Within the past year, I have found and viewed two rare Lana Turner films from late in her film career: "Persecution" and "Witch's Brew", with a desire to search out this obscure film that in spite of an impressive cast of veterans is as much as of a disappointment as the other two. It concerns the secret that Meredith Baxter's mother (Lana) has kept for 19 years and must reveal when she discovers that her daughter has married the son of the man she had an affair with. That means that Robert Lansing, father of Baxter's husband, Scott Hyland, is not only Meredith's father-in-law but her father! This gives Lana and Lansing some juicy material to play and Baxter some very emotional scenes (as her character is pregnant), but it's pretty much a waste of time for Robert Alda as Turner's husband and Celeste Holm as Lansing's wife.
On the surface, this seems like something that would be made for lifetime television in the 1990's, but it has elements of the woman's picture from the 1930's and 40's with a twist that would not have been allowed at the time. unfortunately, the script is filled with talk and very little action and after the meaty scenes are all over, that's really no genuine solution. That being said, this is a genuinely boring film that has little sparkle and only curiosity value. Baxter gets acting honors for this one with Turner basically playing the same role that she had been doing since the 1950's. Sad to say, there isn't even a scene with Turner and Holm, two actresses who went on with great publicity to "Falcon Crest" years later and ended up having bittersweet experiences there.
On the surface, this seems like something that would be made for lifetime television in the 1990's, but it has elements of the woman's picture from the 1930's and 40's with a twist that would not have been allowed at the time. unfortunately, the script is filled with talk and very little action and after the meaty scenes are all over, that's really no genuine solution. That being said, this is a genuinely boring film that has little sparkle and only curiosity value. Baxter gets acting honors for this one with Turner basically playing the same role that she had been doing since the 1950's. Sad to say, there isn't even a scene with Turner and Holm, two actresses who went on with great publicity to "Falcon Crest" years later and ended up having bittersweet experiences there.