Robert Mitchum takes out his detective persona used as Philip Marlowe in Farewell My Lovely for this made for television movie One Shoe Makes It Murder. Mitchum reunites with Angie Dickinson who was his co-star in Young Billy Young on the big screen.
Mel Ferrer who plays a gambling casino owner with some mob connections hires Mitchum who is an alcoholic former cop to find his missing wife Cathie Shirriff. Seems easy enough, Sheriff is traced back to her own apartment in San Francisco. But right after Mitchum locates her he goes down the elevator and emerges just in time to see Shirriff land on the pavement with only one shoe on. One shoe on her body, one left on her apartment floor and therefore One Shoe Makes It Murder.
Or so thinks San Francisco Homicide Detective Jose Perez and the usual conflict between the police and private detectives that we see in a gazillion movies happens. I liked Perez's performance in the film, Mitchum really got under his skin.
Angie Dickinson plays Shirriff's good friend from the old days who knows that Shirriff had a past, a past she shared. Mitchum has to coax the truth out of her.
Ferrer researched Mitchum very well before hiring him. It's never spelled out but Mitchum apparently got a raw deal from the San Diego Police Department when he was canned. He became an alcoholic and even tried one suicide attempt. But somewhere in the research Ferrer decides Mitchum is his man and he does get to the truth though it's not something Ferrer wants to hear. Those old cop instincts kick in once he has a murder to solve.
One Shoe Makes It Murder is a good made for TV mystery with Mitchum doing as well here as he did as Philip Marlowe on the big screen. The story is hardly Raymond Chandler, but Mitchum, Dickinson, Ferrer and the rest make it work.
