Word of Honor (1981)

A reporter refuses to reveal his source in the case of the murder of a young girl. As a result, he and his family are shunned by the residents of the small town in which they live. ... See full summary »

Director:

Mel Damski

Writers:

David Ackles (screenplay), David Ackles (story)

Stars:

Karl Malden, Rue McClanahan, Ron Silver

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Karl Malden	...	Mike McNeill
Rue McClanahan	...	Maggie McNeill
Ron Silver	...	David Lerner
Largo Woodruff	...	Amy
Alexa Kenin	...	Beverly
Jacqueline Brookes	...	Spinner
Jeffrey DeMunn	...	Dist. Atty. Burke (as Jeff DeMunn)
Henderson Forsythe	...	Peterson
John Marley	...	Gordon Agee
Dan Lounsbery
John Malkovich	...	Gary
Betsy Baker	...	Denise McNeil
John Beem
Carole Morisseau
Thomas D. Mahard	...	(as Tom Mahard)

Storyline

A reporter refuses to reveal his source in the case of the murder of a young girl. As a result, he and his family are shunned by the residents of the small town in which they live. Virtually no one comes to his daughter's wedding, and at his office, the police search his desk, and his boss threatens to fire him.

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Plot Keywords:

reporter | murder | 

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Genres:

Thriller | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 January 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Avslöjandet

Filming Locations:

Daily Tribune - Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television, Georgian Bay Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film begins with a concert in Plymouth's Kellogg park. Originally, the local high school band was to perform, but the director felt that they sounded too "professional". He opted to use a less-polished small community band instead. In fact, this same band performed at the location every Thursday evening during summer months.

User Reviews

The house on Limestone Road

(There are Spoilers) With the Hull's desperately trying to find their runaway 16 year-old daughter Cindy the editor of the local Plymounth newspaper The Local Tribune Gordan Agee, John Marley, runs a photo of Cindy on the front page as a missing person story.

The next day Tribune reporter Mike McNeil, Karl Malden, gets a call from a young woman telling him that she knows where Cindy is and gives him an address on Limestone Road. Karl going to the place that the caller gave him finds out that it's an abandoned house that belongs to Plymouth Bank president Roger Clements, Dan Crane. With him not finding Cindy Hull Karl again get's a call, the next evening, from the same young woman telling him to come over to her home and she'll explain what she knows about Cindy's disappearance.

Meeting the woman Beth Simms, Alexa Kenin, she tells Karl about going to the deserted house to tell Clements to stop sending her money for her and is son Patrick that resulted from an affair that she had with him when she was a teenager. It's there that Beth saw and heard Cindy being beaten and abused by him. With Clements not seeing her, he was too busy beating up Cindy to notice, Beth decided to call the newspapers to get them to use their influence to have Cindy freed from this low-life creep. Karl promises Beth that he'll keep her identity secret since she's married and has a good job in town and feels that she would lose both if the truth comes out about her past that had to do with one of the "pillars" of Plymouth society bank president and philanthropist Roger Clements.

Karl getting the police and a court order to search the Limestone house, and the land around it, it's found that Clements did have a collection of porno pictures of young girls like Cindy that he had sex with and abused and Cindy's body was later found buried outside the House murdered. With Clements arrested and put on trial it's now up to Karl to reveal who told him where to find Cindy but he's bound by his promise, and code as a news reporter, not to reveal his source. Karl keeping quite in the end lands him behind bars and forces the courts to let Roger Clements go free. Now a lot more things start to happen to the McNeil family because of Karl's stead-fastness, not to reveal Beth's identity to the court and public, and they would lead to a sudden and dramatic change of heart on Beth's part.

Effective but very contrived movie about a reporter keeping his sources secret to the point where he's thrown behind bars like the criminals that he's trying to expose and get arrested because of secret information his sources give him. The movie also has in it a very young Ron Silver as New York Herald reporter David Lerner who traveled to Plymouth. Lerner goes there to lend support to Karl's crusade for the right for reporters to keep their sources secret. John Malkolich as Gary, Karl's future son-in-law, who's engaged to marry Karl's daughter Danise, Besty Baker, is also very affective in his very first motion picture.

P.S Young Alexa Kenin who played the abused Beth Simms in "Word of Honor" was brutally murdered In her NYC apartment five years later by her boyfriend. Alexa was 23 years old at the time of her murder with a bright future ahead of her in motion pictures; her last movie that she was staring in blockbuster "Pretty in Pink" with Molly Ringwald was released some five months after her tragic death.