More Than Murder

More Than Murder is a 1984 American made-for-television mystery film starring Stacy Keach as Mickey Spillane's iconic hardboiled private detective Mike Hammer. It aired on January 26, 1984,[1] at 9:00 p.m.[2] and was the second of two pilots featuring Keach in the part - the other being Murder Me, Murder You (1983) - that blazed a path for the 1980s version of the CBS series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, which debuted on January 28, 1984.[3]

More Than Murder
GenreAction
Crime
Mystery
Thriller
Created byMickey Spillane
Screenplay byStephen Downing
Bill Stratton
Story byBill Strattom
Directed byGary Nelson
StarringStacy Keach
Lindsay Bloom
Theme music composerEarle Hagen
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerJay Bernstein
ProducersLew Gallo
Jon C. Andersen (associate producer)
CinematographyJames Crabe
EditorMichael F. Anderson
Running time96 minutes
Production companiesColumbia Pictures Television
Jay Bernstein Productions
DistributorCBS
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseJanuary 26, 1984 (1984-01-26)

Plot

When his longtime friend Captain Pat Chambers is wounded in a drug bust and arrested as an accessory to drug trafficking, private detective Mike Hammer vows to help him clear his name. Assistant District Attorney Barrington dislikes Hammer and believes that Chambers is guilty.

Reception

In review printed in The New York Times on January 27, 1984, John J. O'Connor wrote, "Mr. Keach has cultivated a perfect kind of New York-seedy look. His suit nearly always needs pressing, and his hat is inevitably worn at a jaunty angle. And most of his lines are delivered with a low-keyed snarl." O'Connor concluded, "Is this supposed age of liberation ready for an unrepentant male chauvinist pig? Network television seems to think so."[4]

In the book Mickey Spillane on Screen: A Complete Study of the Television and Film Adaptations by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor, the authors state that More Than Murder "has an episodic TV approach that makes it a lesser film than its predecessor."[3]

Home media

After almost 25 years, More Than Murder was released on DVD by Sony Pictures as the second disc of a two-DVD set also featuring the 1983 TV movie Murder Me, Murder You.

References
  1. "Mike Hammer - TV Guide". TVGuide.com.
  2. "What's On Television". UPI.
  3. Collins, Max Allan; Traylor, James L. (12 January 2018). "Mickey Spillane on Screen: A Complete Study of the Television and Film Adaptations". McFarland – via Google Books.
  4. O'Connor, John J. (27 January 1984). "Tv Weekend; Carol Burnett in Special with Placido Domingo" – via NYTimes.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.