Arabesque: La peur aux trousses

Original title: Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest

TV Movie
1997
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Jessica Fletcher (Dame Angela Lansbury) is attacked on a train when she investigates the case of a missing passenger.Jessica Fletcher (Dame Angela Lansbury) is attacked on a train when she investigates the case of a missing passenger.Jessica Fletcher (Dame Angela Lansbury) is attacked on a train when she investigates the case of a missing passenger.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 nominations total

User reviews12

Featured review

8/10

Good to see Jessica Fletcher back in action!

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

Trivia
The dusty bus stop town location was Piru, California, adjacent to Fillmore. The Piru town's short Main Street commercial buildings were completely vacant, boarded up, and unoccupied. Art Director Mary Dodson created all of the shops, selecting a market, a Southwest Indian tourist shop, a barber shop, gas station, with necessary window and sign decoration. Mary and the decorator made the town come to life for the filming sequence. Several other exterior buildings and sidewalk locations were utilized filling out the filming schedule's use of the town site.

Goofs
When the train journey is interrupted by someone pulling the emergency brake because they claim someone fell from the train, they get out and search the area immediately around the train. In reality, at an average speed of 50mph, as later stated, it would take the train a mile or more to stop after the emergency brake was pulled, plus the distance from the time someone saw someone "fall" and the time it took to locate and pull the emergency brake. They would've needed to be searching at least a mile behind where the train stopped.