Giovani bruciati

98 I was a freshman in college when the Pamela Smart trial was all the rage on television, radio, newspapers, etc. I followed the proceedings with great interest, and when the TV film "Murder In New Hampshire" premiered on CBS, I watched with anticipation. I wanted to know what drove this young woman to be so treacherous. For those of you not familiar with this true story, 23 year-old Pamela (Wojas) Smart married her college sweetheart, Greg Smart. They resided in Derry, New Hampshire. Pam's and Greg's parents lived nearby. Exactly one year after Pam and Greg were married, Greg was found dead in the couple's home. He was sprawled out on the carpet, having been brutally shot to death. Pam gets her just desserts as this bizarre (but true)story ends.

What followed was a sad saga. Pamela Smart, who came from a wealthy family and was always popular, arranged the murder of her husband Greg by hiring four teenage boys to proceed with the murder plot. Billy Flynn was 15 years old and was a student at Winnacunnet High School, where Pam was employed as "media director." Pam encouraged Billy, along with teens Raymond Fowler, JR Lattime, and Patrick "Pete" Randall, to murder Greg. Another student, Cecelia Pierce, 15, worked at Pam's office for school credit and knew all about the murder plot but was skeptical because Pam would just matter-of-factly fill her in on the details as if it was one big joke.

she does quite well in this made for TV film. She certainly provides the audience with the personality of a hate-worthy narcissist, who, once she cannot get her way, and rise to stardom on TV news, decides the way to solve her career problem is to have her husband executed.

Pamela Smart apparently was able to manipulate a student, Billy (well portrayed by a young Chad Allen). She worked as media director at a high school, but that was not good enough for her lofty aspirations, so she manipulated Billy and his friend to murder Greg Smart, promising them insurance money as pay-off. (There was no money). There is actually an amusing scene after her husband has been murdered, and Pamela Smart is worried about how she will look on the 6PM news.

Hank Stratton as Gregory Smart is a bit too innocent, but we do feel sorry for his fate. Seems an odd question, but did Pam Smart ever hear of divorce?.

Howard Hesseman is not in the film long enough, but offers a good performance, and the courtroom scenes are thankfully left to a minimum. Michael Learned and Ken as Greg's well-meaning parents.

Overall a decent docudrama which has probably been elevated to cult status by now, as Pamela Smart in real life is now petitioning for yet another appeal. 7/10.

While it is an older produced movie, I believe it does clearly portrait the truth of Pamela Smart and the young children involved. Obviously, because of its production period, it's not the best. Putting all of that aside, the portrayal by Helen Hunt did an excellent performance and the other casting did well too. I would have liked to see more of the actual trial in the movie, that always adds to the authenticity. It did do a great performance of Pamela Smarts personality and deviance. Overall, I would recommend this film to anyone interested in what actually happened prior to her husband murder.

The movie was a typical TV movie of the week. The actors did well with the script they had to work with but they really didn't have much to work with. I wouldn't rate the movie as high as I do if Chad Allen didn't look so cute in it. All in all I'd say it was a pretty average to slightly above average made for TV movie.

I enjoyed this movie and even bought it for my collection. Remember Billy was only fifteen years old and was experiencing his first sexual encounter. He was, understandably, easily manipulated by an "older" woman.

While I liked Helen Hunt's portrayal of Pam Smart, I still do not understand what was her reason for getting rid of her husband. According to the movie, Greg wasn't cruel or abusive to her, he seemed to love her very much, they lived in a lovely condo, and was supportive of her career decisions. His parents also seemed to love Pam like a daughter. Pam was crazy about Greg when he was a Van Halen look-alike but when he cut his hair and started to dress corporate (to work for an insurance company)did her feelings for him start to change then? She was very into heavy-metal but was she afraid that her "rocker" husband was transforming into Mr. Yuppie America?

I went ahead and bought a paperback about this case and hope to find out what has driven Pam to this extreme.