"Dear Murderer" is an absorbing murder mystery with remarkable casting, top flight actors, and plenty of nocturnal interior atmosphere with lamps, clocks, candelabra, curtains, fireplaces, and hallways. The early, timeless scene between the jealous husband, Lee Warren (Eric Portman) and the dandyish lawyer lover Richard Fenton (Dennis Price) not only sets the tone for all the twists and turns to come, and draws the viewer into the mystery, but is also the movie's most developed and affecting scene.
Those that follow mainly between Lee Warren and his wife Vivien (Greta Gynt), and Vivien and Jimmy Martin, soon begin to drive home the point that the four major players in this murky crime drama all have desires and/or needs that are exploited by one or more of the others, and that all except Fenton, proclaim deeply felt, exclusive love, over and over. Vivian is the femme fatale-style romantic, Lee is the tightly wound jealous husband, and Jimmy is Vivien's tall boyishly infatuated lover. All indulge in deceptive acting that, in turn, requires more acting, more deception, and more dangerous outcomes--including, of course, murder.
Lee is in the position of master conjuror. He can make use of, and dispose of Fenton, Vivien, and Jimmy as he sees fit. And Vivien, caught up in a web of men, and only valued for her arresting physical appeal, would seem to have the least pull. But there is no perfect murder, even for the "clever, cool, and calculated," and one human detail, or exception, starts the never-ending unraveling process. And, ironically, most of that havoc comes from Vivien, whose unwavering distrust is more than a match for her husband's polar hate-love declarations, and his delusional, increasingly shaken and disturbed behavior. So, Vivien who has nothing more than a siren's call, ends up with the final call--even if her own form of idolatry for her whimsical young beau makes it short lived. Yet the absurdity of both his ring's inscription "till death us do part" and life itself seems both crazily freeing and maddening as Vivien's wild laughter stakes out "Dear Murderer's" final scene.
Those that follow mainly between Lee Warren and his wife Vivien (Greta Gynt), and Vivien and Jimmy Martin, soon begin to drive home the point that the four major players in this murky crime drama all have desires and/or needs that are exploited by one or more of the others, and that all except Fenton, proclaim deeply felt, exclusive love, over and over. Vivian is the femme fatale-style romantic, Lee is the tightly wound jealous husband, and Jimmy is Vivien's tall boyishly infatuated lover. All indulge in deceptive acting that, in turn, requires more acting, more deception, and more dangerous outcomes--including, of course, murder.
Lee is in the position of master conjuror. He can make use of, and dispose of Fenton, Vivien, and Jimmy as he sees fit. And Vivien, caught up in a web of men, and only valued for her arresting physical appeal, would seem to have the least pull. But there is no perfect murder, even for the "clever, cool, and calculated," and one human detail, or exception, starts the never-ending unraveling process. And, ironically, most of that havoc comes from Vivien, whose unwavering distrust is more than a match for her husband's polar hate-love declarations, and his delusional, increasingly shaken and disturbed behavior. So, Vivien who has nothing more than a siren's call, ends up with the final call--even if her own form of idolatry for her whimsical young beau makes it short lived. Yet the absurdity of both his ring's inscription "till death us do part" and life itself seems both crazily freeing and maddening as Vivien's wild laughter stakes out "Dear Murderer's" final scene.