Excellent but underrated film

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

After vacationing newlyweds squabble and the wife drives off, her husband calls the resort police and reports her missing; she turns up two days later--accompanied by the local priest!--but may be an impostor. Mystery writer Peter Stone is unable to make Robert Thomas' play "Trap for a Single Man" into a convincing, satisfying movie, much less a TV-movie. Characters enter and exit the honeymoon house with stagy flourish, while the dialogue is heightened to reach bored viewers raised on "Columbo". Jack Klugman plays the police inspector with tongue-in-cheek, but hack director Glenn Jordan has Klugman and the other players shouting and waving their arms, like stage performers desperate to rouse an audience. Stone used the pseudonym "Pierre Marton"; it's a pretty silly movie, I don't blame him for not wanting credit.

A wealthy man is honeymooning in a small town when his new bride goes missing. The police are dragging their feet, but not to worry, the lady turns up, or does she? She says she is his wife, and everyone else is convinced, including the local priest, but heck, he recognises his own wife, doesn't he? It soon becomes clear the impostor and the (fake) priest are in cahoots to drive him mad, but can he convince the local detective of that? A plot of this nature would not work in the cyber-age, of course, nor probably would it have worked in the 1970s. Everything about this film stinks: the wise-cracking former big city detective, the script, the ridiculous twists and turns, the one thing that holds it together is the apparent plot. Alas, the final twist is so ridiculous it beggars belief and then some. A much better alternative ending would be the obvious one in which although his wife has indeed been murdered, the chickens come home to roost for the villains. Alas, the way it actually plays out is too silly for words.

They don't make movies like this anymore! And that is a shame! A good old, well written, well acted, well directed full-blooded murder mystery thriller! With no gore, no special effects, based purely on a good script, good acting and good directing. My favorite! I hate all these modern action thriller, spy thrillers, blood-everywhere thrillers. I love old-fashioned suspense thrillers and this is an excellent example of them. You will be on the edge of the seat until the end, worried to death about the main character, wanting to jump on the screen to help him and not knowing who is really who and what they are playing at. You will not guess it until the very end - I promise you wont. The thrill is 100% psychological. Get some popcorn or a bottle of wine, put your feet up and enjoy!

At first glance, this looks like another here today, gone tomorrow made for TV thriller, but this is one that will stay with you. There are twists and turns that you'd never expect, and the denouement is very clever. There's a terrific atmosphere of mystery and terror throughout, and the cast is perfect. Jack Klugman never solved a mystery this good as Quincy, that's for sure.