November 26, 2023

Leslie Brooks is society journalist "Claire", a woman perfectly capable of making her headlines with the eligible young men whom she marries then who mysteriously die. The police think they smell a rat but there's never any proof. We know what's going on but can "Capt. Murdock" (Emory Parnell) ever get to the bottom before the body count starts to match the size of her column inches? There's actually very little jeopardy here, but what this does … read the rest.

Leslie Brooks is society journalist "Claire", a woman perfectly capable of making her headlines with the eligible young men whom she marries then who mysteriously die. The police think they smell a rat but there's never any proof. We know what's going on but can "Capt. Murdock" (Emory Parnell) ever get to the bottom before the body count starts to match the size of her column inches? There's actually very little jeopardy here, but what this does offer is a chance for Brooks to get a megalomaniac look in her eye and play a strong, calculating woman who is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Most of the rather soporific men she encounters are pretty deserving of their fate and by the denouement - a rather disappointingly rushed and far-fetched affair - I was very much in her corner. The production is basic and rather unimaginative but Jack Bernhard does keep it going along with lots of venal nastiness and I quite enjoyed it.

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