User reviews

Whenever you see the names "Levinson" and "Link" in the writing credits, you can be assured of a well scripted, unique whodunit, with plot twists that would give Dame Agatha a run for her money.

" ... unusual form -- a mystery -- you take the audience by the hand and you lead them -- in the wrong direction." Those are the prophetic words of playwright Alex Dennison in this Levinson and Link play within a play, called "Rehearsal For Murder". Dennison (Robert Preston) reunites five show-biz friends, ostensibly to get feedback on his new mystery novel. The real reason for the reunion is to unmask the killer of Monica Welles, Dennison's fiancé, who was murdered a year earlier. Which of the five friends is the killer?

"Rehearsal For Murder" is a filmed stage play, which means that the emphasis is on the crafts of script and acting, both of which here are excellent, and production design which in this case is adequate. The multiple plot twists make the screenplay ingenious, if perhaps a little far-fetched. The entire cast gives a fine performance, though I must confess to a preference for Robert Preston, one of the most credible actors of all time.

There's no heavy duty "message" in this film, no special effects, no cinematic gimmicks. It's just an old-fashioned, entertaining murder mystery for viewers who like whodunits. I have long considered "Murder By Natural Causes" (1979) to be Levinson and Link's best work. But "Rehearsal For Murder" is not far behind.

... because the quality of the two halves is a bit uneven.

Playwright Alex Dennison (Robert Preston) is opening his Broadway play with his fiancée, Monica Welles (Lynn Redgrave), in the leading actress role. He wants it to be a success if only for her sake, and the audience loves the play, but the newspaper critics consider it a bust. After the play, Monica says she wants to be alone for the night, but later calls Alex and tells him to come right over. When Alex arrives, the police are there, with Monica apparently having jumped to her death from an upper story window. The authorities rule the death a suicide.

A year passes and Alex returns to the theatre scene with a rough draft of a new play. He wants to do a reading and invites five people who were part of or close to his last production, the one that failed and starred his fiancée. It soon becomes clear that this play is about the death of his fiancée, but in this play Monica is murdered. Alex states that Monica was murdered, and that this reading will reveal the culprit. When this comes to light all five decide to leave, saying that Alex has become obsessed, but there is a cop in the theatre who says he advises that they stay if only to humor Alex and put to rest his theory. And plus suspicion will fall on anybody who does leave. Complications ensue.

Now just about everything I wrote in the second paragraph above is not true, but it appears to be. The denouement is actually quite clever and, like I said, there is a pay-off if you stay until the end. Otherwise, give up on it midway and you'll just feel like your time has been wasted with some rather hammy and ham-fisted plot devices. I'd say the first half is about a 6/10, carried on the strength of the performers and the second half is about an 8/10.

The writers, Richard Levinson and William Link, openly declare their intentions within their own dialogue: "In a murder mystery, you take the audience by the hand....and you lead them in the wrong direction. They trust you, and you betray them". And that's what they set out to do as well. Clever script, fine ensemble acting (with a pre-stardom Jeff Goldblum making a strong impression). The direction is a little flat and cramped (except for the transitions in & out of the enacted play), but in this case it seems to fit the theme. Do NOT get spoiled on this. *** out of 4.

Robert Preston plays a Broadway playwright who is just about getting over the death of Lynn Redgrave almost a year earlier. She was an actress involved with Preston who wrote a play for her in which she opened to mixed reviews. That night she went off her building roof and her death was ruled a suicide. Preston's never believed it though.

So he's gathered several friends and acquaintances though which include Lawrence Pressman, David Greene, Jeff Goldblum, Madolyn Smith, and William Daniels to read scenes from a new play he's written. Seems as though Preston has the flotsam and jetsam of a plot of a murder mystery that everyone discovers rather quickly is the plot of the murder of Redgrave the year before. Her death was ruled a suicide, but Preston never believed it.

He's borrowed from no less than the greatest playwright of all Master William Shakespeare who had Hamlet use that device to confirm his suspicions about Uncle Claudius. Preston's suspicions are confirmed, but the murderer is the last one you'd suspect.

This is a pretty good cast of players and they're quite up to the dialog that a clever script provides. Nothing special here, but nicely served up.

