Stephanie Zimbalist is a young woman taking her first trip to the "Africa" where she witnesses a deliberate murder and hears it linked to another. She winds up sailing on a ship that has a number of other passengers -- Ken White, Tony Randall as a creepy minister, Rue McLanahan, Edward Woodward who, if you don't recognize him, you should see in "The Wicker Man," where his performance will lift your toupée. They are all somehow suspect in the theft of a king's ransom worth of diamonds. Of course we expect that if we are Agatha Christie fans.
Zimbalist brings nothing much to the movie except her Remington Steele TV persona, innocence and wonder, rather like Nancy Drew. Does she find herself in danger? Of course she does. Didn't Nancy Drew? That's okay. There's a marvelous sensuality about her that is impossible to mask. Maybe it's her eyes, because when they squint at someone they always seem to be calculating the risk/reward ratio of events that shouldn't even be entertained by such a practical and pure young lady. For all her fluttering around, her pronounced sternocleidomastoids give her a formidable athletic appearance as of the kind of woman who, once she decides what she wants, throws herself into the pursuit avidly. That intense dark stare of hers signals not only attention but lascivious intent. Don't try to kid the kid.
It's light-hearted and deliberately overacted, as suits a made-for-television movie. Nobody takes his role seriously, least of all the barely recognizable Tony Randall as the sinister minister. The mystery has to do with who committed the murders, why, and what about the fortune in stolen diamonds. Is the mystery solved to everyone's satisfaction? No power on earth could drag the answer from me.
Zimbalist brings nothing much to the movie except her Remington Steele TV persona, innocence and wonder, rather like Nancy Drew. Does she find herself in danger? Of course she does. Didn't Nancy Drew? That's okay. There's a marvelous sensuality about her that is impossible to mask. Maybe it's her eyes, because when they squint at someone they always seem to be calculating the risk/reward ratio of events that shouldn't even be entertained by such a practical and pure young lady. For all her fluttering around, her pronounced sternocleidomastoids give her a formidable athletic appearance as of the kind of woman who, once she decides what she wants, throws herself into the pursuit avidly. That intense dark stare of hers signals not only attention but lascivious intent. Don't try to kid the kid.
It's light-hearted and deliberately overacted, as suits a made-for-television movie. Nobody takes his role seriously, least of all the barely recognizable Tony Randall as the sinister minister. The mystery has to do with who committed the murders, why, and what about the fortune in stolen diamonds. Is the mystery solved to everyone's satisfaction? No power on earth could drag the answer from me.