Recuerdos de medianoche

If you're a big fan of Sidney Sheldon's The Otherside of Midnight, both the book and the movie version, try avoiding this mini.

Jane Seymour is now starring in the role originally played by Susan Sarandon. Nothing can saved this disastrous sequel from anything. Seymour's overacting is the main reason of this stinker. Her facial expression is all the same all throughout the film. She probably holds the record of starring in so many miniseries but she also holds the record of appearing in so many miniseries stinkers in the history of Nielsen ratings!

Avoid this at all cost!

Catherine Alexander (Jane Seymour) is an amnesiac who is found on a Greecian beach by nuns, taken in by shipping magnate Costas Demiris (Omar Sharif) and given a job in his Amsterdam Hellenic Trade Corporation. Catherine is actually Catherine Douglas, a woman believed to have been murdered by her husband Larry (Peter Cetera) and his mistress Noelle Page. Noelle was also the mistress of Costas, and he blackmailed the trial lawyers so that Larry and Noelle would be executed. Catherine's emergence however causes a threat of exposure to Costas, and he hires Atana (Ari Meyers) to assassinate her. Will he succeed? And will Coastas' wife Melina have her revenge?

Seymour uses her American accent and appears wearing her long brown hair draped in front of her on one side. When being pursued by Larry she gets to run on the beach in the rain, fall into the ocean, is tied to a chair in front of an exploding pressure cooker, and says a memorable `Gawd. I feel so lost' to psychiatrist Alan Hamilton (Stephen Macht) whom she marries.

The teleplay by Paul Wheeler, Richard Hack and Michael Viner, based on the book by Sidney Sheldon, is forgettable pap, with one laugh line Melina says to Costas - `How considerate you are, especially to women half your age', and director Gary Nelson adds nothing noteworthy.

First off it does help to understand the story if you know this is the sequel to: "The Other Side of Midnight", so the characters of Noel, Larry, Demirious, and Cathy all were in TOSOM, one different is while TOSOM (both book and film) takes place before during and after WWII and MOM the book takes place right after TOSOM, MOM the Mini takes place in the modern age.

Poor Jane must have gotten a neck pain having to look up at Ken Howard.

One thing I hated is what Melina did to herself to frame her husband, (For those who haven't seen MOM, I won't say what it was)

Our Greek friend is a first class baddie (Played by Omar Shariff), more so than Raf Vilone who played him in TOSOM.

Paul Sand is first class as the office odd ball.

Jane seymour, omar sharif in another sidney sheldon, larger than life drama. Catherine has been recovering in a convent. But she has amnesia, and doesn't remember anything from the actual accident that caused it! She has horrible nightmares; is someone out to harm her? What has she... or someone else...done? The priest knows. But because of his vows, he cannot tell. Keep an eye out for steve sand. He was the record producer in can't stop the music. Pretty small role in this one. Theodore bikel... always played the russian dissodant. Very small role here. Same for ken howard. The original production was three hours, over two episodes. But now it's reduced to 95 minutes, so clearly, we're missing much of the original story. It's pretty good, although we'll never know what we missed from the three hour film. Not much chemistry between the actors. Directed by gary nelson. Seymour had already been in live and let die, and would go on to much bigger things.

Very good. I am sure the book is better, but this is nevertheless a well made thriller, with nice international implications, almost 'Ludlum-like'. If you do not notice that most of the movie was filmed in Croatia (then Yugoslavia) and that most of the 'Greeks' are actually Yugoslav actors (with their distinctly Slavic accents when speaking English), you will find this to be a rather involving movie, one that provides for some very decent entertainment. For 'connoisseurs' of Greece, this looks very much like the Onassis - Livanos story of the 70's, but then again, this may just be my imagination... The acting is very good throughout, especially the always egregious Omar Sharif (who basically plays himself) and also Jayne Seymour is also quite good (apart from being gorgeous as usual). They don't make them like this any more. Highly recommended.