Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All

Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All

The movie cover for Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All
Directed by John Nicolella
Produced by Jeffrey Morton
Written by Mickey Spillane
Rudy Day
Mark Edward Edens
Starring Stacy Keach
Lynda Carter
Lindsay Bloom
Don Stroud
Jim Carrey
Stacy Galina
Lyle Alzado
Royce D. Applegate
Jessie Lawrence Ferguson
Edward Winter
Michelle Phillips
Music by Ron Ramin
Distributed by CBS
Columbia Pictures
Release dates
 May 21, 1989
Running time
 92 min.
Language English

Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All is a 1989 mystery crime thriller television film. It starred Stacy Keach,[1] former Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter, Lindsay Bloom, Don Stroud, Michelle Phillips and the pre-stardom Jim Carrey. It was respectively filmed in New York City, New York and Las Vegas, Nevada. This television film features the Madonna song "Open Your Heart". It has oddly never been released on VHS or DVD.

Plot

Mike Hammer (Stacy Keach) is asked by a Las Vegas entertainer named Johnny Roman (Edward Winter) to come to Vegas. After that call, his secretary Velda (Lindsay Bloom) brings in her nephew for a visit. Hammer refuses Johnny's invitation, but somebody knocks him out and abducts him, then tosses him out of a plane with a parachute when Hammer arrives in downtown Las Vegas.

Desiring to find out who got the drop on him, Hammer decides to look up Johnny Roman. At a hotel, he gets a backstage pass to Johnny's dressing room from an unknown writer. Johnny's doorman, Reggie Diaz (Lyle Alzado) keeps him from entering the dressing room and Hammer beats him up, but Johnny tells Reggie to leave him alone. Hammer thinks Johnny shanghaied him, but Johnny denies it. At that moment, Johnny tells Hammer that the singer, Barbara Leguire stole something from him. Hammer gets a message from an unknown writer to meet a person at a wedding chapel. He meets a wealthy socialite named Helen Durant (Lynda Carter). While Hammer stays at the Hilton hotel, Johnny dies in an explosive booby-trap unknown to him and somebody planted evidence that points to Hammer. Hilton's security officer supervisor, Leora Van Treas (Michelle Phillips) frames him for the crime. Hammer then sets out to try and clear his name after Barbara gets killed and he is again the suspect. He wonders if there was a key to Barbara's costume. Hammer chases an unknown criminal who falls from the ceiling with him at the Hilton hotel's casino landing on a craps table. Hammer meets a greedy medical doctor named Carl Durant at a hospital. Carl suspiciously asks him about Johnny's death and who bailed him out of jail. The answer turns out to be his wife, Helen who met Hammer at the wedding chapel earlier.

Hammer recovers afterwards and continues to search for clues about the murder mystery, but meets Amy Durant (Stacy Galina) and Carl's employee accountant, Brad Peters (Jim Carrey). Hammer walks to Hilton's control room to turn off the security cameras, but the guards arrest him and send him to Leora who reveals to him that the criminal was William Bundy (Royce D. Applegate). After leaving Leora's office, Hammer thinks about calling Helen on the telephone for more facts about the ongoing murders, but Reggie beats him up once more. Brad breaks up the fight and sets up a trip for Mike to Bundy's ranch, Rosy Buttes. Hammer encounters Bundy once again, but he gets thrown out by him, left in the desert alone. Hammer obtains a biker's motorcycle, and decides to let Brad return to Bundy's ranch with him. Bundy is found deceased when they arrive there, so they flee from the policemen and wander in the desert.

During their walk in the desert, Brad tells Mike that he is thinking about getting a career in being a comedian, but Hammer has not been smiling for three days due to the ongoing murders. They soon find a Prospector's cabin and call Amy to send them back to downtown Las Vegas in her car. Amy later tells Mike that Johnny Roman was her biological father the whole time, though Carl was the man who raised her. Hammer finds out that Helen lied to him about the true identification of Amy's father, so he seeks for Helen at Carl's clinic for that serious conversation. Helen explains about Johnny mistreating her when she was a young chorus girl, but explains that she married Carl during her pregnancy. Helen gives a suitcase to Hammer to pay for the return of Johnny's diary. Leora waits at the Hoover Dam's catwalk. Two riflemen from Carl's clinic also await Mike including Reggie and John McNiece (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, the same man who abducted Mike and tossed him out of the airplane). Both riflemen shoot Leora. Hammer shoots both John and Reggie, but wonders who set it up. Helen soon takes Mike to Lake Mead to spend the night on her cabin boat, but she flees when he goes to sleep.

The next day, Carl and Brad arrive seeking for an account book which Hammer mistakes for Johnny's diary. Carl seeks for Helen afterwards. At that moment, Carl opens a booby-trapped door which causes his entire boat to explode, but the explosion kills both him and Brad. Hammer returns to the dock after jumping overboard using Carl's former boat. While Mike confirms that Carl and Brad are both deceased, he finds out that Helen is still alive when he sees a boat with her name on it realizing she swindled Carl. Mike pursues Helen at Carl's clinic and finds out that the account book, diary, or key on Barbara's costume did not have any existence. In fact, Helen was the murderer all along. The actual fact is Johnny and Carl were stealing money from the foundation prior to their deaths. They were both Amy's fathers, but humiliated Helen when she had a relationship with them. The other actual fact was Barbara blackmailed Johnny for the fictitious diary. Mike has Helen arrested and sent to prison afterwards. Amy finds out that her mother, Carl, Brad, and Johnny (Amy's biological father) told numerous lies to her. Hammer tells Amy that she must rely on herself in the future and drops a bunch of dollars from Helen's case for a donation to Johnny's "Have a Heart" telethon bin. After that, he returns to Manhattan's Lite 'n' Easy Bar once again spending time with Velda.

Cast[2]

References

  1. ↑ Daniel Ruth. "Keach is back in form in `Murder Takes All'". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times News Group 1989. HighBeam Research. Retrieved August 13, 2012
  2. ↑ "Mike Hammer: MurderTakes All". imdb. Retrieved 4th July 2016
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