Le prix de la vérité

The TV promos for "Scandal in a Small Town" lead viewers to think they were going to see Raquel Welch in something sexy with plenty of action (they touted her character as 'the town tease' and showed the sequence where she holds off an unruly mob on her porch with a gun), however the actual plot touches on much more. Welch is indeed a small-town tramp whom nobody has respect for, but she learns to have respect for herself when she stands up against the best-loved teacher at her daughter's school and accuses him of being anti-Semitic. OK, this isn't what the video-box promotes, but if you can get over that, this is a pretty good flick. Raquel's acting is very solid here and the sequence where she takes the stand in court is exceptionally strong. The townspeople call her dirty names, they attack her past, they terrify her daughter, but Welch sticks to her guns. It's a sincere characterization in a well-intentioned movie. Just don't expect any T&A.

This is an unusual venture for Welch, who tackles a thorny issue here, namely the teaching of anti-Semitism as "history." There have been attempts to do this in the past and what is frightening is that some people in real life actually believe this garbage. You know there's something wrong if your kid comes home and tells you stuff such as Jews started all the major world conflicts and that the Jews founded the Communist Party. This movie should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who cares about the truth vs. revisionist history. Anti-Semitism is unfortunately alive and well in America and Welch's character is on a crusade to remind us we need be ever vigilant against it. This movie is superbly done. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

This movie is about the confrontation between a waitress (Raquel Welch) and a high-school history teacher: the waitress is not happy with the teacher instilling antisemitic conspiracy theories into the mind of her daughter (and the minds of her classmates). The final scene is in court, but much of the drama comes from the fact that popular opinion is more favorable to high-school teachers than to waitresses; and, in a small town, it is not good to have popular opinion against you.

It is easy to see that this movie was made for TV. The plot is not too bad, but the acting is less than impressive. Given these limitations, it might seem extravagant to compare this movie to High Noon, but some of the themes are there: a small town, a woman with a reputation for easy morals, and a person who stands for what is right even when everybody else wants to keep it quiet. The fact that it is the woman of easy morals who stands for what is right, is an interesting twist.

However, the main point of interest for me were the classroom scenes. It was fascinating to see how the teacher cajoles the students to look at history the way he sees it (that is, as the unfolding of a vast Jewish conspiracy). What really stuck in my mind was the teacher saying that history is about discovering patterns. In a sense, he was right: without looking for patterns, history is just one fact after another. And yet, we can find any pattern we like in history; that is to say, we can use history to justify any prejudice that we have. This is a dilemma that will keep me thinking, and that is more than I normally expect from a TV movie.

Scandal in a Small Town takes the typical stereotypes of the characters and expands them to human levels. Empathy for the cocktail-waitress single mom only grows as she nutures her relationship with her teenage daughter and single-handedly takes on the entire town and school board over an obviously overlooked major history error and horrible history teacher. This movie sensitively portrays the strife she endures to continue her fight to do the right thing.

When I was browsing through the shelves at my favorite second-hand video store, I came across "Scandal in a Small Town" (1988) starring Raquel Welch. The Vidmark Entertainment box boasted "Uncut/Unrated" version so I sprung the $4.98 plus tax at the cashier and eagerly ran home to feast in some good old-fashioned "T&A." Well, needless to say, this is probably the biggest piece of cr** I've ever slaved through. First off, it must be a made-for-TV movie because if it was rated it would've been "G." Secondly, the description on the back of the box has nothing to do with the movie inside. The concept is simple; the town whore (played by Raquel of course) finds out that the local history teacher is teaching that Jews started all the major world wars and takes the whole school board to court and wins. The problem is that you are left wondering which side is right. So, this 92-minute eyesore is for people who can't think for themselves. We only have ourselves to blame for stepping outside of genre and even giving this one a chance.