Princess Daisy

Those hoping for a Scruples orgy of Lindsay Wagner will be disappointed or relieved as she only appears in the first 30 minutes of this 3 hour saga. Her one memorable moment is standing on a Big Sur cliff top reading a letter (as one does), while the wind blows the blonde tendrils of her scarfed hair around her head.

Wagner is Francesca Valenski, a former movie star who marries Russian Prince Stash (Stacy Keach) and bears him twin daughters, Daisy and Danielle. Regrettably Danielle is brain damaged, and institutionalised at birth, something Stash keeps from Francesca. When she finds out, she leaves him to go to America. However when Francesca is killed in a car accident, Stash takes the girls to live in England and returns Danielle to St Anne's. Although visited regularly by Daisy, she remains a secret, until Daisy's private life is exposed to international media by her spiteful half-brother Ram (Rupert Everett) when she becomes a cosmetics model in New York courtesy of tycoon Patrick Shannon (Robert Ulrich). Will the publicity ruin romance? And will make-up sales decline?

The teleplay by Diana Hammond, based on the novel by Judith Krantz, seems to have derived Francesca Valenski from the story of Grace Kelly. The only intriguing plot element is incest, and Daisy delivers a well-written speech to her commercial company boss Charles North (Paul Michael Glasser) about why she doesn't want to be his girlfriend. Otherwise this production directed by Waris Hussein is only notable for Ringo Star cast as a gay fashion designer, Keach eating a piece of toast, another brooding bad performance by Everett, and the indeterminate accent of Michelle Pfeiffer look-alike Merete van Kamp as Daisy.

Firstly, I do not understand why Marette van Kamp as Princess Daisy is given no billing on the DVD cover, she was, after all, playing the lead role. Her character was intense, and very sad considering the circumstances of losing her natural mother and then her father. At three hours, the film is very long, and jumps from one time zone to another, leaving perplexing gaps in the storyline. One of the major disturbing themes of the film is the incestuous behaviour of Daisy's half brother Ram, and Daisy's move to America to make a life for herself.

There are many interesting moments, and the fact of hiding a disabled child away in a remote home strikes at the heart and conscience of anyone who has a disabled child. On the whole, the film is thought provoking, although too long. The best effort was from Marette van Kamp.