Sous la menace d'un père

I came upon this movie as I was channel-surfing on a Sunday afternoon (a bad day for television, even with digital cable).

Lifetime was showing it and when I saw the cast, I decided to watch.

The late Robert Urich did a marvelous job in the TV movie "Blind Faith" as Robert Marshall, the NJ insurance man who had his wife, Maria, murdered in 1984, and is now serving life in prison.

He did not disappoint in this movie as a control freak of a father who went so far as to kill his two sons-in-law for insurance money (and to blow off his own right hand for the same reason).

A truly scary guy.

A young Gwyneth Paltrow (one of my favorite actresses) did an equally terrific job as Carol Fagot Holland, the daughter who was loyal to her father at first but , in the end, helped to bring him down.

Roxanne Zal also does a good job playing Urich's psychotic second wife, Marty.

Shelley Fabrares does not get enough air time in this move, but makes good use when she is on screen.

Good scenery , fine acting.

Nice way to kill two hours on a Sunday afternoon.

I'd recommend it.

I, too, just happened upon this movie by being too lazy to change the channel. It ended up to be quite a good movie. It was a little different for me to see Robert Urich as a "bad guy". One of the things that actually stuck out for me was the house the family lived in. It looked like something Frank Lloyd Wright would have built, and I actually did try to find out where the house was (no luck). I also thought Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent, as was Robert Urich. I pretty much like Urich in most anything. I was a little disappointed that Shelley Fabares didn't have more screen time; I really like her. If you like suspense (as opposed to thrills), you will definitely like this movie.

I haven't seen the movie, but decided to research it after spending the day and talking about it with my grandmother, Barbara Fagot Mathews. So whoever did "research" to find out if it is a true story... here's the newspaper article: http://www.geocities.com/murder_stories3/carol_donahue1.html

By the way, he was my grandmother's first cousin. She knew him very well as a child, but after a serious fight between Leonard his once inseparable cousin (her brother, my great uncle), they stopped talking to that side of the family.

Apparently I have to have 10 lines to comment, so now I will babble. Was the movie any good? Maybe I'll try to get a copy of it.

What some people may not realize that, while this was a great TV movie, it was also a true story. My family lived next door to LJ Fagot before he made his insurance money and my father once worked as their gardener and was friends with Carol. My father and his siblings were also babysat by Joanne.

I was impressed to see the acting cast and thought they did a wonderful job. Urich's portrayal of LJ Fagot was great and very close to how dictatorial Fagot was in real life. Gwyneth Paltrow and Matthew Perry were virtually unknown when filming this movie, yet still demonstrated superb acting abilities.

The house where this all took place still stands, at least it did before Katrina, and is still inhabited. It looks nothing like the house in the movie but is still beautiful in the way only New Orleans houses are.

I will continue to show this movie to my children as it is apart of our family history, as well as that of the Fagot family.

I was so glad when I logged onto and set up an account on this site. Just to see the first review about the home the Fagots lived in. It looked just like a Frank Lloyd Wright home but would be unusual to be in Louisiana. I wish I could have seen the home before it was demolished. Maybe I could find the new home built on the same site. Wonder who designed it?

Also since I live in Atlanta I did not recognize any of the scenery. Hard to swallow Robert Ulrich playing such a bad guy, although he did it well. How could such a successful father of 4 be so self destructive? He had so much going for him and life could have continued to be so wonderful.

Enjoying another LMN flick for a lazy Monday afternoon.