DIAL H FOR HITCHCOCK

When she’s framed for murder, it’s up to Californian writer and vintage fashionista Cece Caruso (Christietown, 2007, etc.) to clear her name.

Cece is nursing a failed engagement by immersing herself in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. At a showing of Vertigo, she winds up with someone else’s cell phone in her 1950s Lucite purse and attempts to return it by going to a cliffside rendezvous set up by a mysterious telephone caller. Instead of making a simple handoff, Cece witnesses a blond woman shoved to her death. When Cece grabs the phone to call 911, she gets an incoming call—a stranger telling her to say she saw a mere accident and, worse, a recording of what sounds like her own voice threatening the dead woman. Though she has many cops in her large, loving family, Cece decides not to tell the police but instead lies to them and investigates herself. Finding ID belonging to Anita Colby at the scene, she breaks into her apartment to reconnoiter. Despite the threats and the police’s suspicions, Cece continues her blithe flirtation with the new guy next door and her trips to the park with her grandkids. But Anita’s acquaintances claim she knew Cece, and so does the evidence. When Cece can no longer trust her own memories, she hits the road. Who’s claiming to be Cece, and why did they kill Anita?

Flat characters, an implausible premise and a simply preposterous conclusion.