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I was unaware that this film was based upon a true story so judged it purely on its merits. The subject matter of a beautiful model disfigured by a rejected suitor is pretty unsettling. Somehow the soft focus photography and background muzak never quite work with the subject matter.

Kirk Baltz plays the psychotic stalker well, and his motivation is well observed.However the attack is shown briefly at the start, reprised two thirds of the way through the film and then the courtroom drama becomes the final act. The balancing of this does not work and might better have been told from the courtroom.

Cheryl Pollack makes a decent fist of the title role, but ultimately this is formulaic routine fare that never rises above that standard.

This tv film was very superficial and really didn't tell the story the way it deserves to be told. I first became aware of Marla Hanson's terrible ordeal in the summer of 1986. I was a young private in the United States Army having basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. It is one of the worst places you could imagine to take basic at! While standing guard in the day room one day, I happened to pick up a Newsweek magazine that talked about Marla Hanson's horrible story and how she was so viciously attacked. I hated what those men did to her, they slashed her face so badly that she could have bled to death and it ruined her career as a fashion model. When I was in college, I learned even more about Marla's ordeal. She was attacked again in the courtroom by a lawyer named Alton Maddox. He was under investigation at the time for throwing his briefcase at a judge during another trial. He is an African-American who uses it as an excuse for his clients. Without introducing a scrap of evidence, he charged Marla Hanson with being a hooker and of using men to further her career. Marla said later on she felt like she was being attacked a second time in the courtroom. She spoke out about her ordeal and criticized the judge for allowing it. Judge Jeffrey Atlas blasted her in court and drove her to tears! He was so angry at the way she criticized him! It made me sick to my stomach that this cruel thin skinned man hurt poor Marla the way he did. She was an innocent victim who was put on trial and he did nothing to stop it!!!!I hated what he did to her and I think they should have thrown the son of a bitch off the bench for good and yet he is still a judge today! Even though Marla was not raped, the ordeal she went thru is typical of many rape victims at the hands of callous defense lawyers, they put the victim on trial.

story of Marla Hanson, a beautiful model who is stalked and ends up being knifed by her stalker..she later takes him to court to end her torment...based on a true story..is shocking in the story of stalkers and their victims..released close to the time when actress Rebecca Schaeffer was needlessly murdered by a stalker which helped change the laws not only in California but throughout most of the country and brought the issue out in public 6 of 10

This is a movie to remind you to be careful of your surroundings, and not to trust everyone! If your landlord is harassing you get the hell away from him! The money he owes you, take his ass to court! What you don't do is meet him in a dark alley for payment!

This is a fairly well made docu-drama of the story behind the Marla Hanson knife attack that caught the attention of all New Yorkers including myself. Marla, played by Cheryl Pollak is a girl from the midwest who comes to NY to try to make it in modeling. We watch as she struggles between pounding the pavement following up agency ads and her job as a waitress in the old Grand Central bar/rest.Just as her career appears to be taking off she is brutally attacked by two of New York's ever-present gutter rats at the behest of a psycho Marla had befriended and tried to break loose from.This was a minor media even at the time and proved to be a disadvantage for Marla as you will see in the Trial sequence of the movie. The movie is gripping and well acted and I found myself, as I did when the event happened, sick to my stomach.All decent New Yorkers wish Marla well wherever she is...........I rate this movie a 5 of 5