John Badham would one day make Stakeout, Short Circuit, Bird on a Wire, WarGames, Saturday Night Fever and the 1979 Dracula, but early on in his career he made this made-for-TV movie.
Dan Barnes (Alan Alda) is the police chief of Mt. Angel, Oregon. He’s trying to live a quiet life and all the senior citizen deaths and a motel owner trying to get him to marry her is keeping that from happening. And every one of them is found in the nude, smelling like turpentine.
Louise Lasser, who would play Mary Hartman in just three years, shows up as Barnes’ receptionist Blanche. And Magenta herself, Patrica Quinn, is in this, as is Edmond O’Brien from Dream No Evil, Dorothy Tristan from Rollercoaster, Ruth Gordon (and you better know who she is) and Will Geer (Bear Claw from Jeremiah Johnson).
It tries to be a black and white romantic whodunnit from the past and does a decent job along the way. You can watch this on YouTube.
