This is so far fetched. It's from the fall-on-your-sword school of film. Raymond Burr is manipulated by a woman, played by Angela Lansbury, into getting her off for shooting her husband and absconding with his money. Once he knows he's been duped, his whole rationale for existence is to exact revenge on the nasty wench. He is sort of a modern day Javert, putting honor ahead of everything else. In hight drama, we sometimes buy into this. It seems a bit much here. Now, the suicide angle can work to an extent. His actions caused the death of a life-long friend. He also was in love with Lansbury and is left empty. The fact is that no matter what he does to her, he is not going to be there to enjoy it. There are some pretty gaping holes in the plot as well, best laid plans and all that. When so many things could go wrong, a slight miscalculation can bring down the ship. Anyway, it was just a little too much self-sacrifice from my perspective. It's a pretty good looking movie and you can see Perry Mason emerging here, but that's about it.
Review of Please Murder Me!
