Review of Message from Nam

Miss R.Mclanahan,adored by many for her work on "The Golden Girls", sets the tone with an hysterical performance as a Grand Guignol type Southern mother even Tennessee Williams would have thought twice about inventing. She winces,she wrings her hands,she sobs,she pats her hair..I don't recall her actually saying "Well,I declare" but it must have been very tempting. Her rebellious daughter (well,it was 1964) decides to go to Berkeley instead of a nice Southern college and despite the warnings of her Mammy (yes,really),falls in love with the first bloke she sets eyes on as if cursed by the Bad Fairy. It is the beginning of the Anti - War protests and...well,you can make up the rest yourself. Her man gets drafted and killed so quickly it's almost rude. She gets a job on his daddy's newspaper(how convenient is that?) to see for herself what it's like on the lot where they made "M.A.S.H. and discovers early on that her blusher gets smudged real easy under fire. She falls for another soldier-boy and he buys the farm too. By now I'm aching to switch to the Shopping Channel where there's a special on Tanzanite by I won't give up so easy so I stay on to the end which re-enacts the Fall of Saigon rather less convincingly than the stage show in London. I will protect the identities of the other artistes involved with Ms McLanahan in ruining my Saturday afternoon,I just hope their cheques cleared.