This busy crime movie is a pleasant surprise through most of its running time, but it suffers from some weaknesses in the characterizations, some loose ends, and a let-down ending. The next five paragraphs summarize the complicated story so that I may discuss it, but they withhold some key details to avoid spoiling the mystery.
Gregory Harrison plays a state's attorney with a Harvard business degree, the son of an influential but now-dead politician. Harrison is the favorite to replace a corporation's disgraced, insider stock trading CEO. He is opposed by an unctuous, ambitious company man who over the years has risen to the management ranks from the mail room and wants the top job for himself. Jose Ferrer is power-broker board member Killian, who may at one time have been Harrison's mentor. The company is eager to fix its image problem because it is trying to convince the rich head of another company, Mel Ferrer as Orlov, to agree to a merger. Orlov's young, third wife is played by Cybill Shepherd. She romanced Harrison ten years before but says she moved on because his career seemed more important to him that she did. Harrison's flippant, go-along-to-get-along underling and likely successor is Michael Gwynne, who at least advances the plot as a sounding board for Harrison.
Orlov, alone at home one night, is killed in an apparent burglary. Although Shepherd is a possible suspect, Harrison gingerly rekindles his relationship with her. A fence fingers a two-time loser "second story man" as claiming to have jewels from the Orlov heist, and the man is arrested on flimsy circumstantial evidence and railroaded toward indictment by the lazy Gwynne. Harrison, still his boss, feels the case is weak and wants to keep digging. Meanwhile, he takes a romantic tropical weekend vacation with Shepherd. It is interrupted when they recognize a man following them who has been hanging around back home as well. She thinks he is a private detective hired by her step-daughter, Adrienne Barbeau. Barbeau goes off the deep end about Orlov's estate going to Shepherd and claims Orlov confided that Shepherd had an affair with one of his business partners and that before he died he was writing a new will that would cut her out of any inheritance.
Harrison suggests that he and Shepherd keep their distance for a while, and continues investigating. He receives an envelope with photos of himself and Shepherd at the beach, which he shares with a blasé Killian, who says he also received copies but does not care as long as Harrison's indiscretion stays quiet. A stripper turns up who says she has been out of town but can give the second story man an alibi, and Harrison interviews Barbeau and finds her believable.
Harrison confronts Shepherd at an abandoned meat packing plant that is to be the site of a new office of the Orlov company. She now admits that a "heavy-set man" who said her husband "owed him some money" phoned her two days after the murder and threatened to harm her and others if she did not pay him $25,000. Speak of the devil, as they are leaving to report this to the police, they hear someone bearing down on them and try to hide. The thug finds them and is beating up Harrison, so Shepherd grabs a gun out of the thug's pocket and shoots him dead.
When the story hits the news, Killian disowns Harrison as a candidate for CEO. Later, Harrison is puzzled by a second, small-caliber gun that was found in the thug's pocket and by a check of his associates, which turns up a familiar face and a tie to Orlov. Falling into another ambush, Harrison out-runs a hale of bullets, until a convenient explosion wipes out the gunman, the first thug's partner. In a final scene, Harrison confronts the main criminal with hidden evidence of motive that he has found.
Overall, the movie handles the murder case and the business subplot with some intelligence and makes them interesting. But the two story lines are not always closely and meaningfully enough connected, and the movie can at times feel cluttered and overcomplicated, without a worthwhile payoff. There are loose ends. The movie never makes clear who shot and circulated the supposedly scandalous photos and why. Harrison's background and his relationship with Killian are glossed over. His bustling mother and Orlov's second wife and son make pointless, one-line appearances. The movie never bothers to explain how Gwynne could have risen to be Harrison's heir apparent when all he seems to have to offer is a wise-guy sneer and stupid, incompetent habit of jumping at the easiest, most obvious theory.
Although Harrison has some good lines and takes his big-shot role seriously, he does not seem to quite have the stature for the part. Shepherd comes across more as an energetic personality doing individual scenes than as a character. The movie never gives a glimpse into who she really is and ends on a weak note. The Ferrers and Barbeau are effective in their smaller parts.
Harrison's character is just thoughtful and restrained enough in how he handles the case and his relationship with Shepherd to avoid throwing credibility to the winds. But his clipped, controlled performance takes a toll on the movie in other ways. No real groundwork is laid for the relationship, it never comes alive with any convincing chemistry or passion, and it feels like a mere plot device. This makes events at the end of the movie, in particular, ring hollow.
The cast, characters, writing, and settings are good enough and there is enough credibly going on to hold my interest until the end. Unfortunately, there are some nagging problems, the ending descends into melodramatic action and unconvincing sentimentality, and the murder mystery turns out to be overly simplistic. In the end, despite the flaws, I think the movie is substantial enough to be worth seeing.
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