Morte sul Rio Grande

This is a standard fare woman in peril in the rockies TVM directed by Robert Iscove. Victoria Principal stars as the woman who goes on a rafting trip with her boyfriend, but who ends up alone after a drug deal goes askew. The cocaine lord of the Rio Grande poetry reciting nutso played by Peter Onorati is one of those John Milius-type he-men with a gym sculptured chest with Michelangelo's Creation of Adam tattooed across it. Principal being established as weak at the begininng, as a divorcee, and wearing no makeup, somehow feeds into the mysogynistic sadomasochistic hunting of one woman by three men in the wilderness, but providing her with a stepson, who has abandoned his own mother in favour of Principal also premeditates the happy ending. If that doesn't, Onorati's posed performance should, though that doesn't spare us the resurrection scare. Whilst this kind of role isn't going to win Principal any acting awards, her despair is convincing enough, she has more tube empathy than the bad guys, and being out in the sun and elements this much is a cute endorsement for her brand of skin care creams.