A Blueprint for Murder (1953)

Directed by Andrew Stone; produced by Michael Abel

Between jobs for his company, oil man Whitney Cameron (Joseph Cotten) visits his family, in time to be called to the hospital. His niece, taken violently ill, dies during the night, leaving her step-mother (Jean Peters) distraught. When speaking of the horrible event with friends (Gary Merrill, Catherine McLeod), Cameron is led to believe that his sister-in-law may have poisoned the child, and possibly her late husband, in order to inherit their money. Dubious but fearful, Cameron must determine not only how to save his nephew, now perhaps the next victim, but whether the boy even needs saving.

A movie with potential is irretrievably damaged by its mediocre treatment. The acting is not at fault; the problems lie with the direction and the writing. The latter is ordinary and mildly confusing at times. When Cotton tells Merrill of the child’s death, his reaction is to ask, “What did she have?” implying that he knew that she was ill. As far as I can recall, Cotton had not contacted Merrill prior to this, in which case it would have been more natural to think a child who has died had succumbed to an accident while playing, or while in an automobile.

The motive behind the crime is clearly given as money, yet the motivation (as opposed to motive) is not examined; after all, the cold-blooded killing of a little girl deserves a better reason than other murders, at least in fiction. As well, the death of Cotton’s brother (Peters’s husband) is strongly hinted by circumstances to be another murder, but it leads nowhere, in which case we are in doubt as to whether his death was caused by the criminal or merely suggested the possibility of wealth by the elimination of the others in the family.

The direction seems half-hearted. There are several instances, most taking place among the police, in which a scene ends as if without instruction from the director: Cotton talks to a detective and when the latter finishes, he simply returns to his paper-work, or speaks to someone else, leaving the civilian to his own devices. It’s as if the actors were not told how to end the scene and had to come up with some way on their own. This happens more than once. As well, I wondered why a police lieutenant has his own office while a captain makes do with a desk among others.

The scenes showing the police are among the better scenes but create the feel of a different film all together from the more domestic scenes of Cotton and his friends and family, as if a police-procedural had been mixed, awkwardly, with a psychological murder mystery.

The film is redeemed somewhat by the climax, a confrontation between Cotton and Peters, which is suspenseful, as the former has doubts about the latter’s guilt, even as he tries to trap her. Cotton’s acting is well displayed here: no cool, collected customer, he is so nervous about the possibilities that his hand trembles and he sweats like someone trapped in a sauna. But the scene is at the end of an unrewarding film.

Even the title of the film is a misfire, suggesting the following of a detailed and progressively complex plan, or, at the least, the involvement of an architect. Unfortunately, despite the on-screen talent, the movie built according to A Blueprint for Murder doesn’t pass inspection.