KILLJOY

US, 1981, 100 minutes, Colour.
Kim Basinger, Robert Culp, Stephen Macht, Nancy Marchand, John Rubenstein, Ann Dusenberry, Ann Wedgworth.
Directed by John Lewellyn Moxey.

Killjoy, a pun in the name, is an entertaining murder mystery. Set in a hospital, it has John Rubinstein and Nancy Marchand looking quite suspicious throughout the film with Steven Macht as an obvious villain. However, the screenplay keeps attention off and sympathy on Kim Basinger, who turns out to be the villain. Robert Culp is a mysterious policeman. There is nothing particularly new - rather a variation of Agatha Christie style murder mystery in a contemporary American setting. Direction is by John Llewellyn Moxey, English director who made a number of horror films and then moved to the United States with a wide range of telemovies, including horror and crime thrillers.

1. Enjoyable murder mystery? Plausible plot? Characters? Sufficient clues?

2. Affluent society, hospital, police investigations? Musical score and atmosphere?

3. The title, the play on words, the character of Joy and her death?

4. The prologue and the murder? Audience suspicions? The transition to Paul and his work in the morgue, his skill with autopsies? Suspicions? His mother and her dominance? Her skill as a doctor? Lori and her presence in the hospital, attraction towards Paul, his mother wanting the marriage, her taking care of Lori? The rich and absent father? Max and his skills as a doctor, his temper, sacking the nurse? The engagement to Lori? The repercussions for all?

5. Paul and his mother's pressure, playing the trick about Joy - the bar, their all going there, Rose and her giving the key and the message? Lori's reaction and her going with Paul to the apartment, handling the scissors? Her anger, Max's photo? Lou and his watching them?

6. Audience suspicion on Paul? His telling his mother he made up the story? The acting and Max bringing the actress as Joy to the party? His mother's change of mind? The discovery of the soap opera and her acting? Everything pointing to Paul, his rules about the cremation of corpses? The irony of his loving Joy, his mother's interference, his wanting to prove Lori guilty?

7. Lori, attractive heroine, relationship with Paul, the engagement to Max, his seeming betrayal and her anger, going with Paul to the apartment? The reconciliation? Max and the actress at the party? Her co-operation with the police, her seeming innocence, the scissors? Her going off with Max, the return to the morgue, her being caught and her anger?

8. The mother, the dominant woman, cutting Joy off, pushing her son to marry Lori? The money? The party, the actress and the confrontation? The suspicions?

9. Max, his temper, relationship with Lori, the engagement, the truth or not about his being with Joy, the photo, the cover-up, getting the actress to do the job, the performance at the party? The irony of the truth? The relationship with Lori, the cover-up?

10. Lou, his seeming to be a friend of Joy's, interventions, suspicions? His being a policeman? Confrontations? Getting Lori to impersonate the corpse in the morgue? Finally catching her?

11. Rose, the picture of the bar, her communications with the group?

12. The actress, the soap opera, the favour for Max? The strength of her performance?

13. The background of the hospital, the staff at the morgue, the autopsies? Authentic atmosphere for such a murder mystery?