Signpost to Murder ** (1964, Joanne Woodward, Stuart Whitman, Edward Mulhare, Alan Napier) – Classic Movie Review 10,235

The 1964 American crime mystery thriller film Signpost to Murder stars Stuart Whitman as an escaped wife-murderer who finds a hiding place with a lonely woman (Joanne Woodward).

Director George Englund’s 1964 American film Signpost to Murder stars Stuart Whitman in this hard-to-believe, preposterously twisting B-movie black and white crime mystery thriller relic.

He plays Alex Forrester, an escaped wife-murderer psychopath  on the run who finds a hiding place with an apparently romantically inclined lonely woman, Molly Thomas (Joanne Woodward).

His doctor, Dr Mark Fleming (Edward Mulhare), has informed him that he will win a retrial by fleeing jail and staying out or prison for a fortnight.

It is based on the 1962 play Signpost to Murder by Monte Doyle. Though screenwriter Sally Benson’s screenplay writing is bumpy, and makes only a tiny bit of a silk purse out of the sow’s ear of a frankly contrived and quite absurd plot, the acting is powerful enough to make the movie watchable.

This deservedly forgotten movie just about ends up as passably amusing in a so-fairly-bad-it’s-fairly-good sort of way.

Sadly, it was a sign that Woodward’s star had already waned in 1964 after such a promising start to her career. George Englund directs unimaginatively, keeping it static and stage bound, so obviously based on a theatre play (by Monte Doyle).

Also in the cast are Edward Mulhare, Alan Napier, Murray Matheson, Joyce Worsley, Leslie Denison, Hedley Mattingly and Carol Veazie.

It was released by MGM in New York on May 19, 1965.

Running time: 78 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,235

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