MURDER WITHOUT CONVICTION
US, 2005, 90 minutes. Colour.
Megan Ward, Morgan Weisser, Rutanya Alda, David Proval, Rafael and Yan Feldman, Daryl and Evan Sabara, Lawrence Pressman, Patty Duke.
Directed by Kevin Connor.
Murder Without Conviction is a pleasing murder investigation from the Hallmark Channel, designed for the widest possible television audience.
Megan Ward portrays a young woman who leaves the convent and becomes involved in the investigation of a murder thirty years earlier. Of interest, the presentation of the convent is of an old-fashioned look but with up-to-date and contemporary nuns. The superior is played by Patty Duke. It opens with Christine Bennett (Megan Ward) leaving the convent in a rather Nun’s Story isolated way – only to be greeted by the community outside the door and with the gift of a car. She keeps contact with the nuns, and the nuns help her in the investigation of the case.
The accused were a pair of idiot-savant twins. The film shows their abilities with music and numbers. However, their IQ was very low. When their mother was brutally murdered, they were separated and put into institutions. Christine goes to visit her cousin at an institution and finds one of the twins – separated for thirty years, and realising eventually that for full life they needed to be with each other and complement each other. She believes that they did not commit the murder and begins investigations – pressure being brought to bear because local residents want the institution closed and don’t want murderers amongst them. The film ends with the twins coming together, being interrogated about the past, remembering the detail – with the revelation of who the true murderer was. Not a great surprise.
Megan Ward is very perky as Christine Bennett. Patty Duke is full of vitality as the mother superior. Rutanya Alda has a sympathetic role as the head of the institution, while Lawrence Pressman is the psychiatrist. David Proval acts as both twins at age fifty-five while Rafael and Yan Feldman are the twins at twenty-four and Daryl and Evan Sabara are the twins at ten.
The film was directed by British director Kevin Connor who began with From Beyond the Grave in the mid-70s and was a prolific director of films and in later years television movies.
1. An entertaining crime story? The victim? The alleged killers, the true killer? The investigation?
2. The settings, the family home in the 1970s? Thirty years later, the institution, the neighbourhood? Homes and apartments? The convent? Glossy but realistic? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on the death, the fact that the twins were not convicted, the open case? The investigation?
4. The focus on Christine Bennett, the opening, the convent, her folding up her habit, packing and leaving? The seeming loneliness? The superior and the sisters and their warm farewell? The gift of the car? Setting up her house, left by her aunt? Going to visit her mentally-impaired cousin? The encounter with James Talley? Her interest in him? The cousin and his friendship with James? James wanting to find his brother? Her investigations, with the detective and his cooperation, finding the film, the documentation, going to meet the housekeeper and listening to her story, the housekeeper concerned about her son and his addiction after coming home from Vietnam, meeting the Mexican nanny and her concern about being an illegal? The mother superior and her contacts? Going to visit the doctor? His seeming cooperation? Finding Patrick Talley, chasing him from the institution? His being taken in by the police, the discovery of the truth and his concerns about his father? The danger to her life? Her cousin being poisoned by the chocolate? The visits? Her continual reliance on Mother Joseph? Mother Joseph and her shrewdness? The build-up to the confrontation, the twins coming together? Her interrogations, their memories, the opening up of the truth, the relief to those watching? Doctor Sanderson, taking her, threatening with the morphine, his killing himself? The happy ending – and her relationship with the detective?
5. The twins, their being filmed, their answers about numbers, about music, playing Schubert backwards? The doctor filming them? Their mother and her concern? The story about the murder, the flashbacks? Their being institutionalised? James, his personality, becoming friendly with the cousin? The cars, the chocolate? The need for them to be brought together? The interrogation, their working together after thirty years, the memories? The revelation of the truth?
6. The relief in knowing that the doctor was the murderer? The housekeeper thinking that her son had done it? The maid and her regrets about not helping the twins? Patrick thinking it was his father and discovering that his father was a great supporter of his wife and the twins?
7. The doctor, his work, the cover-up? His motivation – jealousy about the doctor taking the credit for his work? His suicide?
8. The head of the institution, the threats from the locals, the placards? Her cooperation? The happy ending?
9. Mother Joseph, feisty mother superior? Old style and new style – and ice cream for a snack at night? Her worldly shrewdness? Her piety? Taking in James to protect him? Taking in Christine when she was threatened? Providing the opportunity for the twins to remember the past?
10. A popular kind of murder story, investigation – and the overtones of the Catholic church and the religious dimension?
