In New York City, Jessica Fletcher is getting interviewed for Follies magazine by an up-and-coming young journalist. When the journalist gets embroiled in the murder of a sleazy publisher, Jessica joins in the investigation.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was Harrison M. Kane, a sleazy publisher!Click to reveal the killer
It was Kathryn Scofield, a magazine cover model!Click to reveal the weapon
The victim was electrocuted with a hair dryer!Click to reveal the location
The murder happened while the victim was in his hotel bathtub!Click to reveal the motive
It was money! The killer had advanced half a million dollars to the victim and was hoping to start a new life with him — until she found out that the victim was insolvent and that she was just used!Click to reveal the major clue
Jessica figured it out by tracing the origin of the Gotham magazine copy found in the victim’s hotel suite!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- Scott Valentine as Dean Richards, head of Follies magazine.
- Jack Laufer as Carter Drummond, in a partnership with Dean in funding the Follies magazine.
- Janet Julian as Ellen Harper, assisting Dean in running the Follies magazine. This is Julian’s second and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “The List of Yuri Lermentov“.
- David Kriegel as Ben Forman, a promising young journalist writing a story about Jessica Fletcher for Follie’s magazine.
- Vanessa Angel as Kathryn Scofield, a model who is engaged to Dean.
- Alan Thicke as Harrison M. Kane, a publisher trying to buy Follies magazine who also has a history with Jessica in shopping one of her books to film studios without her permission.
- Emily Warfield as Abby Peters, an aspiring actress and friend of Ben Forman.
- Christian Bocher as Dave Wolski, Abby’s boyfriend and a fellow actor. This is Bocher’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Reiner Schoene as Hans Dietrich, a photographer working for Follies magazine.
- Mark Barriere as the Waiter delivering room service to Harrison Kane’s suite.
- Herbert Edelman as NYPD Lieutenant Artie Gelber. This is Edelman’s 7th of ten appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “For Whom the Ball Tolls“.
- Leonard Lightfoot as Detective Henderson. This is Lightfoot’s second of five appearances on MSW, always as the same character. He previously appeared in “For Whom the Ball Tolls“.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
One thing that stood out for me about this episode is that, by having it come so early on in the season and close on the heels of “For Whom the Ball Tolls“, the producers were really setting up Season 10 to have a mini Artie Gelber and Detective Henderson show-within-a-show.
In relation to the recurring characters this season, I also found it interesting that Jessica Fletcher’s doorman Ritchie (whom we’ve so far only ever seen in “Threshold of Fear” was mentioned though not seen (she is heard speaking to him over the phone when he calls to let her know she has a guest).
In terms of filming locations, several of the street scenes appear to have been filmed in Los Angeles, not too far from where the exterior shots of Jessica’s building were filmed.
And finally, I wanted to document the brief snippet from one of Jessica’s manuscripts (which at one point she recounts to Artie Gelber):
“Danny Carvaggio opened the dead man’s wallet and realized that he was staring at more money than he’d ever seen.”
opening line to the J.B. Fletcher manuscript stolen by Harrison Kane
Murder, She Watched 