Back in the early 2000s, you could find the weirdest combinations of movies together on one DVD. Many titles ghosted around in the "public domain" and were put on discs together with other & totally unrelated films. I found in my closet a DVD called "3 classic thrillers collection". Sounds intriguing enough, but it's a crummy disc with "Mr. Scarface", "Dementia 13", and this "Rehearsal for Murder" on it. None of them are thrillers, none of them are classics, and I really can't see any link or connection between them. I probably bought it for Fernando di Leo's "Mr. Scarface" (a.k.a. "I Padroni della Cittá") or for Francis Ford Coppola's witty horror debut "Dementia 13" and ignored "Rehearsal for Murder" during all these years.
Unjust, I now discovered, as "Rehearsal for Murder" is a compelling, smart, and more than competent made-for-TV thriller/whodunit. The film eventually caught my attention because the screenplay was written by the duo Richard Levinson and William Link. These two were known and very skilled in the field of murder mysteries and convoluted thrillers and created the legendary character/franchises "Columbo" (with Peter Falk) and "Murder, She Wrote" (with Angela Lansburry). Levinson and Link - even their surnames sound like a solid alliance - also scripted a handful of terrific late 70s/early 80s TV-thrillers, of which "One of my Wives is Missing" is undoubtedly the best. "Rehearsal for Murder" is not too far behind, though.
Levinson & Link (yes, I love using their alliterating names) stayed on familiar turf for this, as the plot revolves around Alex Dennison, a theater play writer who's still grieving over the death of his fiancée one year earlier. He doesn't believe Monica committed suicide and is certain that she was murdered. Alex narrowed down the number of potential suspects to the five people who were the closest to them as a couple, and as collaborators in the play that premiered on the night of her death. He lures all of them (3 actors, 1 director, and a producer) to the theater, supposedly to proofread the script of a new play, but he cleverly incorporated their motives into the fake play and wants to confront them.
The concept and set-up are already great, but the unforeseeable plot twists make it even better. I can't reveal too much, but you'll see. The revelation at the end, and some of the circumstances of Monica's death are quite far-fetched and implausible, but still I found it acceptable. Good cast, too, with familiar faces like Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Macnee, and William Daniels.
