Shameless Self Expression

  A member (John Harvey) of a chamber music quartet is the latest victim in a series of murders where the calling card is a doll left at the scene of each crime replicating the victim. Inspector Patrick Wymark enters to investigate, the prime suspects are a doll-collecting, wheelchair-bound old woman (played by Margaret Johnston) and her pale son (John Standing). Judy Huxtable is a daughter of one of the victims, with Don Borisenko playing her American boyfriend, a medical student also considered a suspect. The other three string quartet members are played by Alexander Knox, Robert Crewdson, and a sniffly Thorley Walters.   Director Freddie Francis ( “Hysteria” , “Tales From the Crypt” ), writer Robert Bloch ( “Asylum” , “Psycho” , “The Skull” ), and Amicus studios offer up a fun 1966 mystery psycho-thriller that could’ve been really great if not for a lack of credible red herrings. Through no fault of the cast, it won’t take you long to figure out who the title killer...

  Jon Hamm plays the title smart arse, a former investigative journalist who gets caught up in a case involving kidnap as well as the theft of a Picasso. Lorenza Izzo plays the daughter of a Count (Robert Picardo of all people), with Marcia Gay Harden playing her stepmother. John Slattery is Fletch’s former editor, and Kyle MacLachlan plays a germaphobe art dealer.   With all due respect to the original stories by Gregory McDonald, if you’re gonna do a  “Fletch”  movie, you’re gonna be compared to the Michael Ritchie/Chevy Chase vehicles because those are more well-known. In other words, you better be damn funny if you don’t want to end up looking like a damn  fool . I love the 1985  “Fletch” , and whilst Jon Hamm isn’t miscast as the title smart-arse detective (Jason Sudeikis would’ve been even better), this 2022 film from director Greg Mottola (the genuinely funny  “Superbad ”) and co-writer Zev Borow (a story editor on TV’s  “Chuck” ) just ...