Romantic Mystery Movies

Establishing its premise with a two-hour "TV movie" opener, Moonlighting segues swiftly into its first season, which though short (only seven episodes) is very, very sweet, especially whenever stars Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis take the viewers into their confidence to assure them that "it's only a TV show" -- and that their characters, fashion model Maddie Hayes and private eye David Addison, are fully aware that they're not real. Business at the Blue Moon Detective Agency is quite brisk if not terribly profitable during season one, beginning with David and Maddie trying to figure out how to tell their client that his long-lost son is a hired killer. In later episodes, Maddie suspects that a designer's secrets are being "telepathically" stolen; a popular talk-show host is apparently murdered in mid-broadcast; and David and Maddie dutifully notify the police that they've stumbled across a dead body, only to have the corpse disappear right under their noses. Perhaps the highlight of the season is an elaborate, inside-joke-laden spoof of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, in which David and Maddie find themselves on a train populated exclusively by suspicious-looking detective fiction stereotypes. ~ Rovi

Only 15 episodes of Moonlighting were produced during season three, down from the previous season's 18. The series' producers and stars made no secret of the fact that the production delays were being caused by backstage personality clashes; indeed, beginning in mid-season, each episode opened with an amusing "explanation" as to why the series was yielding so few new episodes. However, those episodes that were completed remain among the series' best. Highlights include the season opener, in which private eye David Addison (Bruce Willis, who won an Emmy for his work during season three) is uncomfortably reunited with his scapegrace father (Paul Sorvino); an elaborate It's a Wonderful Life takeoff spotlighting David's partner and erstwhile girlfriend Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), featuring Lionel Stander reprising his role as Max from the earlier detective series Hart to Hart; a hastily assembled "clip" show, produced to fill a huge production gap, in which Pierce Brosnan recreates his earlier TV character Remington Steele, and which also features "commentary" by Cybill Shepherd's former mentor (and lover) Peter Bogdanovich; the increasing prominence of Curtis Armstrong in the role of Herbert Viola, David and Maddie's nebbishy junior partner at the Blue Moon Detective Agency; another thrilling solo "caper" for the agency's flighty receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), this one set in a supposedly haunted house; and a four-part story arc in which Maddie is torn between her growing affection for David and the romantic overtures of her new suitor, yuppie Sam Crawford (Mark Harmon). The most memorable of the season's episodes is a riotous spoof of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, replete with faux Elizabethan dialogue. But the biggest event of the entire season occurs at the very end, when after three years of verbal and physical fencing, David and Maddie finally consummate their relationship. ~ Rovi

We still haven't learned the true name of the suave private detective who calls himself Remington Steele (Pierce Brosnan) as the series bearing the same name enters its third season. All we know for sure is that the real brains behind the Remington Steele Detective Agency is sexy private eye Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), who has hired "Steele" to pose as her nonexistent boss to attract clients who would otherwise be averse to hiring a woman to do their dirty work. We also know that former IRS agent Mildred Krebs (Doris Roberts) is still working as the agency's secretary in order to hassle Mr. Steele, whose questionable tax practices had cost Mildred her government job. As the season opens, it is clear that Laura has gotten over her initial dislike of Remington and is ready for romance -- but somehow or other, crime always rears its ugly head during those "special moments." This year's case load includes a mysterious person who, for unknown reasons, is trying to force Laura out of her apartment; a certain Maltese artifact that is hardly "the stuff that dreams are made of"; a comic strip artists whose creations come to murderous life; and Laura's efforts to probe the background of a politician -- while Remington tries to keep his own background under wraps. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Although fans were still addicted to the hip, kidding-on-the-square detective series Moonlighting, the series was being eroded from within by profound production problems and internal squabbles. As a result, only 13 new episodes were produced for the series' fourth season, forcing ABC to fill out the rest of the schedule with reruns. Also, tensions between series star Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, coupled with ongoing arguments between the two leads and the series' producers, culminated with extended absences from the set and lengthy production shutdowns. In one episode, "Here's Living With You, Kid," Willis and Shepherd didn't appear at all, forcing supporting actor Curtis Armstrong, cast as junior detective Herbert Viola (a character who graduated this season from recurring to regular status), to carry the plotline by himself. Fortunately, the old spark roared into flame long enough for some top-rank episodes to be produced during season four. The opener, which occurs shortly after detective-agency partners Maddie Hayes (Shepherd) and David Addison (Willis) have finally slept together, finds the duo separately seeking out advice on their relationship from psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers and singer Ray Charles (this installment also finds time for an elaborate takeoff of The Honeymooners). In later episodes, it is revealed that Maddie is pregnant with David's baby, whereupon she gets married -- not to David, but to a total stranger named Walter Bishop (Dennis Dugan). With the two stars spending so much time on affairs of the heart, it is up to the supporting characters, notably the aforementioned Herbert Viola and detective-agency receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), to take care of the "mystery" angle; especially memorable is the episode in which Agnes' mother is inexplicably targeted for elimination after returning from a vacation. ~ Rovi

