A staple of screen mysteries since Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, the old "nobody saw nothing" ruse invariably (and ironically) generally sees sane innocents running around like maniacs to prove they're not crackers.

In this no-frills suspenser, the unfortunate in question is Mary Walsh (Murphy), a busy banking exec who makes time to chauffeur her injured boyfriend Kevin (Cain) around while he gets his leg fixed.

After leaving him for a simple in-and-out procedure, however, she returns to find him gone.

Not gone home gone - gone as in vanished. Gone like the wind. And most worryingly, gone from hospital records and the memories of the entire staff.

To make matters worse, Mary's irrational agitation forces resident psychiatrist Peter Bogdanovich to conclude that she's gone in the head. The anti-depression pills in her bag would seem to back him up.

Why does nobody believe her? Is there no one she can trust? What's the relevance of Mary's job at the bank?

Answers to all these questions and more are revealed as Abandoned sends everyone round the [plot's] twist.

As with many B-movie mysteries, it's prescribed thrills come with the odd side-effect. The machinations don't bear up to much scrutiny and the build-up could have been teased out a little further, perhaps involving more of Bogdanovich and Mimi Rogers as the hospital's enigmatic manager.

But from her best work (Clueless, Girl, Interrupted, 8 Mile) to the most humdrum fare, there was never any doubting the late Murphy's commitment to a cause. Whatever its shortcomings, Abandoned is testament to that.

Elliott Noble