Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest

Without a doubt the best! of the 4 spin-off TV movies from the 'Murder, She Wrote' TV series.

Superb styling. A great story that pans out well, with a couple of surprising plot twists at the end. More worthy of Lansbury's dramatic scope than, sadly, the rest of the TV spin-offs, this is one film that is well worth setting the set-top box to record.

With wonderful subtle references to other 'train crime' movies: the film noir 'Double Indemnity'; 'The 39 Steps' (the rural train station at which Jessica Fletcher disembarks is amusingly named 'Hannay' after that film's lead character Richard Hannay); and of course another famous Hitchcock train movie: 'North by Northwest'. Plus there are elements of 'The Lady Vanishes' when one of the lead characters disappears; all the more poignant, of course, as Angela Lansbury herself starred as 'the lady' in the 1978 film version of the 'TLV'!

Indubitably a fun film for die-hard fans of the TV series. And the most watchable of the spin-offs. Maybe this is because it was the first (made in 1997) of the 4 movies. But in any case the other 3 spin-offs in this TV franchise are little more than self-indulgent, rambling & soporific TV 'dross'. This initial TV movie, however, is a more 3-dimensional film.

A well-scripted story in which the plot gives Lansbury the chance to really act. Enjoy. It offers a fun couple of hours' viewing.

This is Murder She Wrote at its best This movie is by far my fave along side the Celtic riddle It's a movie I can watch again and again Jessica Fletcher is traveling to a lecture by train When she befriends a women in protective custody When her new friend goes missing after dinner Jessica is attracted after being mistaking for her friend And with that JB decides to investigate This movie has a great cast great script and true Murder She Wrote Vibe That fans of the series will love Cannot not give it anything but a 10/10 If your a murder she wrote fan and you haven't seen it what the hell are you waiting for If you have seen it watch it again And if you have never seen or heard of murder she wrote Watch it and I promise you will discover one of the greatest shows of all time

It is good to see Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) back in action in the first TV movie after the Murder, She Wrote TV series ended. This time, Jessica meets a woman named Sarah (Mel Harris) while on a train to El Paso. Sarah disappears and leaves her purse behind, setting a stage of events where Sarah is believed to have witnessed a homicide and a criminal is pursuing her to reclaim a possession, leading the involvement of the FBI and leaving Jessica caught in the middle of the mayhem.

This movie possesses the same charm, sleuth tactics and plot twists and turns of the TV series, and is filled with some intriguing plot points and daring investigation scenes that puts Jessica all over the map that one would find compelling. The direction and pacing are pretty good, aside from the plot that tends to drag a little towards the middle of the movie. The acting is also pretty spot on.

With all the finger-pointing and unpredictability elements in the movie, you would be eager to find the truth of the matter and who is behind the all the criminal activities. It is a good TV movie that is a nice throwback to the heyday of the TV series.

Grade B

This story full of suspense. It starts off with a man being murdered and a woman walking her dog sees the murderer. The woman tell the police she is afraid because the killer knows what she looks like.

JB Fletcher goes on a train a makes friends with a Mrs Taylor not knowing the lady is the witness to the murder who later disappears.

There are men that get on board and they all look suspicious. You start to think maybe they will kill Mrs Taylor.

The story is about secret codes for Satellites that are worth a lot of money. They are being sought by a number of people some working for the government and some from other countries. The man that was killed was meeting a reporter because the codes where in error and the higher ups would not listen to him to correct the problem so he was going to give the reporter the story.

It kind of reminds me of what happened recently with the NSA. The NSA was spying on people and countries and Snowden not like what the NSA was doing so he started to reveal internal things that happened to news reporters.

The story has a lot of suspense and action that takes place on the train. It has lots of persons of interest. Good to watch.

This was the first TV-movie that continued the mysteries of crime novelist and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher, a role that Angela Lansbury made loved around the world in the popular TV series, Murder She Wrote.

On the outside it may seem like just a feature length episode of that show, but if you look at it closely you'll see that it has some wonderful moments that make it a superior TV-movie. I suppose having said that you really do need to have an interest in this sort of TV mystery formula and if you have a love for the show then you will adore this.

There are some wonderful moments of mystery and intrigue built up and towards the end you are gagging to find out the truth as you always are in these mysteries. Also,as usual with a good mystery, there are some wonderful twists and turns which I'm obviously not going to talk about. I would recommend this to die hard fans of the series and anyone who enjoys a good mystery.