings him alive to start thinking like a cop gain to go on and solve the mystery.

Robert Mitchum takes out his detective persona used as Philip Marlowe in Farewell My Lovely for this made for television movie One Shoe Makes It Murder. Mitchum reunites with Angie Dickinson who was his co-star in Young Billy Young on the big screen.

Mel Ferrer who plays a gambling casino owner with some mob connections hires Mitchum who is an alcoholic former cop to find his missing wife Cathie Shirriff. Seems easy enough, Sheriff is traced back to her own apartment in San Francisco. But right after Mitchum locates her he goes down the elevator and emerges just in time to see Shirriff land on the pavement with only one shoe on. One shoe on her body, one left on her apartment floor and therefore One Shoe Makes It Murder.

Or so thinks San Francisco Homicide Detective Jose Perez and the usual conflict between the police and private detectives that we see in a gazillion movies happens. I liked Perez's performance in the film, Mitchum really got under his skin.

Angie Dickinson plays Shirriff's good friend from the old days who knows that Shirriff had a past, a past she shared. Mitchum has to coax the truth out of her.

Ferrer researched Mitchum very well before hiring him. It's never spelled out but Mitchum apparently got a raw deal from the San Diego Police Department when he was canned. He became an alcoholic and even tried one suicide attempt. But somewhere in the research Ferrer decides Mitchum is his man and he does get to the truth though it's not something Ferrer wants to hear. Those old cop instincts kick in once he has a murder to solve.

One Shoe Makes It Murder is a good made for TV mystery with Mitchum doing as well here as he did as Philip Marlowe on the big screen. The story is hardly Raymond Chandler, but Mitchum, Dickinson, Ferrer and the rest make it work.

A tired Mitchum stars in this murder mystery about a Las Vegas casino owner who enlists the help of an out of practice private eye to find his missing wife. Lies, deception and murder follow in a routine fashion. For die hard mystery fans only.