Jack Lemmon, with all his familiar flustered-guy mannerisms on display, is terrific in this suspenser from "Alcoa/Goodyear Theatre". Writer Christopher Knopf, who wrote a couple of fine movies for director Robert Aldrich in the '70s, deserves a lot of credit for concocting such an intriguing, original little mystery.
I'll keep my spoilers here to a minimum, since the discovery of the twists as they occur (not knowing ahead of time) is what makes "Disappearance" fun. Casting of Lemmon is the first gimmick, as he plays a magazine editor who is at the airport to greet his wife arriving from Baltimore, but she doesn't get off the plane. Her bags are waiting to be picked up, and the airline can't explain what happened to her.
It's a mystery, as she did board the plane and a stewardess remembers seeing her aboard. William Talman, on holiday from his ongoing role as the iconic district attorney on "Perry Mason", enters the show and takes over as the police detective investigating the case. It's discovered that an emergency hatch of the lavatory on the plane has been busted open, and likely the wife committed suicide during the flight undetected. She was returning home after six months in a Baltimore asylum, released after recovering from a nervous breakdown.
To maximize suspense (rather than just sticking to mystery), early on Lemmon is revealed to be a bad guy: scheming with young model/girlfriend Joan Blackman to commit the perfect murder of his wife. We're given credible explanations of how they've faked her disappearance, and the suspense, heightened by Joan's anxiety, is whether no-nonsense Talman will catch them.
Plot twists are introduced in rapid fire fashion, and they're delightful -much more fun than in the usual whodunit like the recent overrated "Knives Out". Watching Lemmon's personality changes over the course of a fast-paced 1/2 hour show is immensely entertaining, especially given his iconic comedy presence. Casting against type can be a stroke of genius, and with veteran suspense specialist Robert Florey as director we get a little gem of cleverness.
I'll keep my spoilers here to a minimum, since the discovery of the twists as they occur (not knowing ahead of time) is what makes "Disappearance" fun. Casting of Lemmon is the first gimmick, as he plays a magazine editor who is at the airport to greet his wife arriving from Baltimore, but she doesn't get off the plane. Her bags are waiting to be picked up, and the airline can't explain what happened to her.
It's a mystery, as she did board the plane and a stewardess remembers seeing her aboard. William Talman, on holiday from his ongoing role as the iconic district attorney on "Perry Mason", enters the show and takes over as the police detective investigating the case. It's discovered that an emergency hatch of the lavatory on the plane has been busted open, and likely the wife committed suicide during the flight undetected. She was returning home after six months in a Baltimore asylum, released after recovering from a nervous breakdown.
To maximize suspense (rather than just sticking to mystery), early on Lemmon is revealed to be a bad guy: scheming with young model/girlfriend Joan Blackman to commit the perfect murder of his wife. We're given credible explanations of how they've faked her disappearance, and the suspense, heightened by Joan's anxiety, is whether no-nonsense Talman will catch them.
Plot twists are introduced in rapid fire fashion, and they're delightful -much more fun than in the usual whodunit like the recent overrated "Knives Out". Watching Lemmon's personality changes over the course of a fast-paced 1/2 hour show is immensely entertaining, especially given his iconic comedy presence. Casting against type can be a stroke of genius, and with veteran suspense specialist Robert Florey as director we get a little gem of cleverness.