This has remained one of my favorite movies of all time. Written by Richard Levinson and William Link, the creators of "Columbo" and "Murder, She Wrote," the story takes place in an empty theater as playwright Alex Dennison stages an elaborate plan to reveal the truth behind his movie star fiancée's supposed suicide. Cast and crew from her first, and only stage play performance are gathered together a year after her death under the pretext of a reading of his new play. As the scenes are read, it becomes evident that Alex has an ulterior motive in inviting these people for this "rehearsal." When the group learns that Alex believes Monica was actually murdered, and that one of them is the prime suspect, it is only through various methods of duress that they reluctantly go along with his scheme. Very much like a stage play, each character is introduced, playing what seems to be a stock part: the ingénue yearning for stardom; the producer keeping his eye on the bottom line; the stage director trying to make a name for himself; the embittered ex-lover; the leading man with an eye for the ladies, and so on. At the center of the story, Robert Preston is perfect as the distinguished playwright who has suffered a tragic loss; determined to prove that the woman he loved was murdered. At times, you can't be certain that he hasn't simply gone over the edge in his grief.

Jeff Goldblum's face is the only one on the DVD cover, and although he was excellent playing the part of supporting actor Leo Gibbs, this movie truly is a shining example of ensemble performance, with great performances by William Daniels, Lawrence Pressman, Patrick Macnee, and Madolyn Smith. The only discordant note is Lynn Redgrave. Admittedly, playing a character that is only seen in flashbacks and manufactured scenes from a play, it is hard to get a sense of Monica Welles' true nature. Still, the movie was not so much about her, but rather about how others may have seen her from different perspectives, along with their possible motives.

There are many twists and turns, but the clues are there for anyone to see, especially in dialogue. The first and most notable one, is when Alex tells the group about his new play. "Unusual form, a mystery," Alex notes, "You take the audience by the hand, and you lead them... in the wrong direction. They trust you, and you betray them! All in the name of surprise." These words sum up the story perfectly and succinctly, and I'm glad I have the chance to give this movie a hearty recommendation.

Back in the early 2000s, you could find the weirdest combinations of movies together on one DVD. Many titles ghosted around in the "public domain" and were put on discs together with other & totally unrelated films. I found in my closet a DVD called "3 classic thrillers collection". Sounds intriguing enough, but it's a crummy disc with "Mr. Scarface", "Dementia 13", and this "Rehearsal for Murder" on it. None of them are thrillers, none of them are classics, and I really can't see any link or connection between them. I probably bought it for Fernando di Leo's "Mr. Scarface" (a.k.a. "I Padroni della Cittá") or for Francis Ford Coppola's witty horror debut "Dementia 13" and ignored "Rehearsal for Murder" during all these years.

Unjust, I now discovered, as "Rehearsal for Murder" is a compelling, smart, and more than competent made-for-TV thriller/whodunit. The film eventually caught my attention because the screenplay was written by the duo Richard Levinson and William Link. These two were known and very skilled in the field of murder mysteries and convoluted thrillers and created the legendary character/franchises "Columbo" (with Peter Falk) and "Murder, She Wrote" (with Angela Lansburry). Levinson and Link - even their surnames sound like a solid alliance - also scripted a handful of terrific late 70s/early 80s TV-thrillers, of which "One of my Wives is Missing" is undoubtedly the best. "Rehearsal for Murder" is not too far behind, though.

Levinson & Link (yes, I love using their alliterating names) stayed on familiar turf for this, as the plot revolves around Alex Dennison, a theater play writer who's still grieving over the death of his fiancée one year earlier. He doesn't believe Monica committed suicide and is certain that she was murdered. Alex narrowed down the number of potential suspects to the five people who were the closest to them as a couple, and as collaborators in the play that premiered on the night of her death. He lures all of them (3 actors, 1 director, and a producer) to the theater, supposedly to proofread the script of a new play, but he cleverly incorporated their motives into the fake play and wants to confront them.

The concept and set-up are already great, but the unforeseeable plot twists make it even better. I can't reveal too much, but you'll see. The revelation at the end, and some of the circumstances of Monica's death are quite far-fetched and implausible, but still I found it acceptable. Good cast, too, with familiar faces like Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Macnee, and William Daniels.

