Manipulation meurtrière

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 ****

It was watchable, but Cybil Shepherd showed here that she really can't act. Every line she spoke sounded wooden and unconvincing, without an ounce of real feeling in it. It took me a while to realise all the guys were falling in love with her, because it seemed so unbelievable as she didn't have a personality.

The other actors were far better and saved it and the plot was quite enjoyable, just a bit too long. Kicked myself afterwards for wasting over two and a half hours on something that neither inspired nor informed.

I very much doubt it was a true story. It's a common ploy for fictional films to have a bit of text at the end saying what happened to the characters. On this occasion, I forgot to check if it was followed by the disclaimer about "not resembling anyone in real life".

OMG,this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen! The story line this movie is loosely based on is interesting, but the lead detective working this case is one of the most LAZY,UNINQUISITIVE and UNIMAGINATIVE detectives I've ever seen. He's not a rookie investigator. From the beginning of the murder investigation, major clues were overlooked. VERY SLOPPY AND INEPT detective work.This story seemed to drag on indefinitely...

This is the best I have seen of Cybil Shepherd on screen, aside from several episodes of "Cybil" the television show. I haven't seen her in any plays. Her delivery works in this movie, and look in her eyes became quite frightening at times.

This is the 3rd or 4th time I have seen "Telling Secrets" over the years. With digital cable and a large screen this last viewing was the best. All of the casting, including the minor characters, was quite good. I especially liked the interplay between the two detectives, Ken Olin and Gary Grubbs.

I am not particularly "into" television movies, but was interested to see that this was directed by Marvin Chomsky who also directed "The Deliberate Stranger" with Mark Harmon, bringing excellent performances out of that cast as well.

If you understand this is true and a woman was murdered ... and the woman who hired the killer was free for years..... you might look at it differently.