Murder by Natural Causes: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox filmtelevision

| nameimage = Murder by Natural Causes =

| imagecaption =

| captionwriter = {{Plainlist|

==Plot summary==

A successful [[mentalismMentalism|mentalist]], Arthur Sinclair ([[Hal Holbrook]]), preys upon wealthy socialites such as Helen Carrington ([[Eve McVeagh]]) for their money. The movie opens as SinclairArthur is talking on the phone with his much younger wife Allison ([[Katharine Ross]]). She wishes him luck as he departs to give ana television interview. However, she is in fact in bed with another, much younger man, Gil Weston ([[Barry Bostwick]]). Weston is a would-be actor in love with Allison, and we soon learn she is planning to have Gil kill Arthur by scaring him to death (by overloading his weakened heart). Their plan is to have Weston storm the house pretending to be a burglar --– and then point his pistol at Arthur, who would supposedly die from the shock. The night comes and Gil breaks in, but Arthur sees him before he can reach the gun. Gil presents himself as a journalist there to have an interview with Arthur. He and Gil have a hearty conversation, and it turns out that both men have something on each other. Gil knows that Arthur is a fake and that he somehow knew the information about a killer in a different town. Arthur knows that Gil is not a journalist. Gil is not panicked by that and he uses Arthur's competitive behavior to make him do 50 push-ups, to allegedly tire out Arthur's heart. Soon Gil draws the gun, the two men struggle, and Arthur apparently shoots Gil. When Allison comes home, he is distraught by the incident; then Gil (whoAllison had loaded a blank bullet into the gun) comes behind him, and Arthur stumbles across the house and screams in pain ... then laughs and applauds as the two lovers look on.

Arthur has known about GilAllison and AllisonGil for months, and now ''he'' is out to get ''them''. Then suddenly, Arthur's lawyer and longtime friend George ([[Richard Anderson]]) comes into the house. He turns out to be Allison's real lover.; Gil was just a chump to do the dirty work. George shoots Arthur, then he and Allison depart. Some time afterwards, Allison returns to the house, and she finds that Arthur's body is gone. It turned out that Arthur knew about George, too, but Arthur wondered if George would actually go through with murder. Arthur had replaced all the bullets in the gun with blanks.

Arthur next points his pistol at Allison, now loaded with ''real'' bullets, and she asks him what is he going to do. Arthur replies: "WhyI have a suggestion for you, darling...why don't you read my mind?"

* {{IMDb title|0079593|Murder by Natural Causes}}

* {{rotten-tomatoes|murder_by_natural_causes}}

[[Category:NBCAmerican network originaltelevision films]]

[[Category:American1970s English-language films]]