IMDb > Melanie Darrow (1997) (TV)

Watch It

Own the rights?

Buy it at Amazon Rent it at Blockbuster.com

BETA

Discuss in Boards More at IMDb Pro Add to My Movies Update Data

Quicklinks

Melanie Darrow (1997) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:

3.9/10 43 votes

MOVIEmeter:

Down 10% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Gary Nelson

Writers (WGA):

Dean Hargrove (written by) &
Joyce Burditt (written by)

Contact:

View company contact information for Melanie Darrow on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

20 August 1997 (USA) more

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller more

Plot:

A flamboyant female defense attorney takes on a seemingly airtight case, defending an apparently gold-digging... more | add synopsis

Plot Keywords:

Police | Courtroom | Character Name In Title

User Comments:

Hilarious! more (1 total)

Cast

(Cast overview, first billed only)

Delta Burke	...	Melanie Darrow
Brian Bloom	...	Det. Lou Darrow
Christopher Birt	...	Dwight
Bruce Abbott	...	Alex Kramer
Wendel Meldrum	...	Diane
Jonathan Banks	...	Arthur Abbot
Shawn Ashmore	...	David Abbott
Bill MacDonald	...	Harper
Krista Bridges	...	Claire
Ralph Small	...	Dr. Lavin
David Orth	...	Rick
David Sutcliffe	...	Carl
Laura Press	...	Felicia
Johanna Black	...	Susan Kendall
Brad Borbridge	...	Security Guard

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violence and brief sensuality.

Parents Guide:

Add content advisory for parents

Runtime:

Argentina:88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Iceland:12 | UK:PG (video premiere) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Dean Hargrove Productions more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Comments

(Comment on this title)

3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful.

Hilarious!, 4 July 2007

Author: mossfoot from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This has got to be the most insulting to your intelligence show ever!

Okay, this is definitely an 80s/90s TV movie, like the newer episodes of Matlock or Parry Mason, just so you have a sense of the look of it.

In it, Delta Burke plays Melanie Darrow, a hotshot lawyer (are there any other kind) who is hounded by the media, constantly waving them off saying "Not now, boys" like some belle suthern girl, until she needs them, in which they wordlessly follow her like obedient puppies. Yeah, the media do that. Really.

This movie is just playing in the background while I work and seemed pretty average/normal/mediocre until about half way through. When the following sequence happens:

Melanie's P.I. buddy is staked out outside a jewelery store, waiting for someone to pick up some hot merchandise. The woman picks it up, and he takes pictures of her from ten feet away with a giant camera, leaning out the window to do so... and the woman doesn't see him! She almost looks right at him and doesn't see him, leaning out the window with

Okay, maybe she's just a really dumb girl, but the P.I. is just plain stupid. She hands the jewelry to her boyfriend who drives off, while Stupid P.I. drives off after him. He tails the man too closely (and Melanie is apparently telepathic, because she tells him this over the phone), and he stops in a warehouse. Melanie tells the P.I. to wait there for her, she's coming in. Forget the police, let the lawyer make the bust.

Stupid P.I. goes in anyway.

Melanie arrives on the scene. Stupid P.I. isn't there. She pulls out a pistol from her handbag and investigates the warehouse. This is funny enough. Up to this point it seems the Melanie Darrow can do anything. Before this she talked a jumper off a ledge, used the media to scare the jewelry store owner to get rid of his hot goods, everyone knows her, and she just glides along like some superheroine who merely tolerates us mere mortals. Oh, and in case you're wondering why she has a gun, don't worry, they have a logical explanation for that. Apparently she romanced a judge to get a license to carry. Because nobody can resist the seductive charms of Delta "Airlines" Burke.

So now she finds Stupid P.I. tied up to a support beam with a bomb strapped to him.

What the hell? A bomb?

So then she... no wait, It has to be said again...

What the hell? A bomb? Seriously, what is up with that? The P.I. apparently got bushwhacked by the guy he was tailing... a guy who conveniently carries a bomb in his trunk for just such an emergency. It's a big one, too. Bout the size of your standard computer tower, sitting on his lap.

Stupid P.I. says it's standard Navy Seal issue (okay I'm just snorting coffee out my nose right now), and he tells her how to deactivate it. No, he's not an ex-Navy Seal... he has a friend who is... and who apparently likes to give detailed operational instructions on bomb disposal.

Well unfortunately, Melanie is in fact human after all and screws up. The countdown activates! Only 30 seconds before it blows! She tries to free him for ten seconds, and Stupid P.I. pleads for her to leave without him, it's too late for him and she'd be doing the world's gene pool a favor, anyway.

With 20 seconds left on the clock, Melanie does this... I kid you not:

-Runs out of the warehouse -Starts up her car -rams through the warehouse loading door -Stops in front of Stupid P.I. -Frees Stupid P.I. -The two of them drive out of the warehouse as it explodes.

Looks like her superhero powers are back in full form. Of course, if she couldn't free him before, how could she now?

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Melanie's brother is a cop, who ends up tracking down the guy who almost blew up Stupid P.I.

And HE gets caught and then handcuffed to a light wood chair. The villain then puts the hot jewelry in his pocket and says "since I'll never be able to sell it, you can take it to hell with you." To which Slightly-Less-Stupid Cop retorts by reading him his Miranda rights. The villain leaves, and then sets the house on fire! Because, you know, a gun with a silencer would be too easy. This guy has flare!

Now, he isn't shown dousing the house with gas, but he must have, because the flames just roll across the floor like the bathtub had overflowed with lighter fluid. Slightly-Less-Stupid Cop struggles with the handcuffs on the chair, then realizes... hey, wait! The chair is made of light wood and weighs maybe three pounds. He finally figures out standing up might work and jumps out the window!

AND she's still got plenty of time to save a depressed teenager from jumping off a roof by getting in a helicopter and rescuing him, help a friend through rehab and withdrawal, find the badguys, knee a henchmen in the balls, and free an innocent man from prison.