En quête de justice

I say this because(for a long variety of reasons) I do not often care for TV movies, or take them very seriously. I'm not saying that this was a huge exception to the rule, but I suppose there have been worse.

Patsy Duke, Martin Sheen and Jason London are the loving Brown family, who live happily in the South until son Christopher(London)joins the army. It is there that he meets Dusty(Alexandra Powers)and they fall in love and get married, even though Ma and Pa Brown know that Dusty is bad news. And she does turn out to be. Money-hungry and selfish, Dusty ends up creepily killing Christopher for his money. She pretends she played no part in it, even though Ma Brown knows the truth(how? She just knows), and because of that, she gets money and full custody of Chris's and her daughter, Christine. Ma and Pa Brown are furious. They don't care about the money, but they know that if Christine is left alone with Dusty than she won't be properly cared for. Thus begins their brave struggle to capture Dusty, who goes on the lam after Ma and Pa try to fight her, and let their granddaughter have a little love from them.

The story is pretty stereotypical, complete with court room scenes, femme fatals and the whole bit, and Mrs. Duke and Mr. Sheen's Southern accents are well, grating, but the script is fairly entertaining, and in the course of seeing this twice, I was intrigued the first time(I was also 11 or something)and simply more entertained the second time. At least it has staying power.

I just finished watching this movie on Lifetime. I must have seen it 15 or 20 times, but it is truly one of those movies that seems to get better each time. Patty Duke, and the program itself, were not only robbed of Emmys, but also of nominations. It is an ongoing injustice with the TV Academy. A miracle of some sorts was made with this movie. It was produced in the middle of the true crime tv-movie phase, where one movie looked like another, but this one stands apart on its own.

If you are a fan of Ms. Duke's or of real gutsy characters, check this one out!

shine in this film, which is a disturbing account of a young serviceman, murdered for profit. His young wife ("Dusty"), well-portrayed by Alexandra Powers, may have been the culprit. She has a baby too young (Duke's grandchild) and decides that she is tired of being an army wife, and becomes a prostitute in Honolulu.

When Duke's son is murdered, she suspects the worst. After protracted legal problems, Duke eventually wins a minor victory, seeking justice for her son's murder. Apparently as a resident of Alabama, she only has influence due to the fact that she is in a small town, and must hound and harass the district attorney. Charles Dutton, Jr. is also very good as the detective who tracks Dusty and the grandchild, discovering they are living in squalor in Oklahoma, collecting money from the murdered husband's army pension.

Patty Duke is amazing, because she always transcends material, engaging the audience. While this film was based on a true story, a few liberties were taken, but you will still be interested in the outcome. 8/10.

Self defense my foot. There is no way you can call it self defense when someone is stabbed 26 times. This is a sad, yet increasingly typical situation in the military. Chris Brown is not the only troop to be murdered by his spouse, who married him because she was looking for a meal ticket. Great acting, suspense filled story. However, I wish this was a story that never had to be told, but unfortunately, it happens again and again and again. There are countless stories like this out there. Not all of them have ended in murder, but many of them have ended in bitter child custody battles, and some of them have ended in murder. The military life is hard enough as it is without all these women out there looking for meal tickets.

Patty Duke plays an amazing character who will stop at nothing to see her son's murderer brought to justice and to gain custody of her grandchild.

Duke does the role complete justice. No matter what gets in the mother's way, she is not stymied. Her eye never veers from the ultimate goal, and she keeps at it until she wins, channeling the anger over her son's death into positive action. You truly root for her all the way.

Patty Duke has made so many TV movies that it's sometimes difficult to sort them out. But her work is always outstanding and usually, so are the films. I sometimes wonder if that's because of her or if the stories are really that good - I think it's a combination. She has excellent taste in roles.

One of the reviews mentioned that she was robbed of another Emmy. In my opinion, she has been robbed of many. She is always worth watching.