Honor Thy Mother (TV 1992)

Lieth Von Stein and his wife, Bonnie Von Stein are attacked while sleeping in their Smallwood home in North Carolina. Bonnie Von Stein survived. Lieth was not so lucky. Bonnie has trouble ... See full summary »

Director:

David Greene

Writers:

Jerry Bledsoe (book), Richard DeLong Adams (teleplay),

Stars:

Sharon Gless, William McNamara, Paul Scherrer

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sharon Gless	...	Bonnie Von Stein
William McNamara	...	Chris
Paul Scherrer	...	Neal
Christian Hoff	...	Moog
Jonathan Ward	...	Brew
Suzanne Ventulett	...	Angela
Dion Anderson	...	Agent Reed
Lee Garlington
Matthew Faison
Gary Grubbs
Wayne Tippit
Will Nye
Jack Rader
Ryan Reid
Brian Wimmer	...	Det. Murphy

Storyline

Lieth Von Stein and his wife, Bonnie Von Stein are attacked while sleeping in their Smallwood home in North Carolina. Bonnie Von Stein survived. Lieth was not so lucky. Bonnie has trouble dealing with the fact that her own son, Christopher Pritchard, along with two friends consipired to have her and her husband killed. Neal Henderson and Christopher Pritchard plead guilty and testified at the trial of James Upchurch, who was convicted and sentenced to die. Several years later, however, his sentence was vacated and Upchurch is now serving a life sentence.

---

Plot Keywords:

based on book

---

Genres:

Thriller

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 April 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Das vierte Gebot

Company Credits

Production Co:

MCA Television, Point of View Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Cruel Doubt (1992)

User Reviews

good for those with a hate-on against Dungeons & Dragons, otherwise not

Since 1980, Christian fundamentalists and big media developed a hate-on for fans of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and despite obvious fraud in claims that the game caused mental dissociation, suicides, murders or Satanism, the big media wanted to smear the hobby as much as possible. In 1988, they got their chance in the true story of the murder of Lieth von Stein by his stepson, who apparently hired the help of two of his friends in Washington, North Carolina. True crime author Joe McGinniss produced a piece of hack-work called CRUEL DOUBT based on this incident, which NBC made into a four-hour miniseries in 1992, but CBS beat them to the punch by airing "Honor Thy Mother" a few months earlier, based on the book BLOOD GAMES by Jerry Bledsoe. So desperate were the producers to link this real murder to the Dungeons & Dragons-playing of the three friends, they even made up a fake mock-up of the AD&D Player's Handbook (a book which had however sold over a million copies) with puffy clouds on it, nothing at all like a real D&D product. Actors played police "investigating" the game, and even claimed there was a rule in the game, which the murderer imitated, where people who committed "multiple hits" against the enemy got "extra points", which millions of fans know is not true either. All in all, a sad piece of so-so crime and detective drama with an added layer of agitprop bigotry against the fans of role-playing games, making viewers think a game and not mundane greed was responsible for the slaying. Its only merit lies in how CBS upstaged NBC, but with less famous actors and rushed production values.