Murder mysteries

To make Sidney's slump all the more painful, Clifford Anderson, a student of one of Sidney's writing seminars, has recently sent his mentor a copy of his first attempt at playwrighting for Sidney's review and advice. The play, "Deathtrap", is a five character, two-act thriller so perfect in its construction that, as Sidney says, "A gifted director couldn't even hurt it." Using his penchant for plot, and out of his desperate desire to once again be the toast of Broadway, Sidney, along with Myra, cook up an almost unthinkable scheme: They'll lure the would-be playwright to the Bruhl home, kill him, and market the sure-fire script as Sidney's own. But shortly after Clifford arrives, it's clear that things are not what they seem. Even Helga Ten Dorp, a nosey psychic from next door, and Porter Milgram, Sidney's observant attorney, can only speculate where the line between truth and deception lies.

Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie), stepmother to the three Boynton children, and mother to Ginevra (Amber Bezer), blackmails the family lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul), into destroying the second will of her late husband, which would have freed the childern from her dominating influence. She takes herself and the children on vacation to Europe and the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) meets up with a woman friend, Dr. Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove), who falls in love with Raymond Boynton (John Terleskey) to Emily's disapproval. Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), her secretary, and Cope are following them too. The children learn about the second will, and Emily succeeds in rubbing the rest the wrong way, causing much hatred towards her. At a dig, everybody wonders about the camp, and Emily is found dead, poisoned. Poirot investigates.

Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) is called in to investigate a case for an insurance company regarding a dead woman's body found on a moor, and then an important diamond sent to the company to be insured, turns out to be a fake. Poirot discovers that the diamond was bought for Arlena Marshall (Dame Diana Rigg) by Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely), and Arlena is on her honeymoon with her husband and stepdaughter on a Mediterranean island hotel. He joins them on the island and finds that everybody else starts to hate Arlena for different reasons, refusing to do a stage show, stopping a book, and for having an open affair with Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay), another guest, in full view of his shy wife. So it's only a matter of time before Arlena turns up dead, strangled, and Poirot must find out who it is.

The old and wealthy Mr. Enderby (

Richard Hannay is a Canadian visitor to London. At the end of "Mr Memory"'s show in a music hall, he meets Annabella Smith, who is running away from secret agents. He agrees to hide her in his flat, but she is murdered during the night. Fearing that he could be accused of the murder, Hannay goes on the run to break the spy ring.

Based on the Dame Agatha Christie novel, our favorite Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov), is on a cruise up the Nile. He is surrounded by an interesting assortment of characters, including a wealthy heiress and her husband, on their honeymoon. It appears that everyone hates the heiress.

Miss Jane Marple's (Dame Margaret Rutherford's) on-board a train when she sees what appears to to be, a murder - a woman being strangled - in a passing train. When the Police refuse to believe her story, she decides to do some investigating of her own. In this, Rutherford's first appearance (as well as her first on-screen appearance) as Dame Agatha Christie's beloved sleuth. Though fans of the stories can see instantly see that Dame Margaret Rutherford does not fit Dame Agatha Christie's physical description of her, and Dame Agatha was not a fan with the casting decision - at first. But, when the two women met, they became big admirers of each other (Christie even dedicated one of her books; "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" - to her "friend, Margaret Rutherford".

Although the evidence appears to be overwhelming in the strangulation murder of a blackmailer, Miss Jane Marple's (Dame Margaret Rutherford's) sole "not guilty" vote hangs the jury 11-1. She becomes convinced that the real murderer is a member of a local theatrical troupe, so she joins them in order to gather information. The clues lead back many years to a single disastrously unsuccessful 1951 performance of a dreadful play written by the group's hammy director, H. Driffold Cosgood (Ron Moody). Although at that time, several of the current cast members were only children, more murders follow before Miss Marple ultimately exposes the killer.

Lew Harper is a Los Angeles based private investigator whose marriage to Susan Harper, who he still loves, is ending in imminent divorce since she can't stand being second fiddle to his work, which is always taking him away at the most inopportune of times. His latest client is tough talking and physically disabled Elaine Sampson, who wants him to find her wealthy husband, Ralph Sampson, missing now for twenty-four hours, ever since he disappeared at Van Nuys Airport after having just arrived from Vegas. No one seems to like Ralph, Elaine included. She believes he is cavorting with another woman. Harper got the case on the recommendation of the Sampsons' lawyer and Harper's personal friend, milquetoast Albert Graves, who is unrequitedly in love with Sampson's seductive daughter, Miranda Sampson. Miranda, whom Harper later states throws herself at anything "pretty in pants", also has a decidedly cold relationship with her stepmother, Elaine. As Harper begins his investigation, he is often joined by one or two new sidekicks, Miranda, and/or Allan Taggert, Ralph Sampson's private pilot who was the last person to see him before his disappearance. Living on the Sampson estate, Taggert is also Miranda's casual boyfriend, although his heart lies elsewhere. (Harper nicknames Taggert "Beauty" for the latter's preppy good looks.) It is finally confirmed that Sampson has been kidnapped after a ransom note is received. As Harper follows leads, he ends up in the underbelly of Los Angeles, which includes encounters with Betty Fraley (a junkie lounge singer), Fay Estabrook (an ex-movie ingénue now an overweight alcoholic), and Claude (a religious cult leader). At each of Harper's stops, people seem to want to beat him up and/or kill him. The case takes a turn after they decide to pay the $500,000 ransom to see where it leads.

Mike Church (Sir Kenneth Branagh) is a Los Angeles private detective who specializes in finding missing people. He takes on the case of a mute woman named Grace (Dame Emma Thompson), who is suffering from a total amnesia and doesn't even know her name. She keeps having nightmares involving the murder of a pianist named Margaret Strauss (Dame Emma Thompson) by her husband, Roman (Sir Kenneth Branagh), in 1949. In an attempt to solve the mystery about her identity and her nightmares, Mike accepts the help of antiquary Franklyn Madson (Derek Jacobi), who arrives to offer his services as a hypnotist. The hypnosis sessions soon begin to reveal some surprises.

Set in 1912, an upper crust English family's dinner is interrupted when a police inspector brings news of a girl known to everyone present having died in suspicious circumstances. It seems each member of the family could have had a hand in her death. But who is the mysterious Inspector and what can he want of them? This was originally a West End play.

Up to a house high on a mountain top have been invited ten people who are strangers to each other. When they are all gathered, they hear from their host that each one of them has in someway caused the death of an innocent person and that justice had not be served in their cases. There are eight guests and two servants there for the weekend, but one by one, they are being knocked off according to the poem of "Ten Little Indians". As the number of survivors decreases, they begin to believe that the killer is one of the group, but are unable to decide on which one he or she may be.

Baby photographer Ronnie Jackson, on death row in San Quentin, tells reporters how he got there: taking care of his private-eye neighbor's office, Ronnie is asked by the irresistible Baroness Montay to find the missing Baron. There follow confusing but sinister doings in a gloomy mansion and a private sanatorium, with every plot twist a parody of thriller cliches. What are the villains really after? Can Ronnie beat a framed murder rap?

An American woman is getting involved in a diamond theft in South Africa.

The year is 1953. The small English village of St. Mary Mead, home to Miss Jane Marple (Dame Angela Lansbury), is delighted when a big American movie company arrives to make a movie telling of the relationship between Jane Grey and Elisabeth I, starring the famous actresses Marina Rudd (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) and Lola Brewster (Kim Novak). Marina arrives with her husband, Jason (Rock Hudson), and when she discovers that Lola is going to be in the movie with her, she hits the roof as Lola and Marina loathe each other on sight. Marina has been getting death threats, and at a party at the manor house, Heather Babcock (Maureen Bennett), after boring Marina with a long story, drinks a cocktail made for Marina, and dies from poisoning. Everybody believes that Marina is the target, but the Police Officer investigating the case, Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox) isn't sure, so he asks Miss Jane Marple, his aunt, to investigate.

Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) is called in by his crime writer friend, Ariadne Oliver (Jean Stapleton) and discovers that she is troubled. She has been asked to create a "Murder Hunt" game for a fair at Nass House and she is puzzled with all the help she is getting. Poirot and his assistant, Captain Arthur Hastings (Jonathan Cecil) arrive at the fair to see what is going on. They find a couple on the brink of divorce, a rich Lord and a dizzy Lady, an old lady, trapped in the horrors of the past and a womanizing architect. Things take a turn for the worse when during the "Murder Hunt", the girl playing the "dead" body is murdered for real, an old man's body is pulled from the local lake, and the Lady of the manor goes missing when a face from her past shows up. It is clear to Poirot that someone is playing the game for real, and he sets out to discover who it is.

Sherlock Holmes investigates London's most infamous case, Jack the Ripper. As he investigates, he finds that the Ripper has friends in high places.

Lou Peckinpaugh (Peter Falk), the Cheap detective has entered a world that is half Casablanca (1942) and half The Maltese Falcon (1941). A parody of Humphrey Bogart's movies in which Lou goes through a series of scenes from the two movies trying to keep ahead of the Police who think he killed his partner and find the black bird.