Loves Music, Loves to Dance

Missed reading this Mary Higgins Clark book and decided to view the TV film and was very disappointed with the entire film from beginning to end. Patsy Kensit,(Darcy Scott) gave a great performance in trying to locate her very close friend who all of a sudden went missing. However, this close friend was doing an assignment for Darcy's TV program which involved going out with guys she connected with on the Internet. You see the apparent murderer dancing around his apartment with a gal who is limp in his arms and having a mixed pair of shoes on her feet. This was a very poorly produced film and you will almost know immediately who the killer is going to turn out to be. I am sure reading the book would have been a better choice.

I have read most of Mary Higgins Clark's books and can't help but be interested in seeing how they are adapted to television. Loves Music, Loves To Dance was one of her weaker novels, and it results in a TV movie that is amongst one of the worst I have seen.

The plot involves the murder of Darcy's best friend while doing a report on on-line dating. In order to solve the mystery, Darcy decides to also date each one of her friend's on-line pals to see which one of them might have something to do with the death. Sounds safe, huh? Darcy must be one of the most incompetent, air-headed heroines to ever grace a made-for-TV mystery. Some of her behaviours during the film's climax are so empty-headed and irrational your mouth will likely hang open in disbelief. And the method by which the killer's identity is discovered is also hard to fathom. A serial killer who has gotten away with murder for seven years would slip up like that? Well, obviously, because it's the only way our clueless heroine could discover the truth.

Production values are also low, resulting in a movie that looks like it was made sometime in the mid 1980s. But as bad as this movie was, I somehow get the feeling I'll be watching further made-for-TV Mary Higgins Clark mysteries.

I have read with great enjoyment all of Mary Higgins Clark's novels, but when it comes to this movie (I use this term lightly), don't waste your time! The script was horrible and the acting (I use that term very lightly) even worse. My husband and I could not stop laughing and that was the only reason we did not turn it off after the first 3 minutes.

"Loves Music, Loves to Dance" is another Sonny Grosso-produced TV movie based on a Mary Higgins Clark novel. This film was made in 2001 and has some familiar Canadian actors - Cynthia Preston, Dean McDermott and Alan Hall, to name three, and stars Patsy Kensit.

Kensit is Darcy Scott, the producer of a trash-talk TV show, whose friend Erin (Preston) is doing a story for her on Internet dating. When she is murdered, Darcy is convinced the murder is committed by one of the men she dated and sets out to find the killer.

These Clark TV movies are like accidents - you can't help but look. I watch all of them, even though they're not very good. This one, while full of holes (especially the first scene when a woman is murdered a few feet away from a big party and didn't scream her guts out), moves a little faster than some of the past adaptations. Kensit does a good job, and Preston, who played Faith Roscoe on General Hospital, is lively. Justin Louis plays the police detective assigned to the case.

Mary Higgins Clark's agent, I'm assuming, could have sold these books to anyone. Why the Grosso-Jacobsen group was chosen is beyond me.

Darcy Scott ( Patsy Kensit ) works as a producer of a daytime reality show. As such, she sometimes clashes on story ideas with the Diva lady who hosts. Nevertheless, one idea pleases them both. Darcy's best friend Erin goes on multiple dates with beaux she meets on a dating website and then tells all. Unhappily, on date 7 Erin never comes back home. She has been murdered and her body dumped in a dead end alley. What is startling is her shoes when found. One foot has a snug boot and the other, a dancing shoe. Research shows this was a matching method to another beautiful lady killed seven years ago. Was it the same killer or a copycat? The police start investigating but won't listen when she tells them it was one of the Internet dates. So, Darcy, having Erin's file, decides to go meet all the same men and nab the killer herself. BAD IDEA. Clark is one of my favorite authors and this title one of her best. If you love thrillers, go find the book. However, this adaptation is not awful and has some good moments. Kensit looks beautiful and performs well in the leading role. The story has been truncated while still retaining the most vital elements. By all means, view it if you love mysteries or the incomparable MHC!