A Blueprint For Murder

Today's movie is the 1953 Fox mystery/suspense film A Blueprint for Murder, airing at 2:30 PM ET on the Fox Movie Channel.

Joseph Cotten stars as Cam Cameron, a businessman who is shaken by the deaths of his brother and his niece. He returns home to visit the family, and quickly comes to the conclusion that his sister-in-law (played by Jean Peters) may have murdered them! Worse, he gets the distinct suspicion that she's also trying to kill his nephew, in order that she can get his inheritance. Matters continue to escalate when she suddenly decides to take her step-son on a cruise to Europe, away from the prying eyes of the now suspsicious Cameron. Is she guilty, or not? Well, that's what we'll find out after the climax of the movie.

Joseph Cotten was good at movies like this, especially when he was playing the bad guy. Unfortunately, however, A Blueprint For Murder falls short. It seems as if they spent quite a bit of the budget getting a good cast; in addition to Cotten and Peters, Gary Merrill plays Cameron's lawyer who prods Cameron into investigating matters further. Having spent this money on the cast, however, the producers apparently had little left over to come up with a good plot.

The movie is OK, but not much more. However, it was eventually released on DVD, allowing more people to judge for themselves.