Dors ma jolie

"While My Pretty One Sleeps" is a 1997 film based on the book of the same name by Mary Higgins Clark. Unlike the other reviewer on this site, I had a hard time believing it was made in 1997 because I thought Connie Sellecca looked pretty much the same - drop dead gorgeous. I was certainly not put off by what her age was supposed to be, nor did I think that she and her father looked the same age.

Anyway, produced by Grosso-Jacobsen, who always use that same Psycho-type music, this is a pretty good mystery, but because I read the book, I didn't have the surprise element perhaps others will have. Sellecca plays Neeve Kearny, whose father (Beau Starr) put away a mobster 20 years earlier. The mobster, Nick Sepetti (Frank Pellegrino), as he's leaving the courtroom vaguely threatens Kearney's wife and daughter. Later, his wife is murdered while jogging in the park. Kearny goes to Nick's parole hearing every time he comes up and makes sure he stays in for 20 years. The day he's released, Kearney, now retired, gets a call threatening his daughter, now a successful designer.

It turns out there are more suspects, as Neeve is helping to bring down a designer who has his clothes made in sweat shops. She's working with a journalist (Patricia Gage) and a TV reporter (the late Simon McCorkindale). When there's another murder, that shakes things up.

It's a good story, given the old Grosso-Jacobson touch with one of their regular directors, Jorge Montesi. There were a couple of things that didn't make sense, that were done strictly for convenience; one was the McCorkindale character not insisting on walking his date to the door of her apartment building, cold or not; another is Sellecca jogging alone in Central Park after what happened to her mother - not sure I'd be repeating that.

Sellecca and McCorkindale are good, as are a few others, notably Richard Monette, the head of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, who played Uncle Sal. Some, like Ethel's ex-husband and his new wife, were dreadful.

Enjoyable. Check out the fashion show in the film - could they spare it.

I've warched more than 26 Mary Higgins Clark movies and TV movies over the past 35+ years and this is definitely one of the best. Connie Sellecca looked never more beautiful, Stewart Bick had a fascinating role and this was the first time I ever watched Beau Starr who played Sellecca's father. Never heard of him before. It's lovely to see Mary Higgins Clark in a cameo at the party. Her daughter Carol Higgins Clark (A Cry in the Night) played the angry wife of Shamus.

While the movie has the same sense of mystery and intrigue surrounding the Mary Higgins Clark book that it's based on, the viewer sort of gets lost in the fact that they're watching a 40-something Connie Selleca try to play the role of a 25-yr-old. It's almost laughable that Beau Starr, who plays her father, looks about the same age. This movie is another great example of a fantastic book becoming a fantastic movie. Mystery fans will not be disappointed -- there's enough intrigue in this movie to keep you asking..."What happened? What's GOING to happen?" If it hadn't been for the miscasting (Simon McCorkindale and Connie Selleca are fine actors, but shouldn't be playing roles of people in their mid-twenties and early thirties), this movie would easily be a nine. Even with that though, the movie rates a solid seven as a good watch, and the beautiful scenery bumps the movie up to a nine. A must see for any Mary Higgins Clark fan!