Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

garman-4 If noir is at its best when giving us believability in slightly unbelievable situations, this one falls a little short of the standard. We've got cool as ice upper crust citizens here figuring to murder family members as if they were all from some neighborhood where life was cheap, while hardly batting an eye. The acting is good, and Jean Peters and Catherine McLeod are especially fascinating females, but the plot just has a few too many holes in it. IMO, this sort of thing works better when a movie is taken from a novel, a narrative that some previous writer has thoroughly worked out and thought through. And who is the sexy gal in her slip gracing all the posters, like Jean Peters would probably refuse to do? Eye-catching, to be sure, but what has she got to do with a movie that has probably less sexual action in it than a girl scout camp in the middle of a hot summer night? Overall, substandard for the genre, but an hour's entertainment for addicted noir buffs like me, so don't let anything I say keep you from enjoying it............Garman Lord

Scott LeBrun Joseph Cotten stars as Whitney "Cam" Cameron, the uncle to two adorable tykes. As the movie opens, the girl dies, and as it turns out, she was poisoned deliberately. Suspicion falls on Cams' sister-in-law Lynne (Jean Peters of "Pickup on South Street"), because she stands to gain the most from the death. Cam has his doubts, and will continue to have them for much of the story. Lynne just doesn't seem the type, appearing to have been a very devoted maternal figure to these kids.It's that element of doubt that is the focal point of this routine but engaging mystery flick from 20th Century Fox. The filmmaking is reasonably stylish; Andrew L. Stone directs from his own script. Cotten does a decent job in the lead, but he's outshone by the pretty Peters, who is revealed to be quite a cool customer. Some viewers may feel that the conclusion is rather pre-ordained, but getting there is still fairly enjoyable. The finale consists of a showdown between Cam and Lynne where he waits to get some sort of reaction from her, but she never seems to be anything other than innocent.A very strong supporting cast makes this easy enough to watch: Gary Merrill as Cams' attorney friend Fred Sargent, Catherine McLeod as Freds' wife Maggie, an author of pulp fiction, and Jack Kruschen and Barney Phillips as detectives. Jonathan Hole (as Dr. Stevenson), Mae Marsh (as the housekeeper Anna), Walter Sande (as the district attorney) and Carleton Young (as a ships' detective) are among those appearing uncredited.At a mere 77 minutes, "A Blueprint for Murder" tells a sometimes tense story (with no filler) that goes on no longer than it needs to.Six out of 10.

Aaron Igay This thriller has a really creepy subject matter, a straight-laced high-society woman possibly poisoning kids which holds lots of potential to be memorable. However, it just never really pays off with a money shot. I must have heard of things being "laced with strychnine" in a dozen movies over the years but in this film we get to learn all about the pesticide as the plot revolves around the evil stuff. After watching the film I was a little skeptical that you could buy it on any corner as shown in this story, but it does pop up for sale on Amazon in a quick search today so perhaps it wasn't that far removed from reality. Joseph Cotten stars, but while he is good at what he does, he does play the same dull everyman as usual and this film needs a more interesting character in the lead role.

bkoganbing Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters star in A Blueprint For Murder a nice tight noir thriller for 20th Century Fox. This film starts with the death of Cotten's niece and Peters stepdaughter. Despite some major flaws the film does proceed to a tension building climax.For one thing the fact that a healthy 17 year old girl dying suddenly and mysteriously would have set off alarm bells. My 34 year old sister who died suddenly and of natural causes had an immediate autopsy ordered by the New York City Medical Examiner. It's no different in Los Angeles and that would have shown the strychnine poisoning. Cotten would have had to do nothing to get the investigative ball rolling. But the premise here is that murder by poison is hard to detect and more difficult to prove. People have accidentally taken poison all the time. Even with a lack of evidence Cotten persuades the District Attorney to bring an indictment and it's thrown out of court due to lack of evidence. That's the second flaw in this film, double jeopardy should have attached to Peters.Still Cotten persists and the film comes to a climax with he and Peters in a duel of nerves. What Cotten does is take one long chance with his own freedom to prove Peters guilty of murder. What he does is something you see A Blueprint For Murder.I can't forgive the bad writing and faulty legal premises on which this film rests. Still it is enjoyable on its own level.