Appointment With Murder (1948) follows the somewhat confusing story of a former policeman, now an investigator with an insurance firm, as he pursues two lost Mantegna masterpieces stolen during the recent war. Events become complex as he runs across an Italian forger who claims to have painted the subject paintings, an art world denizen who swears they are authentic, and the woman who owns the art gallery around which much of the action centers.
Mantegna’s St. Sebastian, 1480; panel; Musée du Louvre
There are a couple of good twists, but when the best character in the movie, the forger Donatti, is murdered early in the story, the air goes out of the balloon and it’s difficult to connect with and wonder about the other characters. Throw in some dubious stage combat, the world’s worst toupee and an accent nearly as bad, and it was fortunate this was roughly an hour long, especially when the audio started to go bad.
Definitely for those hours that would otherwise be wasted by staring, drooling, at a wall.
