The Secret of the Purple Reef (1960)
Director:
William Witney
Writers:
Dorothy Cottrell (novel), Harold Yablonsky
Stars:
Jeff Richards, Margia Dean, Peter Falk
Two film neophytes are of note in this otherwise lengthy, routine murder mystery by director William H. Witney -- Peter Falk as Webber, the villain, and Richard Chamberlain as Dean, a younger brother to the main protagonist Mark Christopher (Jeff Richards). Mark and his brother become suspicious about the circumstances of their father's drowning death in the Caribbean. There is no reason why the family boat should have gone down in calm seas, none that seems free of foul play at least. So the brothers take off for the tropical island on which the boat had been moored, anxious to find out what really happened.