What do the male leads in this 1986 mystery/intrigue sleeper have in common? If you answered, "They both are veterans of the 4077," (Elliott Gould in the movie and Mike Farrell in the subsequent TV series) you win the Kewpie Doll! Oops! Sorry! The prizes have disappeared! <p>Farrell is Harry Kenyon, newlywed honeymooning in a quaint Rockies village. But the new Mrs. Kenyon has disappeared. Or has she? Gould is the Police Lieutenant on the case who would much rather be back home in NYC. There's also Fred Gwynne as the Priest who not only cannot find Car 54, but appears unfamiliar with Saint Thomas Aquinas - and the Super Margot Kidder, apparently having an identity crisis pre-dating her recent confusion in Beverly Hills.<p>The beginning of this film reminded me a little of the later quirky "Fargo" especially Lt. Rudameyer's preoccupation with that Deli sandwich. But at least the folks in Fargo know how to drive on winter roads. What WAS San Franciscan Kenyon thinking driving like that?
Reader Reviews
This thriller is taut and suspensful, almost electric with intensity, and with all of its star players practically at the top of their form. Here is "poor hard-luck Harry" Kenyon whose wife has disapeared and apparently the only policeman (Lt. Rudimeyer) in town available to investigate it (the rest all busy marching in the parade) would rather be left alone eating his kosher corned beef sandwich from a deli on west 87th street, New York.But then comes this woman (with a little help from "Fr. Maklin") who claims to be the missing wife (Christine Prescott Kenyon) and seems to know everything about her, and to somehow be able to anticipate each and every possible evidence Harry would put forth to prove to Lt. Rudimeyer that this woman is not the real Christine Kenyon. How does she do it? She knows where they met, where they married, what they argued over the night she disappeared, where his friend whose cabin the newlyweds were borrowing for their honeymoon keeps his booze, seems to have half of Philadelphia on her payroll, and even the dog seems to know her. Of course that last is explained by one of the funniest fictional characters ever filmed, a veterinary disciple of Sigmund Freud ("If fleas are your problem, look elsewhere!").
For best enjoyment of this intense yet chess-match-like battle of wits, stop the film once Harry Kenyon practically breaks into the bank after Lt. Rudimeyer allows the Bank manager to hand "Christine" the check and they start arguing, and review the film. Try to think of all the different things Harry could have done to convince Rudimeyer. (One could almost make a video game out of this...) Then see it straight through to the end, which will come as a total surprise, managing to change and explain everything in an astonishingly short time. Incredible the different interpretations one can put on the exact same series of events. Then wind it back and it is amazing how many clues were there all along (no, the ending is not some tacked-on bit thought of at the last second, no matter how much it may seem so at first). And see how well any of your ideas for Harry would have worked.
I liked this film so much I bit the bullet and paid the $... price for it, the only rental-price-only video I ever bought new. Now, if only there could be more films which are that clever...
