Dear Murderer

Plot

Lee and Vivien Warren (Portman and Gynt) are trapped in a nightmare marriage. Vivien is despising, devious and habitually unfaithful while Lee is pathologically jealous. On his return from a lengthy business trip to New York, Lee finds several cards addressed to Vivien signed "Love Always" and determines to kill her latest lover, Richard Fenton (Dennis Price). He confronts Fenton, who admits to his affair with Vivien, and persuades him to end the relationship by writing her a farewell letter. He then kills Fenton, and stages the scene to look like a suicide, believing he has committed the perfect crime as the letter which Fenton had just written at his dictation has all the appearance of a suicide note.

His scheme goes awry when he discovers immediately after the fact that Vivien and Fenton had in fact broken up some time before, and Fenton had been humouring him by writing the note. He is guilt-stricken at having killed Fenton needlessly, and realises that any suggestion of suicide on Fentons part in despair over Vivien will now seem absurd to the police. When he discovers that Vivien now has a new beau, Jimmy Martin (Maxwell Reed), he takes the opportunity to frame Martin for the crime, reasoning that this will serve the dual purpose of shifting suspicion away from himself while at the same time getting Viviens current lover out of the way. While he arranges matters so that all the evidence points to Martin, the policeman in charge of the case has his doubts about the case but is unable to catch Lee out. Vivien begs her husband to intercede on Martins behalf, promising to remain faithful in the future if he can devise a way to save Martin from the gallows without incriminating himself. Lee comes up with what he thinks will be the perfect solution to save Martin and thus keep Vivien, but then discovers he may have underestimated her cunning.

Cast