A&E (Sun., Jan. 10, 8 p.m. ET)
A good murder mystery should have surprises, and this TV movie offers a nice one: Gene Wilder's restrained performance. Best known for playing hysteria-prone characters in broad comedies {The Producers, Silver Streak), Wilder opts for understatement as Larry "Cash" Carter, a former Broadway director running a community theater in Stamford, Conn., in 1938. When a mean local moneybags (Terry O'Quinn) is knocked off, an affable cop (Mike Starr) asks Cash to help in the investigation. After all, as Cash explains, part of a director's job is "knowing if someone's lying or telling the truth." The script, cowritten by Wilder, combines a competently plotted whodunit with almost too much information on the protagonist's personal life. It doesn't take a detective to guess that Wilder would like Cash to come back for another case or two. And there'd be no objection in this corner.
Bottom Line: Director-turned-detective rates a curtain call
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