Shadow of a Stranger (1992) (TV)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Richard Friedman

Writer (WGA):

Richard Friedman (written by)

Release Date:

7 December 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Plot:

Ted and Sarah Clinton notice a boat being violently hurled around by a storm just off their beach-house and go out to help the occupants...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Beautiful Woman | Husband Wife Relationship

Cast

Emma Samms	...	Sarah Clinton
Parker Stevenson	...	Ted Clinton
Michael Easton	...	Shawn
John Pyper-Ferguson	...	Robert Logan
Joan Chen	...	Vanessa
Deryl Hayes	...	Gus
Colleen Winton	...	Karen
Stephen E. Miller	...	Coroner
Anthony Harrison	...	Cop
June B. Wilde	...	Nurse (as June Pentyliuk)
John Scott	...	Mr. Lester
Brenda McConnell	...	Mrs. Lester
Lovie Eli	...	Waitress

Runtime:

Germany:88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Doris Keating Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: Bright spot light visible on the boat anchored in the inlet all during the torching of the boat but spot light was not there immediately prior to arrival at boat nor when departing the boat.

The not so-perfect "Perfect Crime".

**MAJOR SPOILERS** Emberressing "Perfect Crime" made for TV movie where everyone involved in perfecting it ends up getting done in by how imperfect they were in dreaming it up and executing it.

Having to face the DA on Tuesday after the long Fourth of July weekend for his fraudulent business practices corporate lawyer Ted Clinton, Parker Stevenson, decides to spend the holiday weekend with his beautiful professional model wife Sarah, Emma Samms, at her beach house outside of Harborville in Washington State.

Ted planned to have the two persons, the Lesters who's testimony to the DA could very well put him behind bars, murdered by his private secretary and secret lover Venessa, Joan Chen, and her accomplice crazy and wild Shawn, Michael Easton.

The Lesters, who lived just about two miles away from Ted and Sarahs home, being murdered that close to where Ted is and just before they were to testify against him would only bring attention to him being a suspect in their deaths, that was real smart of him. At the same time after the Lesters were done in by Venessa & Shawn a summer Storm broke out of the Pacific Ocean, disabling the Lesters houseboat "The Naked Lady" where they were murdered and thrown overboard and that Venessa and Shawn took over, and almost killed Shawn when his leg almost got severed as it went through the boats floorboard.

Getting both Venessa & Shawn into the Clinton home after they were saved from the endangered boat Sarah is told by Venessa that they, her and Shawn, were on a trip on "her boat" and that she's a professor who has the hots for the creepy, but very sexually active, Shawn and thats the reason she took him along for the ride.The police get on the case when both the Lesters wash up on shore with Mrs. Lester coming to rest right in the Clintons backyard but no one, but the killers and Ted, seem to be able to put two and two together and realize the connection the two have with Teds corrupt financial practices until it's too late.

Ted not being satisfied with having the Lesters knocked off and leaving him free from being thrown in the clink by the DA now plans to first blackmail his wife out of a million dollars by setting her up to kill Shawn and after getting the payoff money from her murder Sarah and make it look like she killed herself over her killing "her lover" Shawn and then take off with his lover Venessa and live happily ever after.

First getting the dangerous weirdo Shawn to get himself shot by Sarah, after he tries to rape and murder her, he's told that the gun he has on him has blanks in it. Shawn after trying to rape Sarah purposely lets her take the gun from him and making no attempt to defend himself, thinking that the gun was harmless, gets shot to death by a terrified Sarah as he moves on her; Venessa & Ted lied to Shawn and put real bullets in his gun, for Sarah to shoot and kill him with, in order to get him out of the way and then split the million between themselves.

Ted talking Sarah into helping him get rid of Shawn's body, but not being able to recover the gun that she shot him with, he later has Venessa come over and put on an act that she's going to tell the police that she knows that Sarah killed Shawn and has the gun, that Ted secretly gave her, to prove it and wants one million dollars to keep her big mouth shut.

The movie gets even more ridicules when Sarah finds on the Lesters houseboat a video tape, the movie just keeps getting better as it goes along, of Shawn & Venessa murdering the Lesters but for some strange reason Sarah doesn't go to the police with this very important piece, or roll, of evidence that could prove her innocent in killing Shawn in self-defense because he tried to murder her. To top everything else off Sarah later finds, after escaping from the hospital after a car accident, Ted and Venessa making out on the lawn at night outside her house and still doesn't have the sense to go to the police but stays at her house knowing that Ted & Venessa are planing to murder her?

Outrageous ending with both Sarah and Venessa having an underwater cat fight, after Venessa doubled-crossed her lover Ted by putting two bullets in him thinking that he killed Sarah which he didn't, where they don't have to worry about drowning since they both have an ample supply of oxygen in their very over developed chests and lungs with the Fourth of July fireworks exploding in the background.

One thing worth watching in the movie "Shadow of a Stranger" is the movies clueless hero the star detective at the Horborville police station, who was also Sarah's classmate in high-school and who she has a crush on back then, Det. Robert Logan, John Pyper-Ferguson, who looked like a very young Arnold Schwarzenegger but without the German accent and gargantuan muscles.