One of My Wives Is Missing (1976)
Vacationing in a small town, a frantic Daniel Corban shows up at the local police station, declaring that his wife has disappeared. Corban imperiously demands that the easygoing police inspector drop everything and find his missing spouse. Within a few days, a woman claiming to be his wife shows up, but Corban insists that he's never met the woman before.
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Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
No-one seems to have mentioned yet that there are many similarities in the plot of this teleplay to the 1946 Humphrey Bogart movie "Conflict", whose main theme is almost identical. Check it out!
Daniel Corban (James Franciscus) is worried. His wife has disappeared and he's worried something happened to her. A very quirky police inspector (Jack Klugman) is assisting him. However, after a few days something strange happens...some priest appears and is bringing Daniel's 'wife' with him. But the lady who SAYS she is Elizabeth Corban (Elizabeth Ashley) isn't...or at least Daniel insists she isn't. She then explains to the police that Daniel has been under doctor's care and he isn't himself! Who's telling the truth and why?!?!This is a very, very familiar theme. Not only is it one of about a dozen movie remakes of the play, "Piège pour un homme seul", but there are many other films that have very similar plots...such as another made for ABC TV movie, "You'll Never See Me Again" (1973). This familiarity of plots make it a less than original picture! But is it, despite this, any good? Well, yes and no. If you turn off your brain completely and don't question what you're seeing, you'll likely enjoy the film. But, so much in the film seems absurd and contrived...you REALLY have to suspend disbelief a lot! I could list the many situations, but simply lost track! Again and again and again, there were ridiculous twists and turns and surprises...so many to the point of being ludicrous. It's so contrived and so bad, in fact, that I would believe it if someone told me a high school student wrote the screenplay!!And, by the way, at the very end someone is shot, at point blank range, with a gun with blanks. This WOULD severely injure or even kill the recipient....yet they were just fine! Sloppy....along with the rest of the film.
They don't make movies like this anymore! And that is a shame! A good old, well written, well acted, well directed full-blooded murder mystery thriller! With no gore, no special effects, based purely on a good script, good acting and good directing. My favorite! I hate all these modern action thriller, spy thrillers, blood-everywhere thrillers. I love old-fashioned suspense thrillers and this is an excellent example of them. You will be on the edge of the seat until the end, worried to death about the main character, wanting to jump on the screen to help him and not knowing who is really who and what they are playing at. You will not guess it until the very end - I promise you wont. The thrill is 100% psychological. Get some popcorn or a bottle of wine, put your feet up and enjoy!
This is a well crafted mystery/suspense film based on Robert Thomas' play TRAP FOR A LONELY MAN. The cast is rock solid and the clever script will keep you guessing until the very end (unless you already know the final twist ahead of time).Viewers who enjoyed this telemovie (or its inferior 1986 remake VANISHING ACT) should also track down the 1958 Michael Anderson movie CHASE A CROOKED SHADOW (starring Anne Baxter), which boasts a similar concept but with a slightly different premise (a woman is forcibly reunited with a man who claims to be her deceased brother, but only she seems to know that it's not really him).