''More Than Murder'' is a 1984 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made fo ...

mystery film A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, i ...

starring

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fiction ...

Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have ...

's iconic

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

Mike Hammer Michael Hammer or Mike Hammer may refer to: *Michael Armand Hammer (1955–2022), American philanthropist and businessman *Michael Martin Hammer (1948–2008), engineer and author *Mike Hammer (character), a fictional hard boiled detective ** ''Mick ...

. It aired on January 26, 1984, at 9:00 p.m. and was the second of two pilots featuring Keach in the part - the other being '' Murder Me, Murder You'' (1983) - that blazed a path for the 1980s version of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

series '' Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer'', which debuted on January 28, 1984.

Plot

When his longtime friend Captain Pat Chambers is wounded in a drug bust and arrested as an accessory to drug trafficking, private detective Mike Hammer vows to help him clear his name. Assistant District Attorney Barrington dislikes Hammer and believes that Chambers is guilty.

Reception

In review printed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' on January 27, 1984, John J. O'Connor wrote, "Mr. Keach has cultivated a perfect kind of New York-seedy look. His suit nearly always needs pressing, and his hat is inevitably worn at a jaunty angle. And most of his lines are delivered with a low-keyed snarl." O'Connor concluded, "Is this supposed age of liberation ready for an unrepentant male chauvinist pig? Network television seems to think so." In the book ''Mickey Spillane on Screen: A Complete Study of the Television and Film Adaptations'' by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor, the authors state that ''More Than Murder'' "has an episodic TV approach that makes it a lesser film than its predecessor."

Home media

After almost 25 years, ''More Than Murder'' was released on DVD by Sony Pictures as the second disc of a two-DVD set also featuring the 1983 TV movie '' Murder Me, Murder You''.

References

External links

* {{Gary Nelson 1980s mystery films 1984 television films 1984 films American detective films American mystery films CBS network films Films about the illegal drug trade Films based on American novels Films based on works by Mickey Spillane Films directed by Gary Nelson Films set in New York City 1980s English-language films 1980s American films Mike Hammer (character) films