Mon 13 Sep 2021
A Made-for TV PI Mystery Movie Review: ONE SHOE MAKES IT MURDER (1982).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[4] Comments
ONE SHOE MAKES IT MURDER. CBS, 06 November 1982. Robert Mitchum as Harold Shillman, Angie Dickinson as Fay Reid, Mel Ferrer as Carl Charnock, José Pérez, John Harkins, Howard Hesseman, Cathie Shirriff. Teleplay by Felix Culver, based on the novel So Little Cause for Caroline, by Eric Bercovici. Director: William Hale.
Truth be told, Harold Shillman (possibly Schillman; sources vary) is not a PI. He’s an ex-cop from LA, who’s hired to do the kind of job that PI’s do in all of the books I’ve read with PI’s in them. Which is to say, he’s hired by a suspended casino owner in Lake Tahoe to find his wife, who’s gone missing.
That’s the story he’s told, anyway. If you’ve read as many books with PI’s in them – and yes, I know: you’ve probably read more than I have – you know right away that there’s more to the story. The surprising thing is that right after he’s found her, he sees her falling from one of the top floor windows in the hotel where she was staying.
Finding her was easy. Maybe too easy. But what the police suspect is that her death was not a suicide, which is what they were supposed to believe, but murder. How do they know? She landed with only one shoe on. The other is still in her room, several feet from the terrace where she supposedly jumped. What woman would walk across a room with only one high-heeled shoe in order to jump out on her own.
Tagging along with Shillman, played by a world-weary Robert Mitchum at his aging world-weariest, is Angie Dickinson as Fay Reid, who as a twice-married call girl who, as it turns out, is one of the perks of the job. Both she and Shillman have issues behind them, but more than that, it somehow also happens that she knew the dead woman in their mutual past.
There is a bit of romance involved as well, as well as a light easy tone to the tale that makes the whole affair go down very easily. And who can resist Robert Mitchum playing yet another PI, even though the detective part of the tale is not the primary reason I’m going to ahead and say that if you like PI movies but haven’t seen this one yet, you should.
No, the real reason you should watch this is Robert Mitchum. No surprise there, I’d say.

September 14th, 2021 at 7:20 pm
Bad Bob did some good television work late in his career and this was one of his best outings. He even opens his eyes for this one.
The writing is pretty sharp staying just the right side of the cliches involved, the whole cast worth watching, and Mitchum ties it all together commanding the screen even when he is just standing there.
The book by Bercovicci was good, and the movie is fairly faithful to it.
September 14th, 2021 at 7:28 pm
I have never seen the book, much less have had one in my hands, which I’m sure I would have if I’d known it was a PI novel. Or known it was the basis for a very very good PI movie.
September 15th, 2021 at 11:21 am
I read in an interview that the new Clint Eastwood movie Cry Macho Eastwood wanted to make the movie 30 years ago and the actor he thought would be perfect for lead was Mitchum.
Film never got made back then and now 30 years later Eastwood said he is now old enough to play the part.
September 15th, 2021 at 1:19 pm
For a fellow who was 91 earlier this year, Clint Eastwood makes getting older look easy.