Better Off Dead (1993) (TV)

Director:

Neema Barnette

Writers (WGA):

Randy C. Baer (story)
Marlane Meyer (teleplay)

Release Date:

12 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A lawyer fights a losing battle against the courts to overturn the death sentence for a convicted female robber/murderer despite demands from the woman that her death sentence be carried out. |

Plot Keywords:

Death Sentence | Death | Lawyer | Baby Born | Childbirth

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mare Winningham	...	Kit Kellner
Tyra Ferrell	...	Cutter Dubuque
Kevin Tighe	...	D.A. John Byron
Don Harvey	...	Del
Reed R. McCants	...	Jones (as Reed McCants)
Marilyn Coleman	...	Rene Dubuque
Michael MacRae	...	Frank Kellner
Robert Nadir
Jan D'Arcy
Peter Lohnes	...	Andy Riley
Claire Brown	...	Jean Kellner
William Earl Ray	...	Jack Rollins (as William Earl Ray I)
Diane Caldwell	...	Judge Judith Brooks
Tom Spiller	...	Val
Krisha Fairchild	...	Lurline
Landon Wine	...	Victor Marquez
Victor Morris	...	Nathan Webster
Bonnie Banks	...	Nancy
Moultrie Patten	...	Judge Peter Lindsey
Don Hohenstein	...	Ben
Brynna Jourden	...	Young Kit
David MacIntyre	...	Warden
Ryan Van Arnam	...	Roy
Robert James White	...	Dave
Stephen West	...	Governor's Servant
Ruth Walsh	...	Reporter #1
Drake Collier	...	Reporter #2
Don Creery	...	Prison Guard #1
Randall Lee Kenyon	...	Prison Guard #2
Allan Barlow	...	Gas Chamber Guard
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John X. Deveney	...	(uncredited)
Michael Taylor Donovan	...	D.A.'s Clerk (uncredited)
Scott Duthie	...	Kit's Uncle (uncredited)

Directed by
Neema Barnette		(as M. Neema Barnette)

Writing credits (WGA)
Randy C. Baer		(story)
Marlane Meyer		(teleplay) (as Marlane X. Meyer)

Produced by
Randy C. Baer	....	co-producer
Grazia Caroselli	....	co-producer
Rosilyn Heller	....	executive producer
Gloria Steinem	....	executive producer

Original Music by
John Barnes

Cinematography by
Ueli Steiger

Film Editing by
David Beatty
Brian Q. Kelley		(segments)

Casting by
Beth Klein

Production Design by
Keith Brian Burns		(as Keith Burns)

Set Decoration by
Rondi Tucker

Costume Design by
Carol Oditz

Makeup Department
Robaire Charbonneau	....	hair stylist
Gigi Williams	....	makeup department head

Production Management
Amanda DiGiulio	....	unit production manager
Hal Harrison	....	post-production supervisor
Paul Mason	....	executive in charge of production

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Elisa Sansalone	....	second second assistant director
Lynn Wegenka	....	second assistant director
Don Wilkerson	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Jacque P. Beaver	....	art department coordinator
Raul Colon	....	mural
James Crespinel	....	muralist
Richard Joffray	....	property master
Chris Karges	....	swing gang
Michael Kennedy	....	swing
Kim Larsen-Santini	....	assistant property master (as Kim Larsen)
Crista Schneider	....	lead man
Alun Vick	....	construction coordinator
Bob Warner	....	head painter

Sound Department
Robert J. Anderson Jr.	....	sound mixer (as Robert Anderson Jr.)
Dennis Fuller	....	boom operator
David John West	....	sound re-recording mixer (as David West)

Camera and Electrical Department
Scott Drinon	....	dolly grip
Nathaniel Goodman	....	first assistant camera (as Nate Goodman)
Jim Grce	....	gaffer
Sean C. Hise	....	second assistant camera
Neil Holcomb	....	best boy electric
Robena Malicoat	....	best boy grip
Brian H. Reynolds	....	key grip (as Brian Reynolds)
Peter Riches	....	still photographer

Casting Department
Amy Caton-Ford	....	extras casting
Tina Kerr	....	extras casting
Michelle Lang	....	casting assistant: Los Angeles
Jodi Rothfield	....	casting: Seattle
Katie Ryan	....	casting: Seattle

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Kathi McKenzie	....	dresser
Kathi McKenzie	....	seamstress
Marienne O'Brien	....	costume supervisor
Marienne O'Brien	....	key set costumer

Editorial Department
Angela Spieles	....	post-production coordinator
Z. Jean Woods	....	associate editor

Music Department
Stan Jones	....	music editor

Transportation Department
George Evans	....	transportation captain (as George D. Evans)
Jon McCarthy	....	transportation coordinator

Other crew
Philip Anagnos	....	stand-in
Ronald Arthur Baker	....	caterer
Alex Barnow	....	production assistant
Susan Bartholomew	....	production accountant
Dawn Gilliam	....	script supervisor
Tony Grob	....	location manager
Kerri Kroll	....	production secretary
Alisoun F. Lamb	....	production coordinator
Amy Lasser	....	assistant: Ms. Heller
Michael Leon	....	location manager
David S. McDonald	....	assistant production coordinator
Lynn Murphy	....	assistant location manager
Pauline Muñoz	....	assistant production accountant
Marvin C. Newton	....	production assistant (as Marvin Newton)
Kristen Ploucha	....	production assistant
Angie Redman	....	production assistant
Victor T. Salant	....	production executive (as Victor Salant)
Pat Silkett	....	craft service
Beverly Wood	....	assistant: Ms. Barnette

Production Companies

• Viacom Productions

Distributors

• C/FP Video (1995) (Canada) (VHS)
• Lifetime Television

Other Companies

• Fund for Animals  special thanks
• West Productions  post-production sound

Also Known As:

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Viacom Productions

Mare on death row

Executive produced by Gloria Steinem, Mare Winningham is Katherine Kit Kellner, a thief who is sent to the gas chamber for killing black police officer Jack Rollins, who had killed her boyfriend Delmore Davis (Don Harvey). Kit's initial plea to be killed is based on the idea that it won't happen because "nobody gets what they want", but ambitious prosecutor Cutter Daisy Dubuque (Tyra Ferrell) is appointed District Attorney for having Kit placed on death row. Ironically, it is Cutter, later a private attorney, who campaigns to appeal Kit's execution.

Wearing long brown hair, Winningham initially plays Kit as a nihilist clown, delighting in the group of skinheads at her trial, but in prison she has some extraordinary moments - in an over-medicated haze taking a cigarette in her mouth through bars, attacking Cutter when she admits convicting Kit was a mistake, pressing her hands against the glass of the prison interview room to connect with her mother, and breastfeeding her new born baby. On the latter Winningham scores a laugh with `This is like a nature movie'.

The teleplay by Marlane X Meyer, based on a story by Randy C Baer, focuses as much attention on Cutter as it does on Kit, before Cutter becomes Kit's attorney, so that we have to wait for the connection. Cutter's initial idea of appeal based on Kit as a person `too damaged for rehabilitation' presents Kit's childhood with a neo-Nazi father, but this plot thread is left dangling. Cutter also gets a laugh line to Kit in `In prison you had an affair and I can't get a date'.

Director M Neeme Barnette gets carried with technique - jump cuts, dissolves, slow motion, noise on the soundtrack, repeated footage as flashbacks, interrupting Winningham, black and white video camera footage, and rapid editing - but she makes a dramatic change of tone work, by making proceedings very moving.