moonspinner55

Cybill Shepherd does a good job playing a seductive but icy Texas socialite (and sociopath) modeled on real-life Joy Aylor from Dallas, who hired a hit man to kill her husband's lover. Unfortunately, this 3hr ABC-TV movie (4hrs with commercials) has either been poorly-recorded or badly-looped in post-production and, as a result, the tone of Shepherd's voice is all over the place (the effect is often narcotizing, especially at this length). Ken Olin and Gary Grubbs are fine as the hard-working police detectives on the case, which includes many players, low-lifes, lovers, and Mary Kay Place as Cybill's estranged sister (she gives the movie an unexpected boost). Directed by TV veteran Marvin J. Chomsky, who relentlessly pads this narrative to stretch out the seat-numbing running-time. *1/2 from ****

The second-half of director Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers", released to US theaters 11 months prior (infuriating his cast, who were not of the understanding they were making two films). Michael York's d'Artagnan has been welcomed into the fold as a full-fledged Musketeer, but there's no time to celebrate after Count de Rochefort is ordered by the Cardinal to kidnap the Queen's dressmaker--and d'Artagnan's lady-love--in an effort by Cardinal Richelieu to suppress the rebels of La Rochelle. Despite some early slapstick, what was bouncy and lively before has now become rather grim, with an ugly streak running through the last two reels. Faye Dunaway's Milady de Winter is fleshed out more in this installment (she was once a branded criminal!), and yet these characters and this milieu were much more engaging the last time. One Oscar nomination (trumping the film's predecessor!): for Yvonne Blake and Ron Talsky's costumes. ** from ****

Peter Straub's inscrutable book becomes an even more confounding movie, featuring the final film performances of Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas (who passed before its release) and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Four elderly men in a New England town, who congregate weekly to tell ghost stories, find themselves in the center of real ghostly happenings after the son of one of the gentlemen falls to his death from an apartment window (just after seeing something strange happen to a girl in his bed). He later appears to his father in the park, and soon his father is dead as well. Murky tale is big on funerals (which is more depressing than scary). John Irvin directed, and he's a filmmaker who doesn't understand the horror genre. Mercilessly slow, it's truly one "Ghost Story" that never gets off the ground. NO STARS from ****