Wed 30 Sep 2015
A Made-for-TV Movie Review: WEB OF DECEPTION (1994).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[5] Comments
WEB OF DECEPTION. Made-for-TV movie. NBC-TV, 25 April 1994. Powers Boothe, Pam Dawber, Lisa Collins, Paul Ben-Victor, Rosalind Chao. Director: Richard A. Colla.
In order to review this movie in the usual fashion, I’d also have to tell you more than you’d like to know about it — or more than I normally would. As is my usual fashion I picked this out of a box of DVDs I’d stored away in the basement and totally forgotten about, including how I obtained it and why I’d decided to own it in the first place.
All I knew before I started watching it was that it was a crime film, it had the names of some people in it that I recognized, and that’s all. I didn’t even read the back cover.
So assuming you’re somewhat like me in not knowing too much ahead of time, I’m going to be as sketchy in the details as I can and still come up a set of comments and other observations that make sense.
Powers Boothe plays Dr. Philip Benesch in this film, a forensic psychiatrist who works hand in hand with the police department in court cases in which the sanity of the defendant comes into question. His job: to say the accused was sane at the time the crime was committed; the defense has to hire their own psychiatrist to say just the opposite.
A more smug guy you cannot believe. Even the cops whose side he is on think he’s a jerk. This is a family-oriented blog, or else I’d be able to say what they really think. He is also having marital problems. His wife, played by Pam Dawber, has just found out he’d been having an affair. He claims it’s over, and asks for forgiveness.
About this same time, a good-looking court stenographer (Lisa Collins) starts stalking him, following wherever he goes, and obviously obsessing about him. He’s flattered but finally tells her off, to get out of his life, adios, good-bye. She retaliates, and how. Suffice it to say that Dr. Benesch finds himself in deep sh–, oops, what it’s like to be on the other side of the law.
Powers Boothe, who played Philip Marlowe on the HBO series of the same name, does a fine job here playing a man who finds his life turned upside down, almost literally. Pam Dawber, though, as his wife, does an even better job of playing a woman who is trying to keep loving her husband, but as more and more details come to light, finds it more and more difficult to do so.
This is pretty good entertainment, as far as the standard of TV-making stood in 1994. It would have been even better if the police weren’t so obviously uninterested in doing a proper investigation. The lady district attorney equally so. You’ll have to stay focused on the characters and the relationships between them. If you can, you should enjoy this one. If you’re interested in a murder mystery worthy of the name, I don’t believe you’ll be happy at all.
September 30th, 2015 at 8:05 pm
Not only am I picking DVDs out of storage in the basement, but I’m also starting to work my way through a backlog of 40 reviews or so that I’ve written over the past year and never used.
This particular film gathered some reviews at the time it first aired, and maybe some more when it was released on DVD, but I imagine that even the people in it have forgotten it now, over 20 years later.
But what I found amusing tonight happened when I went back and looked at all the reviews I could find of this one. Every single one of them brings up the surprise twist in the plot in the very first paragraph — the one I see I was dancing around like crazy to not say anything about.
I’m tempted to tell you now, since the twist is the one thing that may make this movie stand out from any others of the same general category. I’ve decided not to, though, at least for now. If you’re interested, you can go read all of the other reviews.
September 30th, 2015 at 10:30 pm
I was a little surprised NBC was still doing made for television movies in 94. Missed this one and I have a feeling I won’t be rushing to find this one despite the cast.
September 30th, 2015 at 10:47 pm
I liked the Philip Marlowe shows that Powers Boothe was in. I came across the DVD set a few days ago while looking for something else. I wonder if I’d like the series as much as I did the first time.
September 30th, 2015 at 10:53 pm
Here’s the first paragraph of the review of the movie in VARIETY:
“A shrink finds himself in deep trouble when he’s framed for murder in ‘Web of Deception,’ competently made TV movie that’s absurd even by the lower credibility standards typical of psychological thrillers.”
Then later:
“Boothe gives his usual clench-jawed delivery, and everybody else plays along as if this all made sense.
“The final courtroom scenes manage to bring in seemingly every cliche of the genre.”
Ouch. That had to hurt.
October 1st, 2015 at 3:59 pm
The Marlowe’s hold up well enough. I think I liked them better the second time around since Boothe was very much not my idea of Marlowe at the time and Marlowe with a drawl was always a problem for me (I hear the drawl because I have one, it’s like Michael Caine hearing Cary Grant’s Cockney accent).
For the most part though they hold up well. He’s far from my favorite Marlowe, even television Marlowe, but he brought real energy to the role.