User Reviews

Television stars Elinor Donahue, Ramon Bieri, Bernie Coulson and Cliff Osmond, Australian star Belinda Bauer, British star David Warner, and James Lew as the Cambodian portray some of the special guests who arrive in Cabot Cove, while Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) visits Cousin Emma MacGill in London for her captivating theatrical performance before an audience of Royalty.

Next door neighbor, Connie Lewis (Elinor Donahue), tends to her house-plants during Jessica's vacation, and admits expectant parents, nephew and niece-in-law Grady Fletcher (Michael Horton) and Donna Mayberry Fletcher (Debbie Zipp), to house-sit for the duration.

While Connie's teenage son, Stanley Lewis (Bernie Coulson), attempts to earn money from fish market proprietor Nick Zavakis (Ramon Bieri), to purchase a new motorcycle, his current motorbike disrupts the neighborhood, as a foreshadowing of maladies to follow.

Kris Karas (Cliff Osmond) and Fishing Captain Malachi (Gordon Ross) hear tale of a prize treasure, "The Szechuan Dragon," in the vicinity of Cabot Cove, Maine, and chart their courses of action to obtain this mysterious antique porcelain ornamental figurine one way or another.

Capable treasure hunters Carla Thyssen (Belinda Bauer), Justin Hunnicut (David Warner) and The Cambodian (James Lew) arrive in Cabot Cove to attempt to outperform one another with threats and weapons, to win possession of the ceramic artifact containing a valuable secret prize.

But when Grady and Donna awaken during the night from a noise perceived to originate from an intruder, then descend into Jessica's kitchen, to stumble across a body, but have little or no idea what to do next.

Grady and Donna decide to inform Doctor Seth Hazlitt (William Windom), Sheriff Mort Metzger (Ron Masak) and Deputy Floyd McCallum (Will Nye), who arrive to investigate, while Jessica checks in via telephone from Emma's dressing room, backstage of the London theatre.

Yet, while the hunt escalates to full force in search of the treasure (William Windom pronounces this nearly as "Shay-Choo'-an" as he explains its mythological genesis), Grady discovers a curio figurine in the rear of closet shelf, which Jessica has stored away, after receiving it as a gift many years prior.

By the time that Jessica receives word of the murder and other activities occurring in her home town, Mort and Seth stage a showdown at the Sheriff's station, baiting suspects with "The Szechuan Dragon."

But only Jessica is able to solve the murder mystery, and from a distance, in this, the "MSW" episode (excluding book-ends with guest sleuths) which features the least amount of air time for Angela Lansbury (although it certainly would have been great to have seen her portrayal of Cousin Emma for an additional appearance).

Episodes featuring an international flavor generally increase their background music volume, and this one is no exception in scenes which "The Cambodian" practices his martial arts from the rocks along Cabot Cove Harbor. Background scores overall tend to increase during Season Eight, but as of this point, the segue music remains similar to the light, pleasant tones of earlier "MSW" seasons.

(Extra points for the performances of Bernie Coulson, Elinor Donahue, James Lew, and David Warner.) The cast is rounded out by Maura Spencer-Reed as Phoebe, and Douglas DuVal as Fred.

This episode marks the first acting credit for Maura Spencer-Reed, the last television acting appearance for Douglas DuVal, the first of two "MSW" guest roles for David Warner, the third of three for Ramon Bieri, the fifth of five for Debbie Zipp, including her four as Donna Mayberry, the ninth of fourteen for Will Nye as Deputy Floyd McCallum, and the eleventh of twelve "MSW's" for Michael Horton as Grady Fletcher; from here, it would be another five seasons before he returns to mark Grady's swan song appearance.

Ramon Bieri, acting since 1962, Gordon Ross, acting since 1978, and Douglas DuVal, having a brief acting career, have since passed.

Jessica is in London, and The Laurel and Hardy of the family (Grady and Donna) are house sitting, unknown to them they're in the presence of a valuable article.

It's easy to slate this one, and let's be honest, as a mystery, it's absolutely terrible, but as a comedy, it works really well. The plot is like something from a comedy show, Grady and Donna make for an amusing duo, Aunt Jessica is happily in a studio down the road.....sorry, a Hotel room in London, and an Oriental martial arts Master is terrorising Cabot Cove.

The accompanying oriental themed music makes me chuckle, it's a little over the top.

Being an English woman herself, Lansbury would know that meeting The Queen is one of the most ludicrous elements introduced so far. I'm not sure Emma singing sea shanties would be suitable royal entertainment.

It's funny, but this is one of the episodes I remember vividly from my childhood, and I think for a ten year old it would have huge appeal, as some of the characters are like something out of a cartoon.

It does feel like a waste of David Warner, he'd have made a wonderful English villain, he doesn't have much to do sadly.

Overall, it's a shocker, but it's also a bit of fun. 7/10.

Even an ocean away Jessica Fletcher still solves another murder in that murder capital of Maine, Cabot Cove. Angela Lansbury is in London but is keeping in touch with everybody which includes nephew Michael Horton and his most pregnant wife Debbie Zipp who are house sitting in Caobt Cove.

In fact the place has become a hotbed of intrigue and adventure. In a homage to the Maltese Falcon, a whole lot of stock characters from potboiler novels arrive there including a peg leg sea captain who eludes them all only to break into the Fletcher dwelling and get stabbed there for his troubles.

Anyone of this crew could have been our perpetrator over the object the captain carries which is the infamous Szechuan Dragon. The killing however turns out to be for reasons far more prosaic.

With Horton, William Windom, and Ron Masak phoning in regularly from across the sea the solution comes.

Have always been quite fond of 'Murder She Wrote'. It is a fun and relaxing watch that makes you think as you try to unwind in the evening. If one wants more complex, twisty mysteries with lots of tension and suspense 'Murder She Wrote' may not be for you, but if you want something light-hearted and entertaining but still provide good mysteries 'Murder She Wrote' fits the bill just fine.

To me "The Szechuan Dragon" is one of the stinkers from 'Murder She Wrote'. While "Good-Bye Charlie", also from Season 6, underwhelmed drastically and was one of the lesser 'Murder She Wrote' episodes and there are previous episodes that are very average, "The Szechuan Dragon" is the first episode to be considered by me as a stinker and one of the nadirs of the show. And no, it is not because Jessica is absent other than by phone call, some of the bookends had her absent and weren't bad at all. That's actually the least of the episode's problems.

Despite it being a big mess, "The Szechuan Dragon" is not without good things. The production values are slick and stylish and Cabot Cove is always a pleasure. The theme tune is still irresistible. William Windom (charmingly curmudgeon as ever) and Ron Masak do their best with the material they're given, as do some of the supporting cast including David Warner, ever the professional, in his first of two appearances (the other being in "A Death in Hong Kong").

Other than those things, there is not much else, if anything, to recommend "The Szechuan Dragon". The biggest problems are Grady and Donna, the two worst recurring characters of the show. Having one of them in an episode is bad enough, having both manages to be worse. Credit is due, Grady can be tolerable in small doses when he actually contributes to the story and has a situation that doesn't make him bland or annoying (though this has only been about two or three times). Donna however was a misfire from the start and it never improved.

Both are intolerable here, Michael Horton is a bland, annoying dead-weight, like Grady himself, and Debbie Zipp is charisma-free with no humour, pathos or subtlety of any kind and if one thought Grady was annoying it's multiplied with Donna. For a married couple, their chemistry is also non-existent and one does not care for their situation.

It's not just Grady and Donna that don't work. The cast do their best, but are let down by some of the most exaggerated dialogue of the whole show and very poorly developed stock characters that seem to have come out of somewhere else entirely, they just don't gel with the story and feel very thrown in. Speaking of the story, it's very dull and often doesn't go anywhere. The mystery itself, with a McGuffin that manages to be very half-baked in how it's integrated, is not worth investing in, being neither interesting or easy to follow.

Really didn't buy in any way the way the case is solved and how the guilty is caught, the reveal is not a surprise and the motive couldn't have been more stale or more of a cheat. The whole potentially intriguing set up with the Szechuan Dragon (which the episode doesn't do enough with) might have just very well not happened. While the theme tune is great, this is a rare case of early seasons-mid-show where an episode felt over-scored.

Overall, one of 'Murder She Wrote's' nadirs. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Silly episode with pregnant woman, Asian martial arts fighter and other under developed characters. Lansbury is 3,000 miles away. Writers must have been on holiday.

Throughout the run of "Murder, She Wrote", Angela Lansbury often got breaks from the weekly grind of making a TV show. These episodes often began with her character introducing the show...and leaving the entire rest of the show for other actors. I can only assume the production company did this because Lansbury wasn't exactly a spring chicken. Regardless, most of them are pretty disappointing.

In the case of "The Szechuan Dragon", instead of having Lansbury introduce the show, she gets much of her week off by appearing a few times alone...with her nephew Grady and his wife watching Jessica's home in Cabot Cove. Ostensibly, she's in England for some play...but it's just an excuse to give her time off. Now, considering I also find Grady to be terribly annoying in all his previous episodes, this doesn't bode well for the episode.

In the case of "The Szechuan Dragon", not only is Lansbury mostly absent from the show and Grady being the star, it also has a script that seems incredibly bad...with ridiculous characters such as a sea captain (who looked a lot like he should be selling Gorton's fishsticks), a Cambodian martial arts expert and two world-class thieves....all converging on tiny Cabot Cove, Maine! To make it even worse, Grady manages to be even stupider and more ineffectual than usual*!

My advice is that unless you are a completist who wants to see every episode, this would be a nice one to skip. Just pretend it was never made in the first place since the quality is so much worse than usual for the episode.

* Even after a sea captain arrives at the house that Grady is watching and the captain is killed, again and again, Grady keeps opening the doors for ANYONE who shows up! First, Mr. Kung Fu shows up and tries to kill him. Second, a damsel in distress (one of the crooks) shows up in the middle of the night...and he just lets her in without questions. Can anyone be that dumb? In real life, no...on this show, of course!

While Jessica Fletcher is in London to watch her cousin Emma perform for the Queen, Grady and Donna are in Cabot Cove house-sitting for her. Criminal things transpire when a sea-captain that used to be engaged to Jessica's aunt Harriet shows up in town in order to retrieve a gift he once gave her. A dragon statue is the centre of the break-ins. A dead body of a sea captain is found in Jessica's house. A Kung-fu man fights the dim witted Brady who fights back by looking gormless. These are some of the highlights in a episode that has a good potential in terms of story idea but its pulse never reaches fever pitch. It's a weak addition to a bookend episodes but at least watchable once. However, Belinda Bauer who plays one of the ladies looking for the Dragon is hot!!