Too many rather obvious errors in military matters prevent Murder At The Presidio
from achieving any great status. Still as a murder mystery it's not a bad one. It
is set in the final days of the Presidio in San Francisco being an operational
military installation. And in those final days a murder is committed.
The wife of Sergeant Martin Cummins is murdered by home invaders which is a
really odd concept other than the fact that the housing for the base personnel
is nearly empty. Only one other unit was occupied in the building that Cummins and his wife lived in.
Lou Diamond Phillips plays a CID investigator and apparently as such doesn't
have to wear a uniform. He's already assigned to a case involving theft at the
Presidio of military equipment, but wants this homicide. The head of the
Military Police Eugene Clark doesn't want him and that leads to a running
conflict throughout the film. Phillips gets more than moral support from Victoria Pratt another MP.
The two cases at first not connected get connected during the course of the
film.
Some nice supporting performances also come from Leslie Esterbrook as Cummins's partying mother, Daniel Roebuck as the base commander, and
Jason Priestley as very hostile brother-in-law to Cummins.
About halfway through we know who did it. After that it's just a question of
gathering evidence. Canadian locations stand in for the Presidio as it is now
a national park and shooting there would be problematic.
Lots of goofs and errors, but the basic plot is a good one.