Wife, Mother, Murderer (1991)

The life of Audrey Marie Hilley, who, in order to start a new life, took drastic action.

Director:

Mel Damski

Writer:

David Eyre Jr.

Stars:

Judith Light, David Ogden Stiers, Kellie Overbey

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Judith Light	...	Marie Hilley / Robbi / Teri
David Ogden Stiers	...	John Homan
Kellie Overbey	...	Carol Hilley
David Dukes	...	Joe Hubbard
Whip Hubley	...	Lieutenant Gary Carroll
Jessie Jones	...	Maggie
Mary Nell Santacroce	...	Grandma
Joe Inscoe	...	Frank Hilley
Robin Florence	...	Belinda
Lane Bradbury	...	Aunt Frieda
Maury Covington	...	Bellamy
Dan Biggers	...	Corrigan
Terrence Gibney	...	Walt
Brett Rice	...	Fowler (as James Brett Rice)
Libby Whittemore	...	Rhonda

Storyline

Marie Hilley started out as the perfect wife and mother. Then two decades into her marriage, her husband Frank, is taken severely ill and dies soon after. Within months of his death, their daughter Carol is admitted to hospital with similar symptoms and intensive testings later reveal arsenic poisoning. In the meantime, Marie is arrested for passing bad checks and when Frank's exhumed remains reveal massive amounts of arsenic, she is promptly charged with his murder but manages to escape and remain on the run for three years. She is convicted of Frank's murder in absentia and even remarries but when she tries to fake her own death with her new identity, things quickly fall apart for her and she is arrested again. She escapes again but this time, her luck runs out and she is captured within a week and eventually dies in prison.

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Plot Keywords:

arsenic poisoning | alabama | faked death | identical twins | mother daughter relationship | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for theme of homicidal child abuse.

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scene in which the character played by Judith Light is apprehended for her crimes took place in a small shopping plaza near Vinings, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Real-life policemen were stationed at all of the entrances and exits of the shopping plaza to control traffic in accordance with the requirements of the filming. The actual apprehension scene included three movie police cars racing in and screeching to a halt with their occupants, jumping out and running to assist in the arrest. During the first take of that scene, the real policemen, off-camera, laughed with great abandon, which provoked an assistant director to approach them and make inquiry. The real officers pointed out that one of the movie cops, the one played by John Archer Lundgren, had hair too long for precinct regulations. Forthwith, the director halted the filming, called for a make-up person to come on scene with scissors and chair. For the next fifteen minutes, the offending actor was given, on the spot in the middle of the parking lot, a very nice regulation haircut, while approximately fifty cast, crew and on-lookers stood around watching.

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Goofs

When Marie's car is burned the daughter is still in high school. This means that it is before 1978, when she graduated. The new car is a Chrysler LeBaron convertible, but they weren't sold until 1981 and the first year they were all brown.

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Quotes

Dr. Matt Jones: [sees lead inserted into Carol's fingers] Wait. I've read about this.
Joe Hubbard: What is it?
Dr. Matt Jones: [to a drowsy Carol] Honey? Honey, can you hear me?
[Carol nods slowly]
Dr. Matt Jones: Honey, you did this to yourself?
[she shakes her head]
Dr. Matt Jones: Somebody's trying to kill you.

User Reviews

If someone wrote this as fiction, it would be laughed off the tube...

But it instead is a true story of a Southern woman who is the definition of chutzpah. She commits crime after crime, spends well beyond her means, and then manages to escape custody and allude the police for years all the while playing her old money yet working class second husband like a fiddle.

Judith Light, of "Who's the Boss" fame, plays the role of Audrey Marie Hilley and does a very good job. Fortunately, the script never asks her to explain herself, and the film is better with her as a complete moral mystery. David Ogden Stiers is very poignant as the second husband, who, for some reason, doesn't suspect a thing until the facts are flung in his face.

And who gives a three day parole to a convicted murderer? I mean, yikes! I guess the one big unanswered question is what Audrey was doing in the woods for those four days at the end. Was she waiting on somebody or did she just finally feel the walls caving in? I'd recommend it if you ever get the chance to see it.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 November 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wife, Mother, Murderer

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wilshire Court Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1