Movie actress Lynn Redgrave has her Broadway debut in a new play by Robert Preston. It's a flop, but they are of good cheer, because they're in love. She sends him home, then calls him to come over. When he gets there, she is dead. The police call it suicide. He doesn't believe it, and a year later calls together his producer and several cast members in the theater, to rehearse a draft of a new play he is working on. It soon dawns on them that he is accusing each of them of murdering Miss Redgrave. They start to walk out, but there's Police detective Buck Young, willing to indulge Preston.

Given a cast that includes William Daniels, Patrick McNee, Lawrence Pressman, and even a 20-year-old Jeff Goldblum among the suspects, it's easy to be starstruck by this Levinson-Link TV movie, and wonder when Peter Falk will show up with just one more question. The fact that I figured it out about halfway through is no indictment on the various red herrings strewn on the path to truth; that's a frequent structural issue with this form of mystery; perhaps director David Greene didn't offer enough visual distraction along with the murder scenarios. Or perhaps as one of the character notes about far too many mysteries, the roles are underwritten and stereotyped.

Alex Dennison, Robert Preston, A top Broadway playwright returns to the theater where his fiancée Monica Wells, Lynn Redgrave, acted in her first and last performance on Broadway just a year ago in the comedy play that Alex wrote for her "Chamber Music". Reflecting back to what became a tragic night Monica, a movie star, was acting in a play on Broadway for the first time in her career and was very apprehensive and nervous about how her performance on stage would be taken by the public as well as the Broadway critics.

When the play ended to the standing ovation of the theater audience the critical reviews coming in on "Chamber Music" were anything but overwhelming and at a party with everyone involved in the play later that night Monica seemed hurt and depressed. Alex trying to make Monica feel good tells her that no matter what the critics say, which weren't all that bad, about the play that she's not to let it get to her, that bad reviews are a part of life on Broadway, and that she'll always be tops with him. With the party over and everyone gone Monica alone with Alex asks him something the seemed to be a bit strange, if he loved her which of course Alex told her that he did. Later that night Alex gets a phone call from Monica that gets cut off in mid-sentence. Rushing to her apartment he finds that she jumped or fell from her bedroom window an was killed. Hurt and almost in shock Alex just couldn't believe that his Monica would have killed herself which led him to personally investigate her dead and what he found out he put into a play that he wrote with the murder suspects all playing major roles in it.

Using the theater as a backdrop to find out who killed Monica Wells and having the police Leut. MaElroy, William Russ who was in charge of the investigation of Monica's death helping him Alex gathered all the suspects together, who had no idea of what Alex had planned for them, to play their parts in the play which in the end revealed the one who killed Monica.

The movie "Rehearsal for Murder" is so well written with a script that builds to such a unexpected final that you'll immediately want to see the film over again. "Rehearsal for Murder" is so good that it makes movies with surprise endings like "The Usual Subjects" and "Se7en" look like high school plays in comparison. It's amazing watching the movie that every word every action and even every movement fit right into the story like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Who killed Monica? was it her co-star in the play David Mathews, Patrick Macnee, who's advances she turned down? Was it the director of the play LLoyd Andrews, Lawrence Pressman, who was in love with her and thought that Monica was also in love with him and felt betrayed by her when she became engaged to Alex? Was it the producer of the play Walter Lamb, William Daniels, who was to lose $600,000.00 of his own money if the play flopped and could only get his money back if Monica who he heavily insured died during it's run on Broadway? Was it Monica's understudy Karen Daniels, Madolyn Smith-Osborne, who would do anything to get top-billing in the play? or her lover and fellow actor Leo Gibbs, Jeff Goldblum, who would do anything to help her get it?

Powerhouse whodunit that for some reason has been forgotten all these years but after seeing "Rehearsal for Murder" you'll wonder, just like I did, why?

A year after his fiancée apparently committed suicide, top theatre director Preston gets a group of his friends together to rehearse a new play which bears a striking resemblance to the last day of his fiancée's life.

A cracking twisty turny whodunnit for those who enjoy Agatha Christie type mysteries. Granted the script is a bit limp, actors rather wooden, the filming unimaginative and overall this is a bit dated. Having said that the mystery itself holds up and I never saw the inevitable twists and turns coming, so worth it for that.