After the success of the British mini-series The Beiderbecke Affair and its sequel The Beiderbecke Tapes, the BBC followed with The Beiderbecke Connection, the final installment of the trilogy. The lives of jazz lovers Trevor (James Bolam) and Jill (Barbara Flynn), now married and raising their first child, become more complicated after they agree to take in a friend who has recently fallen on hard times. Though at times it seems their unexpected house guest be more trouble than they bargained for, he is, at least, a fellow jazz fan.

~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Presented by Britain's Granada Television, the weekly anthology Time for Murder consisted of six hour-long dramas with the emphasis on mystery and mayhem. Among the authors represented herein were such literary heavyweights as Fay Weldon and Antonia Fraser. Individual episode titles include "The Murders at Lynch Cross", "This Lightening Always Strikes Twice", "The Thirteenth Day of Christmas," and more. Time for Murder originally aired in 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A famous violinist (Gabrielle Anwar) goes to Mississippi for some rest and relaxation, but instead finds the third victim of a serial killer on her grandparents' property. Her involvement in the case deepens when the man she's seeing becomes a suspect. ~ Rhoda Charles, Rovi

Set in contemporary Los Angeles as well as the Los Angeles of the 1940s, Dead Again explores a romance between two star-crossed lovers -- and the doomed passion they shared in their last lifetime. Los Angeles detective Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) comes to the aid of mute, amnesia-victim Grace (Emma Thompson) and falls in love with her. He sets out to discover her true identity and the source of her terrible nightmares. Mike is aided in his investigation by hypnotist/furniture dealer Franklyn Madison (Derek Jacobi) who discovers that in a past life Grace was Margaret Strauss (also played by Thompson), who may have been mudered by her husband Roman (Branagh). ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

