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A Killing in a Small Town, Barbara Hershey, Brian Dennehy, Evidence of Love, James Atkinson, John Bloom, John Terry, Lee Garlington, Richard Gilliland, Stephen Gyllenhaal
I was excited to find out that the true crime book Evidence of Love, the case of the Texas housewife who killed her ex-lover’s wife with an axe in self-defense, had been made into a TV movie (alternate title A Killing in a Small Town) and that it was streaming on Netflix. Of course, the fact that it was made is old news, 22 years old, but I’ve never had much interest in TV movies of the “one woman’s struggle against whatever” variety; I’ve even ridiculed that type of movie more than once on this blog. However, I do like true crime stories, and I do like the book Evidence of Love a lot. I liked it even better after I’d read it and realized that the same John Bloom who co-authored it is our friend in the trashy film universe who is also known as Joe Bob Briggs. Who would have known that the real person was capable of such thoughtful, restrained fare as this book, and about such a potentially trashy subject? Not I.
So, even though I knew the book was a serious portrait of a tragic killing, and delved deep into the motivations of all involved, I thought that surely the movie was going to be a delightfully lurid tale. Such was my expectation of TV movies outside the realm of horror. It isn’t lurid. What it does offer, though, is a remarkable performance by Barbara Hershey as Candy Morrison (Candy Montgomery in real life) who was put on trial in death-penalty-happy Texas for killing her church friend and cuckoldee Peggy Blankenship (Betty Gore in real life, played here by Lee Garlington), and who got off and presumably lives and thrives today. Not that it should be surprising that Ms. Hershey brought the role to sympathetic life. She deserved the Emmy she won, and I’m not sure I fully understood the murder defense and its success until I’d seen her become Candy Montgomery on the witness stand. Also reminding us of why he ruled the movie world of the 90s is Brian Dennehy as Ed Reivers, the defense attorney who’d never before defended a criminal until he took this case out of friendship for Candy.
The movie was necessarily briefer than the book, and I would have liked to see Betty Gore’s background included as it was in the book, but otherwise it was very faithful to the story. All the characters and even the neighborhoods where it took place were as I’d imagined them while reading. But unless I’m very wrong (perish the thought) about the average “true story” TV movie, filmmaker Stephen Gyllenhaal showed restraint in bringing this story to the screen. That’s good for the subject matter, but perhaps bad for my TV Tuesday post. You might come here only to see what ridiculous movie I’ve dug up most recently, and if so, I apologize that I’ve posted about a well-made movie today. I shall have to do some more research on another Tuesday.
So for fans of the book, check out Evidence of Love on Netflix, but for fans of TV style exploitation, proceed with caution. I’ll be back next Tuesday with something more like what I imagine when I think of a TV movie, namely Rick Springfield playing a vampire detective in 1989′s Nick Knight.
efcontentment said:
I’d been interested in watching this film after finding out about the Joe Bob connection. Thought the guy couldn’t surprise me any further after seeing him in both a Scorsese picture and a John Woo flick. I didn’t know this was on Netflix Instant, so thanks for the heads up via your review.
So I guess TV movies are pretty much dead as far as network television goes, right? I remember catching a lot of these joints on Sunday or Monday night on any of the big 3 networks (back when it was just the big 3). Hell, even FOX joined in eventually. Now you gotta go to Lifetime or SyFy to look for ‘em. Anyway, good review and looking forward to watching this later on, for a little compare/contrast between my thoughts and yours. Might even look up the book at the local library, if the book is still available and if the local library still exists.
Wednesday's Child said:
You should really track down the book after you watch it. It’s one of my favorite true crime books for the way it goes into the childhoods of the two women. I also enjoyed the way it perfectly describes the way I remember that generation of people, my parents’ generation, when I was growing up a precocious kid in the Methodist denomination (a lot of the story took place around church, but don’t worry about being offended by religious stupidity because we’re just about the most liberal of religions).
I wish the TV movie would resurrect in the form of the 70s network ones. The Norliss Tapes, Salem’s Lot, etc. Even in the 80s they were still pretty good sometimes, but the current Lifetime and SciFi stuff I usually can’t take. It’s very lowest common denominator and particularly the Lifetime ones seem very saccharine. I did like Rose Red, though, and that came out in the last ten years or so. Maybe it’s just nostalgia that makes me like the old ones. I remember one that fascinated the hell out of me around ’85; it was the pilot for a never-got-made series about a family of witches that I think was called The Covenant and I can’t find a copy anywhere. I’m also trying to get the two movies that preceded Kolchak to post about on here, but Netflix has them listed as “very long wait,” whatever that means.
Anyway, let me know what you think of this one when you catch it.
EFC said:
I’ll be sure to let you know what I think, when I finally get to watching it.
I also wish they would go back to 70s/80s-style made-for-television joints. Some of them (like “Duel”) would even play in movie theaters overseas! Don’t think that happens much — or at all — with Lifetime films. It’d be cool too if HBO dabbled once again in the kind of genre made-for-cable movies they used to make in the 80′s and early 90′s, like “Full Eclipse” or “Apology”; nowadays their film division is only interested in being the Miramax/Focus Features of cable movies, making Emmy bait.
Wednesday's Child said:
Wasn’t the 1986 The Hitcher an HBO film? Now when I look for TV movies I skip over the made for HBO ones because they don’t have the right tone I’m looking for, but you’re right, they used to be different,