If you can't work out where this TV movie is going after the first 20 minutes , right at the start of the rehearsal , then you must have been asleep. Rather pedestrian movie , and spoiled for me because the outcome was always so very obvious.

The acting of most of those involved was reasonable , in the circumstances , but thought Robert Preston was rather dull and uninspired throughout.

One very annoying thing is that the very distinctive voice of William Daniels who was in this movie , is so linked as being the voice of the car KITT in Knight Rider that it really becomes distracting whenever he speaks.

A TV movie in a similar vein "One of my Wives is Missing" is far more interesting.

A leading lady (Lynn Redgrave) seems to have committed suicide after mixed reviews on opening night. Her fiancé (Robert Preston), the playwright, knows better. A year later, he assembles the cast (Patrick Macnee, Madolyn Smith, Jeff Goldblum), the director (William Daniels) and the producer (Lawrence Pressman) to read scenes from his new play. When moving men and a police lieutenant show up, it becomes clear this is more than a rehearsal. The playwright has found a novel way to catch a killer. We soon learn that no one and nothing are who and what they seem.

I love Agatha Christie, but not whodunits in general. Christie seems preternaturally capable of getting away with all the absurd contrivances the genre demands and pulling off a great story. Otherwise, I prefer the how-will-the-killer-get-caught stories, best exemplified by "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Dial 'M' for Murder" (1953) and the "Columbo" TV series.

Richard Link and William Levinson, the creators of "Columbo" and "Murder She Wrote," have given us a reasonably good whodunit here. (It was good enough for a playwright named D. D. Brooke to adapt it for the stage, specifically for schools and community theaters.) The director David Greene does a fair job, but his overuse of close-ups doesn't especially help create and sustain the mood. The cast of old-timers and halfway-old-timers is pretty good, but the two younger members, Goldlbum and Smith, seem uncomfortable with their parts. Lynn Redgrave is not well cast as the leading lady we meet in flashbacks. The character ought to have an air of mystery, and Redgrave does not.

The screenplay employs the same device of false flashbacks that Link and Levinson used in their later "Guilty Conscience" (1985) with Anthony Hopkins. The Hopkins movie keeps pulling the rug out from under us, until we're sick of it. Here, they are not used to fool us, so much as present a possible reality that we have to judge for ourselves. Both this and the later mystery are available in cheap DVD copies. If you must buy one, this is it.

A superior T V movie, has Robert Preston as a playwright, trying to convince his friends, that his wife has been murdered,and not as the police think, that she committed suicide. He rents a theatre, then proceeds to put on a basics of a new play, in order to bring the killer to justice. Any film like this with such a good twist in the tail, is well worth watching.

This mystery takes on a new twist when Broadway playwright Alex Dewnnison, (Robert Preston), invites the cast and crew of his new play to a cold reading of the script. However, the participants don't know that their get together is a part of a plan to find out the criminal who killed his lover, Monica Wells, (Lynn Redgrave) and made her death look like a suicide by jumping out of a window in a high rise apartment dwelling. You will never be able to figure out just who the murderer is and this film will keep you glued to your seats. Robert Preston and Lynn Redgrave gave outstanding performances along with the entire cast of actors. Enjoy.

Dostoevsky is claimed to once have said that if a gun is seen in the first act of a play then it must be shot with by the third...

This was very true of "Rehearsal For Murder" a made for TV film back in the early 80's with a veteran and sterling cast - including a very angular and fresh-faced Jeff Goldblum, pre-Fly.

The man who carried the show was the late, great, inimitable Robert Preston - while known known to have been in some westerns in the 50s, he shone in the original film of "The Music Man," as he did in "The Last Starfighter" and still to my view Robert Preston earned the Oscar in Blake Edwards' version of "Victor, Victoria" with Alex Karras, Dame Julie Andrews and James Garner (perhaps Karras getting Best Actor In Supporting Role).

I digress, yet Robert carried the show as the aggrieved and lovelorn playwright Alex Dennison, who was convinced his fiancée - played by Lynn Redgrave - was in fact murdered and not a suicide as most folk thought in the movie.

In what appears to be a roleplaying manhunt of a whodunit by Preston/Dennison, you are given the impression he already knows who did the deed - or does he? William "St Elsewhere" Daniels, Patrick "The Avengers" MacNee and ex-Wiseguy alumni William Russ all executed their parts with intricate precision in this mystery that will have you turning every which way until the very last minute and even then you may not see where the plot is heading...

