Richard Levinson and
William Link serve up another Thinking Man's murder mystery with the made-for-television
Rehearsal for Murder. Playwright
Robert Preston is on the verge of marrying glamorous film star
Lynn Redgrave. But a scant few hours after her Broadway debut,
Redgrave is found dead, an apparent suicide. Convinced that
Redgrave was murdered,
Preston contacts the most likely suspects and assembles them in an empty theatre, ostensibly to read through his latest play. But
Preston locks the doors and uses his play as a means to, in the words of Hamlet, "catch the conscience" of the killer. Filmed under the working title
Cold Reading,
Rehearsal for Murder was the winner of the Edgar Award, a prize bestowed annually by the Mystery Writers of America. It was first broadcast on May 26, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide