|
|
|
Illustration : Unknown |
|
DVD Availability
: Amazon.com
| Amazon.co.uk |
Secret Killing |
Charles Dubin | USA | 1971 |
|
An early TV movie from director Charles Dubin which emerges as a tight, compact and competently produced
piece that pushes all the right buttons to deliver an engaging thriller
with a sting in the tail. Bachelor Dr. Ron Wellesley (John Forsythe) runs a successful private practice, and secretly meets
with one of his patients — the married Mrs. Lisa Manning (a pre- Space 1999 Barbara Bain). Lisa’s suspicious husband, Frank (Richard Kiley; Looking For Mr. Goodbar) — also a patient of Wellesley’s — hires
a private detective to tail his wife, and uncovers their secret tryst,
in addition to revelations about a number of patients who died under
‘mysterious’ circumstances while Wellesley held a practice
in another town… Confronting Wellesley, Frank threatens to reveal this
information which would surely ruin the doctor’s reputation
— demanding that he leave town and forget about his wife. In
response, the enterprising doctor hatches a Machiavellian plan to
murder Frank and pin the blame squarely on a recovering junky patient
he has under his care. The plan is implemented to perfection, but is it Wellesley
himself who has been the unwitting victim of an even more devious
scheme? A set-up in which he — like the junky patient — is
just a pawn in a more intricate subterfuge…
|
|
Dubin’s film first appeared on tape in March 1983, sporting
an uncharacteristically bland sleeve by Buckinghamshire-based Iver Film Services, under its original Murder Once Removed title. For its re-release in late 1986 from Krypton Force’s Delta Video, the film was re-titled with the on-screen video-generated
‘Secret Killings’ title (using the conflicting plural term,
which might suggest a bloodbath, yet more appropriately printed as
‘Secret Killing’ on the video sleeve). This latter imprint features a stoic portrait of leading man
John Forsythe, positioned above a syringe and a body outline; it seems
that this was a deliberate artist’s impression to exploit the
(then) current popularity of Forsythe’s television role in Dynasty – giving a certain recognition factor to maximise as
many video rentals as possible. aka : Secret Killings; Murder Once Removed cast : John Forsythe, Barbara Bain, Richard Kiley, Joseph
Campanella, Wendell Burton, Reta Shaw, Larry Haddon |