A very well-written script from Richard Levinson & William Link - with a long combined history of writing for hit series like "Murder She Wrote," "Columbo," and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" then it's no mystery why this show if done as a book would be a sure-fire page-turner! http://tinyurl.com/3464k/

REHEARSAL FOR MURDER

Aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Sound format: Mono

One year after his wife (Lynn Redgrave) died in mysterious circumstances, a grief-stricken playwright (Robert Preston) lures several prime suspects - all personal friends - to a lonely theatre where he proposes to unmask Redgrave's killer by reconstructing events on the night of her death...

Wonderful, old-fashioned murder mystery (written by Richard Levinson and William Link) which pulls an astonishing about-face during its final reel, though not before a number of talented thesps (including Patrick Macnee, William Daniels, Jeff Goldblum and Madolyn Smith) have acted up a storm as chief suspects in a tragic crime. Performances and dialogue are crisp and believable, plot-holes are neatly plugged, and the climactic 'reveal' will knock your socks off! Magical stuff, highly recommended, though viewers are advised to see it 'cold' for maximum effect. Directed by TV veteran David Greene (ROOTS, GUILTY CONSCIENCE, THE TRIAL OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD, etc.).

9/10 - one of my all-time favorite TV movies and one of my all-time favorite mysteries

As soon as I saw "Written by Richard Levinson and William Link - I knew this was going to be a top mystery thriller. Together Levinson and Link created "Columbo", one of televisions most endearing detectives. You think it is all going along smoothly - "I know exactly what is going to happen" - then you are turned on your head, although everything you have seen makes perfect sense. I agree with a previous reviewer - Robert Preston spent almost his entire career as a character actor, until he became a national treasure with "The Music Man". He was now a huge star and alternated between stage and screen. He was working with some great talent in this film, which won an Edgar for Levinson and Link in 1983 as Best Television Feature or Miniseries.

The film begins in a deserted thearte, a year after the supposed suicide of Monica Welles (Lyn Redgrave), an aspiring actress and fiancée of Alex Dennison (Robert Preston). Of course, he is convinced that it was murder and has summoned all the actors together (who were the last people to see Monica alive). They think they are there to read for Alex's new play but he thinks one of them is the murderer and is determined to expose them by an ingenious way.

Who was it??? - was it David Matthews (Patrick MacNee) Monica's leading man, whose advances she laughs off, Walter Lamb (William Daniells) who stands to lose $600,000 of his own money if the play is a flop and has insured Monica - he will get his money back if she dies during the run. Then there is Karen Daniels (Madolyn Smith) a young understudy, who would do anything to play the lead. Jeff Goldblum plays her lover but his is the least interesting character in the movie. As they go through their parts (Alex has written a play about the murder of a young stage actress making her Broadway debut) everyone seems to have a definite motive for murder.

By the end of the film everything has been turned upside-down and You Will Never Guess the Murderer!!!!

Highly, Highly Recommended.

I was confused not to see lieutenant Columbo in this film, written by the Levinson Link piece of work, which, of course looks very lie a COLUMBO series episode, except the very short cop appearance. Besides, that's a real good time waster for perfect crime schemes lovers. And what a surprise to see Pat Mc Nee here. I have nothing more to tell about this feature.

Robert Preston avoids overacting in this tight drama. It would have been easy for him to shout some of his dialog and overpower the simple but winding storyline. The cast is great. Each role brings forth the question of "What if this part were played by...???" I could imagine David Niven or Betty Davis in the lead roles or perhaps Clifton Webb and Gloria Swanson. They would all have been different in their performances, but it would be hard to be better than what is done by this group. Jeff Goldblum at first sounds like he will be out of place with these legends, but he holds his own and then some.

There are no explosions or swear words or nudity, so this won't be enjoyed by the under 13 crowd. A group of adults will like trying to figure out where this is going as it twists around from moment to moment. It does have some stretches of believability from time to time, but it sews everything right back up by the end.

I think some of today's filmmakers could do a new version of this if they were willing to stay away from the special effects table. This is basically a movie for the right cast who can deliver on a good script.

A very nice movie.