sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Clever made for TV movie involving a top defense attorney Arthur Jamison, Anthony Hopkins, trying to figure a way in "off" his annoying and blackmailing wife Louise, Blythe Danner, and make it look like either an accident or break-in murder. We get to see the well laid plans of Arthur in action at the beginning of the film as he set up his alibi and then goes through with murdering his wife Louise in their San Francisco mansion.It's then that we see that Authur was only doing all this, murdering Louise, in his mind as he together with his alter ego or double, Donegan Smith, debate how to plug all the gaps in his murder plan. It's later that a new ingredient is added to the mix, or movie, with Jackie Willis, Swoosie Kurtz, who shows up unexpectedly at the Jamison Mansion! Jackie wants to know if the Jamisons have the key to their next door neighbors, the Starks, home. Jackie was to water the Starks, who are away on vacation, plants and lost the key to their house.As the movie starts to unfold it becomes apparent that Jackie isn't just an innocent bystander in this bizarre murder plot but one of the main characters in it! In fact she's both Arthur's mistress as well as Louise's co-conspirator in a murder plot to "off" her unsuspecting husband!Even though the movie goes in and out of sub-plots in how both Arthur and his wife Louise plan to murder each other it's Jackie who holds the key to how the crime will be both committed and covered up. Playing both sides to her advantage Jackie knows, by the skillful cover-up of her relationship with the Jaminsons, that in the end no matter who of the two wannabe murders succeed she'll alway have an alibi in not being connected at the murder scene.There's also Arthur's double, or conscience, who gives him, as well as in the audience, a free lesson in the workings of law that even the very best law schools, costing as much as $25,000.00 a semester in tuition, will have a hard to to match. You learn so much about the in's and out's of criminal law in the conversations between Arthur and his double, as well as with Louise and Jackie, that you'll easily be able to pass the bar exam without as much as a sweat!****SPOILERS**** The movie ends as it began but with the opposite results which shows that the smartest and most thought out plans to murder someone don't always work out!

Neil Doyle ANTHONY HOPKINS is the mentally agile lawyer who is continually thinking up ways to get rid of his wife, the fashionable and elegant BLYTHE DANNER. Evidently, their stormy marriage is at a breaking point and he decides he must plot her demise rather than go through with a messy divorce.But what follows has enough plot turns to hold your interest, although the device of having Hopkins weigh all considerations against a trial lawyer (Hopkins in a dual role) gets a little tiresome after awhile. Not that he isn't a compelling actor whether playing the lawyer or the prosecutor, and he does create sympathy for a very detestable man.The plot takes quite a surprising turn when SWOOSIE KURTZ shows up as his mistress, another very calculating character who has some surprises of her own to throw into the mix.It all has the feel of a poor man's DIAL M FOR MURDER, showing its TV origins within some narrow settings. But you have to give credit to the writers who keep the tale spinning right until the sudden finish.The cat-and-mouse byplay between husband and wife is reminiscent of the sort of banter between Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in SLEUTH, but the overall result is not quite as clever.

theowinthrop Although it seems a little confusing this film (by "Columbo" Creators Levinson and Link) is extremely clever at watching the activities - for most of the film - of the active mind of the protagonist. I've explained in reviewing one of the "Columbo" movies that the genesis of that type of mystery plot goes back to English writer R. Austin Freeman. His first "Dr. Thorndyke" novel, THE RED THUMB MARK (1905) is an inverted detective story wherein we see the crime committed first and then wait to find the hidden flaw or flaws revealed by the detective. GUILTY CONSCIENCE (which I saw again on the FOX MOVIE CHANNEL yesterday) is the same type of plot taken one step further: no detective involved here, but rather a corrupt and cynical lawyer thinking of how to get rid of his wife.All of us have had evil thoughts at one time or another, and most of us never really carry them out because in thinking seriously about them we realize how they might be traced back to us and give us really major problems. Arthur Jamison (Anthony Hopkins) is a great criminal trial lawyer, who sees nothing amiss in misappropriating client's property or breaking professional ethical standards and court rules to win cases. His marriage to his wife Louise (Blythe Danner) is crumbling because of manifest infidelities. She has long wanted a divorce, but she signed (upon marriage) an unfair Pre-nuptial agreement that prevents her from getting any of Jamison's substantial estate. Then she uncovers several criminal acts by her husband that (if she reveals to the district attorney) will result in disbarment and criminal prosecution. She tells him she will reveal this by mail if he does not give her half his property in the divorce settlement. He blackens her eye (we never see this but we see the resulting shiner), and then goes to Houston for a trial he is working on.Hopkins has a break in the trial and returns to his home in San Francisco. He is aware now (Louise has told him this) that her letter is in a sealed envelope addressed to the District Attorney in a safety deposit box. She will either mail it, or she has left instructions for it to be given to the D.A. if she dies suddenly or violently. So Hopkins is thinking of two things:1) Getting that letter back unread by anyone else in legal or police authority.2) Killing Louise.But he's a clever man, and we watch him go through several scenarios of how to kill her while giving himself an alibi or making it seem like robbers, or making it an accident. Each time he does he confronts himself, his super-ego taking on the personality of Jamison the expert trial lawyer reviewing the crime and ("Columbo" or "Thorndyke" like) revealing all the little flaws that Jamison's imagination and id did not see clearly. Little things like recommending the location of an alibi-establishing dinner to the committee person choosing the place for it (it is fifteen minutes from Jamison's house). We soon learn that Jamison has a mistress, Jackie Willis (Swoozie Kurtz), an office temp. whom he met when she had to be hired while his secretary was ill. They have been having their affair for nearly a year. She starts intruding into these scenarios when he starts seeing problems in his relation with her, both as motive for killing Louise and on it's own. It seems that Jamison has met another woman (we know her as Gail, but we never see her), so he is two timing his wife and mistress. Soon his scenario plays out in the nightmare situation of both the jilted ladies making peace with each other to get him.The wonders of this television film (which has enough twists and turnabouts until the conclusion) keeps our attention. Hopkins is properly detestable as a heel, but his mental agility (captured by his wonderfully pinpoint pupil-ed eyes) and the joy of his skulduggery makes us like him. Danner is properly lady-like, with her veneer slowly cracking under the strains of hating this heel she is stuck with. Kurtz varies between comic bits (she seems scatterbrained, especially with her business finding things in her pocketbook) with a serious - deadly serious - side to her nature that Hopkins can't control.It is a film that works pretty well. Oddly enough, one scenario is never tried by Hopkins. It is probably because it would leave his personal reputation in tatters. He never imagines Louise and Jackie having a confrontation and killing each other. But if (as the film illustrates) there are manifold difficulties in committing one perfect crime, one has to cube it to commit two perfect crimes.

canenas My edition is "Authored and remastered by DDC Labs - Made in Canada," packaged as a double feature with "Dangerous Relations." There is no other edition information on jacket. The DVD transfer is so bad, it is nearly unwatchable. The low price (USD 2 + tax) is no excuse for a sloppy job. This is very unfortunate because the movie is excellent, as far as murder mysteries go. I give it highest grade for story and acting. I am sure that there were other production values such as photography, sound, and production design, however I cannot evaluate those because of the poor video and audio quality. I would like to know what editions the other reviewers were evaluating.