A Season in Purgatory (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

David Greene

Writers (WGA):

Dominick Dunne (novel)
Robert W. Lenski (written by)

Release Date:

5 May 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Murder | Two Part TV Movie | Shower Scene | Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Patrick Dempsey	...	Harrison Burns
Sherilyn Fenn	...	Kit Bradley
Craig Sheffer	...	Constant Bradley
Edward Herrmann	...	Dr. Shugrue
David Marshall Grant	...	Jerry Bradley
Kathleen York	...	Claire Rafferty
W. Earl Brown	...	Fatty Malloy
Wendy Phillips	...	Luanne Utley
Maureen Mueller
Lisa Akey	...	Charlotte Bradley
Jere Shea	...	Johnny Fuselli
Jeanie Drynan
Bonnie Bedelia	...	Valerie Sabbath
Blair Brown	...	Grace Bradley
Brian Dennehy	...	Gerald Bradley

Runtime:

150 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Agnes Scott College - 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, Georgia, USA

Company:

David S. Brown Productions

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): W. Earl Brown, who is listed in the opening credits, is also listed in the closing credits as "W. Earl Broan."

It had a very familiar ring to it!

I had seen this mini-series when it first aired, mostly because I am a big fan of Brian Dennehy, and very much enjoyed it. But in the last couple of years, there was a resurgence in the news story of the Kennedy nephew as a suspect in a murder of a young girl, and although I probably never paid attention to it when it first happened, the newer revelations involved having a man from a private school that the nephew attended, and he possibly had "inside info" as a confession or overheard conversation that the nephew was guilty. This school was in Maine, and the owner is also a high-profile owner of the local horse-race track, so now I paid attention to it, and thought this sounded like a movie I saw...Thinking back on it I remembered it was this movie, so I had to watch it again when it was aired on Lifetime this weekend, and now there is no way you could convince me that this novel wasn't based on the story...and the ironic thing is that in the movie the murder took place in a town called Scarborough Hills, and the racetrack the man in question owned is called Scarborough Downs. Had anyone else noticed these similarities?