I’m
guilty of watching something solely because it features a certain actor or
actress I’m fond of. This one has
several. We have Tim Matheson, Claudia Christian,
Michael Dudikoff, John Vernon, and the late, great Dick Miller. As an added bonus, it stars TV soap opera
legend Susan Lucci, whom I’ve always admired. Their combined talents aren’t quite enough to
elevate this otherwise standard issue TV movie, but I’m still kind of glad I
watched it.
Lucci
is accused of killing her best friend. The
problem is, she was cheating on her husband (Matheson) with a hunky, but
unstable photographer (Dudikoff) at the time. When he mysteriously disappears, it leaves
Susan without an alibi, making her the prime suspect. With her court date rapidly approaching,
she’s forced to play amateur detective to prove her innocence.
After
a strong set-up, The Woman Who Sinned slowly devolves into a routine TV Movie of
the Week thriller. It suffers from the
typical pacing problems that are inherent in these sorts of things, and the
plot is pretty predictable too. We do
get one clever edit that announces the untimely death of a character, but for
the most part, it’s forgettable in just about every way.
The
film remains watchable thanks to the more than capable cast. Lucci adeptly carries the movie with her
charismatic presence. She is especially
good in her domestic scenes with Matheson, who does a fine job in the thankless
husband role. Their chemistry together
helps make their flatly written domestic scenes bearable. Dudikoff makes for a decent psycho, although
the confines of the TV Movie of the Week genre prevent him from really sinking
his teeth into the role. While it’s nice
to see Vernon and Miller popping up, I wish had more to do. Still, their very appearance helps to set The
Woman Who Sinned apart from its Made for TV contemporaries.
AKA: Mortal Passion.
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