CUT TO: MURDER

Summoned to Barcelona to doctor a script on the Spanish Civil War, Queenie Davilov learns from producer/director Fernando (Freddie) Frazier that her real job is to find out what happened to vanished screenwriter Digby Patterson. Though the shoot's already been plagued by the problems customary to the genre (lost equipment, food poisoning), Queenie's sure that the mystery of Patterson's disappearance goes back much fartherto the events of the film, which recounts the betrayal and execution of Freddie's mother, Cristiana Ballester, as a suspected Fascist during the war. Since Cristiana was also the mother of Carlos Ballester, the film's financierand current lover of the actress playing Cristianathe mystery is very much a family affair, even before the missing Patterson turns up buried in Cristiana's grave. Osborne goes for a more sober, measured tone than in Queenie's zany debut (Murder Offscreen, 1994). But though the Spanish settings are a plus, the tangled historical background is a mess.