She Cried Murder (1973)

Touches You

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

TV-made woman-in-distress nonsense starring Lynda Day George (practically a staple of the 1970s movie-of-the-week) involves a model in New York City, the only witness to a murder in the subway station, who realizes the killer is actually a cop once two police inspectors show up to get her story. Despite the work of four writers, tepid melodrama is seldom engaging because it is so brainless, with nearly every character behaving stupidly just to keep the plot in motion. Telly Savalas plays the crooked cop, looking pained--must have been from chasing Lynda up and down stairs and fire escapes, through a theater and a subway station, and across railroad tracks. Lots of leg-work, but no suspense.

TITLE: SHE CRIED MURDER aired on TV. on September 25, 1973 and the running time was 74 minutes.STARRING: Lynda Day George, Telly Savalas, Mike Farrell, Kate Reid, Jeff Toner, Robert Goodier, Aileen Seaton, Hope Garber, Len Birman, Murray Westgate, Richard Alden, Stuart Gillard. Directed by Herschel Daugherty.SUMMARY: The big city early morning commute on the subway. Actress/model Sarah Cornell is witness to the murder of a young woman pushed on to the tracks by a creepy (but not particularly discreet) assailant. She calls the cops and two detectives venture out to the set of her latest commercial taping to get her story for their report. She recognizes one of the cops – Joe Brody (Savalas) as the same creepy assailant whom she saw murdered the woman (a notorious call girl). She doesn't tell the other cop Detective Stepanec (Farrell) instead leaving a very vague description of the murderer – Inspector Joe Brody. As I said this murderer is not particularly discreet or even endowed with the kind of sense a headless chicken would have. It isn't enough that he made extended eye contact with Sarah in the subway after the murder, he just had to take the case investigating it and go to see her later that morning to watch as his colleague introduces him to her by name. Then after seeing her he just had to follow her to her kid's school, follow both of them to a restaurant, kidnap the kid but wait for her inside a nearby theater to find them before demanding she keep silent about what she saw. After the incident in the theater, one in which she ingeniously escaped with her son and left Brody concussed and unconscious though not dead, Sarah calls the police and relates the whole story. They think she is a few fries short of a happy meal but follow through on a search of the theater find nothing of Brody nor any sign than anyone has been there in years. Detective Stepanec meanwhile turns over the dead call-girl's apartment and finds irrefutable proof that Brody was there in the most intimate of positions with her and was likely being black-mailed by her, facts which Brody himself had recounted in mortifying detail inside the theater with Sarah Cornell and her son Chris. Brody evidently recovered from his mishap in the theater tracks Sarah. She thinks he is trying to kill her. Judging by his self-destructive pattern, he may merely be making sure she knows how to spell his name correctly. This leads to a dramatic chase through an apartment building and the subway system ending in an electrifying finale.MY THOUGHTS: I like this movie. It had a lot of action and drama that kept you interested. I thought Telly Savalas was good in his role as the evil bad cop. However, I bought this movie because of Lynda Day George and I wasn't disappointed at all. She was excellent in her role as Sarah Cornell. This movie show how good of an actress she was. The only problem I had with this movie is Lynda Day George was in the same outfit throughout the entire movie. Based on that and the action in this picture I give this movie 8 weasel stars.

I saw this made for TV movie when I was in grade school. It was a suspenseful cat-and-mouse story, and Savalas was very scary as the bad guy. I'm still trying to figure out why no one else in that busy subway station saw Savalas push that woman onto the tracks other than Ms. George. The murder that sets the story off is mean and horrific, even by today's standards. The fun is in watching Ms. George become more and more desperate as Savalas closes in on her. The final chase scene is a nail biter! As far as made for TV suspense flicks from the seventies go, this was one of the good ones. I wonder what ever happened to Lynda Day George? She was all over TV back in the day.

Anyone that knows and understands the Giallo subgenre of fright flicks will see right through this made for t.v., wants-to-be-a-giallo terror tale. Watered down telefilm has a 'Cat O' Nine Tails' plotted murder on a train and the identity of the killer as the catalyst of the female protagonist's dilemma. There is some style to spare in this film with a staircase scene in a restaurant that has the beautific visual style of Mario Bava and the camera movements of Dario Argento but alas THIS is the ONLY scene where any true workmanship is to be found. The makers of this little flick no doubt stayed up all night perusing older Giallo murder tapes to get this scene right. Otherwise this is routine yet watchable fare with Telly Savalas as the menace and Lynda Day George as the prey.