Sous la menace d'un père

in this portrayal of Leonard Fagot, a true story about a wartime veteran, who was controlling and manipulative with his family. This is a sad and intriguing story about a man descending further and further into insurance fraud and murder, presumably to "keep up appearances" financially.

Urich is excellent, because he always manages to portray a tortured, yet sympathetic character. Gwyneth Paltrow is one of the favorite daughters, who will do anything, almost anything for her Dad. She is also very good, and projects a realistic character. Shelley Fabares is the long-suffering wife, who has been cheated on, emotionally and possibly physically abused by her husband. After a certain point, she realizes what Leonard Fagot has been doing after acquiring insurance policies, then carrying out murder. When she threatens him, he informs her that he also has a policy on her.

Matthew Perry has a small part as a son-in-law who also comes to unfortunate ends. It may be interesting if they filmed a sequel to this story, many people are intrigued by it, as it was a true story. All in all, you will enjoy this film. 8/10

I walked in while this was playing on tv but managed to catch most or all of it. The plot involves an overcontrolling father obsessed with running the lives of his daughters as well as his wife who eventually begins murdering people to keep that control. This movie was actually interesting and REALLY well acted. What's interesting to see is this movie stars Gwenyth Paltrow as one of the daughters and she is VERY GOOD in it-this was a made for tv movie made in Paltrow's early days I guess. I had never heard of it until I saw it on tv. EVERYONE is good in it, the actor who plays the dad is wonderful and the movie is very sad. I'd recomend it. Even back then you can see how talented Platrow is.

This was the first and only movie I had ever worked on as an extra, which is why I had to watch it. As a "newbie" I was unaware that extras weren't supposed to talk to the "Talent". I couldn't help it, and because the director asked me to do some stand-in work for setting up shots when Mr. Urich wasn't on set, I got to hang around and gab with Shelly Fabres and catch a little more of what goes into making a movie...It must've been 90*and felt like 100, in Atlanta that summer. It was overwhelming to watch how hard everyone worked on their trade, the seriousness and intensity, something very few outsiders get to experience. The movie review doesn't do the film justice as it is filled with unbelievable surprises and twists and was based on a true story about a very "sick" guy in Louisiana...Worth watching again!!!

I haven't seen the movie, but decided to research it after spending the day and talking about it with my grandmother, Barbara Fagot Mathews. So whoever did "research" to find out if it is a true story... here's the newspaper article: http://www.geocities.com/murder_stories3/carol_donahue1.html

By the way, he was my grandmother's first cousin. She knew him very well as a child, but after a serious fight between Leonard his once inseparable cousin (her brother, my great uncle), they stopped talking to that side of the family.

Apparently I have to have 10 lines to comment, so now I will babble. Was the movie any good? Maybe I'll try to get a copy of it.

I, too, just happened upon this movie by being too lazy to change the channel. It ended up to be quite a good movie. It was a little different for me to see Robert Urich as a "bad guy". One of the things that actually stuck out for me was the house the family lived in. It looked like something Frank Lloyd Wright would have built, and I actually did try to find out where the house was (no luck). I also thought Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent, as was Robert Urich. I pretty much like Urich in most anything. I was a little disappointed that Shelley Fabares didn't have more screen time; I really like her. If you like suspense (as opposed to thrills), you will definitely like this movie.