A Tattered Web

Finding his son-in-law Steve Butler, Frank Converse, cheating on his daughter Tina, Sallie Shockly, brought the worst out of LAPD Sgt. Ed Stagg, Llyod Bridges. Following his son-in-law at the beach strolling with his secret love Louise Campball, Anne Helm, and later camping outside of Louises apartment in the city Sgt. Stagg give her a call telling her not to have anything to do with him or else.

Back home Steve is everything that Tina could want a loving husband caring and sensitive to her needs with the only exception to a perfect marriage is of him being late most nights when he's together with Louise. Sgt. Stagg for his part has a dark and secret past that goes back to when he was a teenager by having an abusive father who constantly beat him and his mother.

One night when Ed was 15 he tried to stop his father for beating his mom ending up clubbing him to death with a hammer. Shocked at what he did and even more upset that his mom, who he thought he was helping, threw a fit at him which caused Ed to run away from home. Ed's mom never reported what he did to the police and his father death was ruled an unsolved murder.

Even his married life was a disaster for Ed Stagg with his wife leaving him and his, at the time, ten year daughter Tina. It was after that that Sgt. Stagg took it upon himself to see that Tina would never go through what he did as a son and husband. When his threats to Louise didn't have any effect to have her split up with Steve Sgt. Stagg showed up at her apartment, just after Steve left. Sgt. Stagg trying to get her to break up with Steve knocked Louise against the wall that ended up killing her.

In a state of shock Sgt. Stagg realizing what he did tries to hide all the evidence that would connect him with Louises death but unknowingly leaves a glass that he used to revive the dying Louise on the coffee table in full view of the police who later came to investigate her death. Sgt. Stagg is so well thought off by his fellow colleagues at the LAPD that his friend Sgt. Marcus, Murray Hamilton,who's on the Louise Campball case assumed that he accidentally touched the glass leaving his fingerprints on it not realizing that it in fact was Sgt. Stagg who killed her.

It was bad enough that Sgt. Stagg killed Louise and covered it up but he later goes one step down the road to destruction when in an effort to tie up all the loose ends together on Louises death he tries to frame a poor homeless derelict Willard Edson, Broderick Crawford, who had confessed to killing his friend in a drunken rage to also confess to killing Louise.

Llyod Bidges as the tortured soul Sgt. Ed Stagg is at his best with an in-dept performance of a man truly at the end of his rope with his life falling apart because of his misguided actions to save his daughter marriage. Holding back his true feelings about Steve and what he did to break up his affair with Louise drives poor Sgt. Stagg to the brink of insanity and suicide.

Frank Converse as the cheating husband Steve Butler showed that he was indeed a decent man and good husband when he tried to brake up with Louise, not knowing that she was dead. When he found out that Willard Edson, who Steve knew was innocent, was arrested for her death Steve went out of his way to save him from a trip to the gas chamber. Steve was more then ready to do that even if his secret life, with Louise, is uncovered to Tina by doing it.

Then there's Murray Hamilton as Sgt. Marcus who's the big surprise in the movie as the troubled and hard nosed cop and best friend of Sgt.Stagg. Sgt. Marcus is forced to accept the fact that his best friend and fellow LAPD officer is no better then the criminals that he deals with every day and night on the mean streets of L.A.

Tattered Web, A (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Silly but entertaining made-for-TV thriller has Lloyd Bridges playing Sgt. Ed Stagg. He learns that his son-in-law (Frank Converse) has been having an affair so he goes to the woman to make her put an end to the affair. Stagg accidentally kills her so he must protect himself but also try to keep the police from finding out who her boyfriend was. I've come to expect a certain amount of silliness when it comes to these made-for-TV flicks from the 70s. It really doesn't matter what they're about but the majority of them are entertaining but also very campy. That's pretty much the case here as we get a pretty good story but it's mixed in with some very dumb moments. One of the biggest killers of this type of film are how over dramatic they can be and this here usually happens right before we go to commercial as the music blares and we get a silly zoom shot towards the guilty person. We get quite a bit of that here but we also get some very silly moments including the scenes at the start when Bridges busts into the woman's house and just keeps insulting her and calling her a tramp. I couldn't help but laugh at this as well as some of the more sillier moments including a priceless sequence where Bridges is trying to protect his daughter yet he never realizes that he's just putting a burden on her. The entire "protecting the daughter" is driven into the ground here as we get countless dialogue scenes with Bridges expressing his love for his daughter, which is fine but at times they are way too cute and over the top. With that said, the story itself is a pretty interesting one and I thought it was also rather clever as we had Bridges trying to do two things at once. I think it goes against his character that he'd do so many wrong things to try and clear everything up. As for the actor, he's great fun to watch here as he really gives it his all and keeps the film moving from start to finish. We also get a great supporting cast that includes Murray Hamilton, Broderick Crawford, Val Avery, Whit Bissell, John Fielder and Anne Helm as the other woman. The daughter in the film has to be one of the dumbest characters in the history of film as you'd think you were watching a 2-year-old. She can never figure things out and is constantly coming off either stupid or just downright ignorant and one can't help but grow frustrated with her. If you're a fan of the genre then this here is pretty much a must-see.

A police sergeant in California, still grieving over the loss of his wife years before, follows his untrustworthy son-in-law to a woman's apartment and rightly suspects the two of having an affair; not wanting his incredibly naïve daughter to be hurt, the cop takes matters into his own hands--with tragic results. TV-made melodrama with a good set-up diffused by meandering, awkward results. There's nobody here to sympathize with: not the tortured sergeant (Lloyd Bridges, getting upstaged by his thick crop of hair), nor his randy in-law, the apathetic tramp, the clinging daughter...not even the detective's partner on the police force (who seemingly can't wait to bring his friend down!). There's a clever bit involving a thumb-print on a drinking glass, and Broderick Crawford does excellent work as a drunkard wrongly implicated in a crime. However, the remainder of the second-string cast is lackluster (though Bridges does try hard) and Paul Wendkos' direction is balky.

The adage implies the reverse, or that crime cost or must be repaid. "A Tattered Web" is a good film with a message, and some good acting Lloyd Bridges as Police Sgt. Ed Stagg, Frank Converse as his son-in-law and fellow police officer, Steve Butler, are particularly good. And Murray Hamilton as Sgt. Joe Marcus, Ed's partner, is quite good.

The movie involves an accidental killing, adultery, an effort by Stagg to cover up the real truth and his role, a very dysfunctional past family life, and a dark past killing that was never reported but still weighs on Stagg's mind. Will justice be served in the end, and if so, how?

A subtle message of this film, that may not be so apparent with the specific case and situations, is the old adage that "crime doesn't pay." But more specifically, as this plot bears out is that no one can avoid a slippery slope when living lies.

Sgt. Ed Stagg (Lloyd Bridges) is a tough cop who has a son-in-law who is cheating on his wife (the sergeant's daughter). When Stagg finds out about it, he goes to see the mistress to scare her into abandoning the man. But things get out of hand and soon Ed knocks the lady across the room...and she dies.

When the body is discovered, Ed and his partner are the detectives called to investigate. Now it's not surprising that Ed would protect himself from being a suspect, but oddly he also shields his son-in-law, as although he hates the guy he doesn't want to see his daughter hurt. But there's a problem...witnesses have seen the son-in-law with the dead woman and he's a prime suspect. So, Ed has to find someone to pin this murder on in order to make the case go away. It all seems too easy...but it isn't.

I generally liked this movie as well as the creepy close relationship between Ed and his daughter. However, all this good is undone a bit at the end, as the ending is poorly handled and even a bit silly. Not a bad made for TV movie....but the ending left me feeling disappointed.