Seduction in a Small Town (1997) (TV)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Charles Wilkinson

Writers (WGA):

Ned Welsh (treatment)
Bill Phillips (teleplay)

Release Date:

9 February 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Paul Jenks and his wife Sarah left California with their lovely son David and dumb daughter Ivy and started a farm in his native small town...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Melissa Gilbert	...	Sarah Jenks
Dennis Weaver	...	Sam Jenks
G.W. Bailey	...	Pat Carter
Brian McNamara	...	Paul Jenks
Joel Palmer	...	David Jenks
Joely Fisher	...	Sandy Barlow
Ashley Doty	...	Ivy Jenks
Valerie Ann Pearson	...	Willa Jenks
Stephen Hair	...	Reverend Mike Burke
Shawna Lori Burnett	...	Laura Nash
Maureen Thomas	...	Lavonne Burke
Stephanie Mills	...	Alice Tuller
Donna Larson	...	Kristen Hadley
Christine MacInnis	...	Judith Dowd
Greg Lawson	...	Deputy Boyd

Also Known As:

Harvest of Lies

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Green/Epstein Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Showbiz Today: (1997-02-08)" (1997)

Not a work of art, but...

This is a political movie in reaction to the child-abuse hysteria that swept this country during the eighties and early nineties, only this time the good guys are the parents and bad guys are the social workers and the accusers. You don't have to guess who's who when Melissa Gilbert plays the mother, nor when Dennis Weaver plays the grandfather. This is Little House on the Prairie circa 1997 versus Big Brother (as played by the social welfare system). We can depend on TV MOW's to reflect the current PC position, even if they have to make a 180 degree turn from what they were spouting just a few years ago.

Joely Fisher does an excellent job as the evil woman who makes the false accusations and tries to frame the mother out of jealousy. Brian McNamara gives a not-so-strangely Michael Landon- ish portrayal of the father despite the scraggly beard, while Dennis Weaver is something close to wonderful in a bit part as the grandfather. Gilbert, looking solid and healthy, is steady but without finesse in a part big enough for a great actress.

When we see the cop cars and the social welfare people drive up and haul off the family's two children, we know this is about war in American, the family against the larger community. Unfortunately there are few shades of gray in the script: the family is clearly innocent and victimized. Nonetheless, since MOWs always reflect the zeitgeist and of course pander to their audiences, telling them what they want to hear, this movie is clear and welcome evidence that the public has finally seen that the social welfare industry has been given too much power: the crucial point being that it is horribly wrong to allow children to be taken from their parents without due process of law. With this movie it might be said that the tide has turned and the justice system and the public have awaken from their long, self-induced nightmare of hysteria. One hopes so.