From the creators of A&E’s critically acclaimed JANE EYRE and award-winning CRACKER MYSTERIES comes this original two-hour production, created by and starring Gene Wilder. The year is 1938. "Cash" (Wilder) is a star Broadway director who earned his nickname by directing a string of box-office hits. When Cash’s wife is brutally murdered, he retreats back to the safer environs of Stamford, Connecticut, and starts his own community theater. But just as he begins to heal from the tragedy of his wife’s death, another murder shakes his world when a fellow businessman is found dead. Stamford police lieutenant Tony Rossini (Mike Starr) calls on his old friend Cash for help. Cash, putting his insights into character motivation and human psychology to the ultimate test, becomes drawn further and further into a world of mystery and mayhem. As he is forced to come to terms with the tragic events of his own past, he journeys on a trail of violence that will place his own life in jeopardy.
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Gene Wilder cowrote and stars as Cash Carter, a former Broadway theatrical director since retired from the Great White Way and now running a community theater in picturesque Stamford, Connecticut, in this engaging period mystery. The year is 1938, and the sleepy little burg is woken by the murder of the abrasive, racist, almost universally disliked millionaire Sidney Lassiter (Millennium's Terry O'Quinn). Lt. Tony Rossini (amiable Mike Starr, best known for his portrayals of thick mob goons) turns to Cash for his insight into human nature and psychology, but this brief consultation soon turns into full-fledged detective work as the killings continue and the suspects keep stacking up. Wilder and director Joyce Chopra don't take the TV mystery into any new territory, but the meandering drama combines nostalgic charm with playful bits of theatrical fun revolving around Cash's play in progress and his penchant for play acting. It's Wilder's best role in ages, a small-town Sherlock Holmes with the confidence of a urban sophisticate, the warmth of a loving father, and the maturity of a man who has gone through his own emotional hell and come out alive. If the film ends up short on suspense, it more than makes up for it in rich, winning characters and Chopra's light, unassuming direction more reminiscent of British mysteries than American shows. --Sean Axmaker
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