Sun 13 Jun 2010
Archived Review: LINDA (Film, 1993, and Novella, John D. MacDonald, 1956).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
LINDA. Made for cable-TV, USA Network, 08 October 1993. Virginia Madsen, Richard Thomas, Ted McGinley, Laura Harrington. Based on the novella by John D. MacDonald. Director: Nathaniel Gutman.
A summer vacation at the beach becomes a deadly affair when the wife of one couple kills the wife of the another, and in the process neatly frames her own husband for the deed.
It starts slowly, goes into a period of intense action, interrupted only by massive amounts of commercials, then settles down for the obvious but highly anticipated conclusion to develop.
USA is making great strides in making yesterday’s B-movies today, but this one has several strikes against it:
(1) After the first two stars named above, the acting is absolutely horrible.
(2) The behavior of the police, the D.A.’s office, and the accused husband’s lawyer are all equally unbelievable.
(3) After the tale is told, there are still somehow several minutes to fill, and believe me, there is nothing even Richard Thomas could do at that point that could get anyone as choked up about it as we’re supposed to.
The one thing the movie did have going for it was that it was based on a story by John D. MacDonald, so I went up to my upstairs closet and dug out the book it came from. It’s the second half of a paperback entitled Border Town Girl (Popular Library #750, June 1956), which is where it first appeared.
It’s only 70 pages long, and it took me less than an hour to read it. And I was right. The things I didn’t care for in the movie were things that weren’t in the book:
No bad acting. No shipshod police work. No lousy cornball ending.
It’s still a bit unchewable as a story, but JDM almost made me believe it. And if I hadn’t have seen the movie first, maybe I would have.
[UPDATE] 06-13-10. There was an earlier TV movie based on the story “Linda,” one I did not know about when I wrote this review. It was on ABC, 03 November 1973, as the Suspense Movie of the Week. It starred Stella Stevens, Ed Nelson, John McIntire, and John Saxon, with Jack Smight as the director. On the basis of the actors alone, there’s a chance I might have enjoyed it more than I did the one on USA.
I’ll have to see if I can track either one down, or hopefully both. I may have a VHS copy of the later one, but based on my comment about the commercials, there is a possibility that I watched it live. On the other hand, you still notice how many and how often, even when you’re fast-forwarding through them.
June 13th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
The mere presence of Richard Thomas is enough to turn me off anything. First I keep waiting for that damn mole to speak, and secondly for him to say goodnight to everyone.
And then I just don’t like him.
I saw this — you’re being kind to it. As for the other one, good cast. Have to hope it was better.
June 13th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
The USA film with Virginia Madsen in it seems to have vanished into the aether, but I’m fairly positive I still have it on videotape. If so, I imagine it will even turn up one of these days.
In the meantime I have found a copy of the Stella Stevens version for sale online, and I hope to have it in hand within a week or so.
I can watch Stella Stevens in almost anything, maybe even a Dean Martin movie, but then again I have to confess that perhaps I can’t.
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=2018
June 13th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I completely agree with you about Richard Thomas, David.
Reading and rereading the novel RED SKY IN THE MORNING–a great coming of age novel by Richard Bradford–when I was in my early twenties is a cherished memory. But RT is appalling in it.
I was especially annoyed by his use of a *Henry…Henry Aldrich* breaking of his voice at one the most dramatic moments in the film.
June 13th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Rick
I agree about the Bradford — and Thomas in the film version. Maltin calls him superb — guess we saw a different version than he did. Some actors just rub you the wrong way, and Thomas does me — in anything.
April 13th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Richard Thomas rubs me the wrong way, too, David. In anything, indeed!