The diva of the title is a famous black opera singer (Wilhelmina Wiggins-Fernandez) who steadfastly refuses to be recorded. The singer is idolized by young French mail-carrier Jules (Frederic Andrei), who sneaks a tape recorder into the theater and records her performance. This is witnessed by a pair of Taiwanese criminals, who unlike Andrei wish to profit from the bootlegged recording. They begin to pursue the boy, as do a couple of home-grown hooligans who believe that Jules is in possession of some murder evidence. The serpentine plot leads to a warm friendship between Jules and the reclusive diva - and to a brilliantly photographed (by Philipe Rousselot) motorcycle chase through the subway tunnels of Paris. Diva marked the directorial debut of Jean-Jacques Beineix, whose obvious fondness for the more esoteric techniques of the Nouvelle Vague never impedes his willingness to simply entertain his audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While having lunch at the Plaza Hotel in New York, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) has the bad luck to call for a messenger just as a page goes out for a "George Kaplan." From that moment, Thornhill finds that he has stepped into a nightmare -- he is quietly abducted by a pair of armed men out of the hotel's famous Oak Room and transported to a Long Island estate; there, he is interrogated by a mysterious man (James Mason) who, believing that Roger is George Kaplan, demands to know what he knows about his business and how he has come to acquire this knowledge. Roger, who knows nothing about who any of these people are, can do nothing but deny that he is Kaplan or that he knows what they're talking about. Finally, his captors force a bottle of bourbon into Roger and put him behind the wheel of a car on a dangerous downhill stretch. Through sheer luck and the intervention of a police patrol car and its driver (John Beradino), Roger survives the ride and evades his captors, and is booked for drunk driving. He's unable to persuade the court, the county detectives, or even his own mother (Jesse Royce Landis) of the truth of his story, however -- Thornhill returns with them to the mansion where he was held, only to find any incriminating evidence cleaned up and to learn that the owner of the house is a diplomat, Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), assigned to the United Nations. He backtracks to the hotel to find the room of the real George Kaplan, only to discover that no one at the hotel has ever actually seen the man. With his kidnappers once again pursuing him, Thornhill decides to confront Townsend at the United Nations, only to discover that he knows nothing of the events on Long Island, or his house being occupied -- but before he can learn more, Townsend gets a knife in his back in full view of 50 witnesses who believe that Roger did it. Now on the run from a murder charge, complete with a photograph of him holding the weapon plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Thornhill tries to escape via train -- there he meets the cooly beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who twice hides him from the police, once spontaneously and a second time in a more calculated rendezvous in her compartment that gets the two of them together romantically, at least for the night. By the next day, he's off following a clue to a remote rural highway, where he is attacked by an armed crop-dusting plane, one of the most famous scenes in Hitchcock's entire film output. Thornhill barely survives, but he does manage to learn that his mysterious tormentor/interrogator is named Phillip Vandamm, and that he goes under the cover of being an art dealer and importer/exporter, and that Eve is in bed with him in every sense of the phrase -- or is she? ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

San Francisco detective Jay Austin (Mark Harmon) is assigned to investigate the murder of a female MP at the 212-year-old Presidio army base in this crime drama. Jay must interview Lieutenant Colonel Caldwell (Sean Connery), his former commander from his military days. The two must overcome their past and present differences to track down the killer as they manage to stumble across a smuggling operation relating to the murder. Jay falls for Caldwell's pretty daughter Donna (Meg Ryan), who proves to be as forceful as her father. Highlights of the film are the chase scene through Chinatown and Connery's exceptional performance. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A jewel thief is at large on the Riviera, and all evidence points to retired cat burglar Cary Grant. Escaping the law, Grant heads to the Cote D'Azur, where he is greeted with hostility by his old partners in crime. All of them had been pardoned due to their courageous activities in the wartime Resistance, and all are in danger of arrest thanks to this new crime wave. But Grant pleads innocence, and vows to find out who's been copying his distinctive style. With the reluctant aid of detective John Williams, Grant launches his investigation by keeping tabs on the wealthiest vacationers on the Riviera. One such person is heavily bejeweled Jessie Royce Landis, who is as brash and outspoken as her daughter Grace Kelly is quiet and demure. But "still waters run deep," as they say, and soon Kelly is amorously pursuing the far-from-resistant Grant. Part of Kelly's attraction to Grant is the possibility that he is the thief; the prospect of danger really turns this gal on. Being Cary Grant, of course, he can't possibly be guilty, which is proven in due time. But by film's end, it's obvious that Kelly has fallen hard for Grant, crook or no crook. Occasionally written off as a lesser Alfred Hitchcock film (did we really need that third-act fashion show?), To Catch a Thief is actually as enjoyable and engaging now as it was 40 years ago. Though the Riviera location photography is pleasing, our favorite scene takes place in a Paramount Studios mockup of a luxury hotel suite, where Grant and Kelly make love while a fireworks display orgasmically erupts outside their window. And who could forget the scene where Jessie Royce Landis disdainfully stubs out a cigarette in an expensive plate of eggs? Adapted by frequent Hitchcock collaborator John Michael Hayes from a novel by David Dodge To Catch a Thief won an Academy Award for cinematographer Robert Burks. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi