Originally aired as an episode of the PBS children's series "Wonderworks," the pleasant but unmemorable ALMOST PARTNERS was released as a feature on home video in 1998.
Fascinated with mysteries, 14-year-old Molly McCue (Royana Black) imagines herself as the partner of a detective featured in a famous mystery novel. When Molly's grandmother (Mary Wickes) is robbed of the urn holding her late husband's ashes, Molly is on the case. At her grandmother's apartment,
she meets police detective Jack Welder (Paul Sorvino). He dismisses Molly's theory that three men committed the crime. Dismayed by Welder's reaction, Molly and her pal Leon (Jayce Bartok) head to the La Rue funeral home in disguise. Molly deduces that the shady Pierre La Rue (Roy Brocksmith) and
his henchmen are involved in the theft. When she goes to Welder, he explains the crooks have called to ransom the urn. She follows Welder to the drop, but they attempt to run her down. Back at the station, Molly realizes that the urn holding her grandfather's ashes is actually the Ming-Lung Urn--a
$3 million artifact that had been stolen. She and Welder team up, and their investigation leads them back to La Rue. They correctly deduce that La Rue planned to sell the urn to big-time criminal Kristopholous (Mark Margolis), but decided to keep it out of sight--by using it as an urn for Molly's
grandfather--until he could get $300,000 out of Kristopholous. Racing to stop the sale, Molly manages to hide within the coffin in which the urn is stored while Welder follows the crooks. Before the sale can take place, Welder takes La Rue into custody amidst a volley of gunfire.
Filmed in 1987, ALMOST PARTNERS is an amusing mystery intended for young viewers. The production values are on the level of most television fare, but the cast is populated by a roster of seasoned character actors, including Paul Sorvino, Mary Wickes, Roy Brocksmith (THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE), and
Richard Portnow (PRIVATE PARTS). They support perky lead Royana Black quite well, and add a note of interest for adult viewers. Director Alan Kingsberg does a capable job, but aside from the views of picturesque NYC locations, the film has little visual flair. The locations actually serve to
brighten up certain scenes: one of the film's more inspired moments has the characters' detective work being punctuated by the prominent Sony video screen in Times Square, which lights up with the words "New York's Finest Detectives." (Violence.) leave a comment
