Robert hayes (airplane) is mercer, who writes murder mysteries. And is trying to figure out how to make his characters more exciting and realistic. He's so bored with his current lead, that he wants to move on to another character. But his publisher won't let him out of his contract. So he'd better hurry up and solve this mystery, with or without his character deegan so he can start the new book. The awesome celeste holm (all about eve) is mercer's mother. Character actor fred gwynne is in here as the bad guy. And one of the cops is clearly channeling columbo, which had started airing years before, in the early 1970s. It's all pretty dated at this point. Moves quite slowly, but it's okay. Directed by mel damski. He had been nominated for an oscar on his documentary about the palm springs follies. Novel by mel arrighi. Lots of films with this same name... even another one released in 1987. Although this one was filmed in 1985, but not aired (straight to television ?) until march 1987. That's goofy.
Review of Murder by the Book
