(Some Spoilers) True story of the shooting of Texas favorite son Marion Price Daniel Jr., Chris Cooper, on the evening of January 19, 1981 by his wife Vickie, Susan Day, and the trial that followed that traumatic event.
Price being of the bluest of Texas blue-bloods who's father Price Daniel Sr. was the Governor of Texas from 1957 to 1963 and who's great-great-great-grandfather, on his mothers side, was non other then the founder of the Texas Republic Sam Huston had everything going for him but choose to marry the local ice-cream girl at the Dairy Cool in Liberty Vickie Moore. Vickie who was married at the time caught Price's eye who for some strange reason he became infatuated with.
At first everything was just wonderful for the newlywed couple with Vickie raising a family and Price being a lawyer until that one fateful afternoon when Vickie going shopping in town sees Price running for office on the TV news. The pressure of politics and family life starts to tear the Daniels apart with Price getting constantly drunk and later even taking to smoking pot. When Price's bid for getting elected Attorny general of Texas fails he begins to become abusive not only to Vickie but their children as well.
Price also starts to cheat on Vickie but not with any women but his live-in manservant Jimmy, Derck Wiliams,who he spends more time with, and buys more gifts for, then he ever did for Vickie and the kids even in better times. Prices actions get more and more bazaar and his drinking and pot smoking get so out of hand that Vickie wants a divorce from him and also have custody of the children since he's in no condition to care for them, much less himself. All this tension and violence eventually leads to the horrible night of January 19, 1981 the very last day of Marion Price Daniels life.
The trial of Vickie Moore Daniel is more or less anticlimactic since after the shooting of her husband all that mattered to her was who will care for the children if she was convicted of her husbands murder and put behind bars. Vickies lawyer Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, Fred Dalton Thompson, almost stole the acting honors with his controlled as well as folksy defense of her actions and the conclusion of the movie came as no surprise at all to those of us watching it. It was also the chemistry between Susan Day and Chris Cooper as the famous and troubled couple, the Daniels, that made the movie "Bed of Lies" far better then you would have expected from a made for TV-type film.
