SYNOPSICS
Murder by Natural Causes (1979) is a English movie. Robert Day has directed this movie. Richard Anderson,Katharine Ross,Hal Holbrook,Barry Bostwick are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1979. Murder by Natural Causes (1979) is considered one of the best Crime,Drama,Mystery movie in India and around the world.
The film opens as Arthur Sinclair, a successful mentalist (Hal Holbrook) is talking on the phone with his young wife Allison (Katherine Ross). She wishes him luck as he departs to give an interview. Than we learn that she is in bed with another man Gil (Barry Bostwick). Gil is a trying actor in love with Allison and we soon learn that she is planning to have Gil kill Arthur by scaring him to death (as he has a heart problem). Their plan is to have Gil storm the house pretending to be a thief and than point a gun at Arthur who would die from the shock. The faithful night comes and Gil storms the house but Arthur sees him before he can reach the gun. Gil presents himself as a journalist there to make an interview with Arthur. He and Gil have a hearty conversation and it turns out that both men have something on each other. Gil knows that Arthur is a fake and that he somehow knew the information about a killer in a different town and Arthur knows that Gil is not a journalist. Gil is not ...
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Murder by Natural Causes (1979) Reviews
If you like to be fooled...this is for you.
Probably the best of the Levinson/Link made for TV movies. They take the audience by the hand, and lead them completely in the wrong direction. I would defy anyone seeing this for the first time, to pick the ending. This is great "edge of the seat" stuff, but don't miss a word of the dialogue, especially the last 20 minutes, as there are more twists than a corkscrew.
Cleverest plot in ages
I am in absolute agreement with the other reviewer - you simply cannot top this plot. If there ever was a title for the cleverest script in TV movie history 'Murder By Natural Causes' would win hands down. Yes, there are very few (The Last of Sheila, Guilty Conscience) that are pretty close but this one is as close to perfection as any script of the genre will come. It is no surprise, of course, that the same team that created Columbo is responsible for this movie. Practically unknown, it will probably never be issued on a DVD. What a pity - a textbook script that nobody will remember only because people prefer to watch Dumb and Dumber instead.
The Best Final Act In TV Movie History. Don't Miss It!!
Just reinforcing what everyone who has seen this will tell you: out and out brilliant from start to finish. Katherine Ross, Hal Holbrook, Barry Bostwick and Richard Anderson are all in top form but the fiendishly twist-laden Levinson / Link script is the real star. This is the duo's very best effort, topping even their finest COLUMBO offerings. Besides a time capsule dollop of 1970s talk show topicality, I cannot imagine ANY fan of crime drama or whodunits being anything but thrilled with this continuously clever and original story. Probably among the very best TV mystery movies of its kind you'll ever see and smarter than 99% of features. Must see!
Best TV Movie ever!
Here it is, 24 years later and I still remember it from only one viewing. It had the most amazing storyline and writing with some pretty impressive twists and turns in the last half hour. I would LOVE to see it again. Hal Holbrook is truly one of the amazing and underappreciated actors of our time.
Perhaps The Best TV Movie Ever Made
Writers Richard Levinson and William Link wrote some great scripts in the sixties and seventies, including some for Hitchcock. A psychological thriller that first aired in 1979, "Murder By Natural Causes", is arguably Levinson and Link's best work. With twist upon twist upon twist, and subtle dialogue clues scattered throughout the plot, it's a film that fans of suspense thrillers need to see, as an example of superior script writing. Forty-something and wealthy entertainer Arthur Sinclair (Hal Holbrook) wows audiences with his mental telepathy skills as he seemingly reads peoples minds. Allison (Katharine Ross) is his attractive thirty-something wife, a person with a roving eye and a desire for riches. What kind of story do you think this setup suggests? Can you guess how the film ends? Don't bet on it. The film could easily be transformed into a stage play since most scenes take place indoors on sets. Production design is adequate. Intermittent background music is at times spooky, and there are a couple of scenes wherein the music is reminiscent of the shower scene in Hitchcock's "Psycho", shrieking and shrill. Good editing keeps the plot flowing nicely for the most part, though the middle Act trends a bit talky in a couple of scenes. Color cinematography is adequate. Casting and acting cannot be improved upon. All film elements come together perfectly in that final sequence when a character walks in the front door of Aruthur's big house. The dialogue here is entrancing. Camera movement is faultless. And that final scene where the camera moves in close to a character's eyes is breathtakingly dramatic. It's one of the great final sequences in film history. It's too bad this film never received a theatrical release. It is far better and more entertaining than most major Hollywood thrillers of the last fifty years that I have seen. The film won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for best television film of 1980. One might even assert that "Murder By Natural Causes" is the best TV movie ever made. I probably would not argue with that assessment.