It took a long time for TV movies to get respect. Classics like THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD, DAUGHTER OF THE MIND, and THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET paved the way to respectability for what was long the red-headed stepchild of cinema. And while REFLECTIONS OF MURDER may not earn a place in the pantheon, it certainly provides ample entertainment for those confined to home during the Chinese Virus Crisis.
If I didn't know it was an ABC TV movie of the week, I would have sworn this was an episode of the British series THRILLER, which often cast American stars. It had that hazy look of a British production--autumnal and overcast--and boys boarding schools always evoke England, though this film was set about as far from there as possible in Puget Sound, Washington.
TV movies often provided a prime-time stage for television series stars, B-listers and fading film stars. This film's cast was headlined by actresses Tuesday Weld and Joan Hackett, and the up n' coming actor Sam Waterston. They made for an impressive cast, and each performance is very good, especially Waterston's playing against type as a bad guy! I didn't think he had it in him, but he sure did! As Michael he was sadistic and with such a self-assuredly smarmy swagger, I wanted to reach through the screen and help the ladies hold him under!
And speaking of the ladies, Tuesday Weld--so dreamy and creamy as Thalia on DOBIE GILLIS a decade earlier--looked uncannily like Mia Farrow here (but is a much better actress). Weld's Vicky is the strong character, driving the action and bulldozing through the feeble protests of battered wife Claire. Joan Hackett does a fine job in a role that required her to play a fearful woman fast retreating into herself and her music. Vicky capitalizes on Claire's malleability, manipulating and dominating her weak will.
As has been noted, there are lesbian overtones as Vicky sits on Claire's lap tending her wounds ("Am I interrupting a tender moment?" sneers Michael when barging in). Later Claire and Vicky lay side by side in bed. It seemed to be pushing the envelope for the time, though just a few weeks earlier POLICE WOMAN broadcast its controversial "Flowers of Evil" episode in which lesbianism figured large in the plot.
Oh, while on that subject of that series, Ed Bernard, who played the coroner, was playing Det. Joe Styles on POLICE WOMAN at the time this movie was broadcast in November 1974. He had a beard on that series, so I suspect this movie was filmed a year earlier in the fall of 1973. Shining in a small role, Bernard sure made the most of his one scene, going all Columbo on the hapless Hackett (if she stayed another minute she would have cracked and confessed all!). Michael Lerner would be the film's fourth star as Jerry, a kindhearted fellow teacher also bullied by the malicious Michael. Utterly wasted was veteran actor R.G. Armstrong, who was relegated to a tiny part basically playing Onslow from KEEPING UP APPEARANCES, slunk in his recliner guzzling beer and grousing about the girls running the bathtub in the middle of the day.
The film boasts eerie atmosphere and strong acting by three very appealing performers. Director John Badham had honed his skills and was building up a head of steam here that soon led to his leap from the small to the silver screen with blockbusters including SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, WAR GAMES, and BLUE THUNDER.
So what's not to like? The film did drag in places, such as the school photograph scene that took so long to unfold for very little payoff. Yes, the ending was a series of shockers, but they were not especially satisfying. I feel that way about the bleak endings of a lot of late sixties/early seventies films, however, and this was no exception, though at the very end I envisioned how schlockmeister William Castle would have closed it out: The End ... or is it??
If I didn't know it was an ABC TV movie of the week, I would have sworn this was an episode of the British series THRILLER, which often cast American stars. It had that hazy look of a British production--autumnal and overcast--and boys boarding schools always evoke England, though this film was set about as far from there as possible in Puget Sound, Washington.
TV movies often provided a prime-time stage for television series stars, B-listers and fading film stars. This film's cast was headlined by actresses Tuesday Weld and Joan Hackett, and the up n' coming actor Sam Waterston. They made for an impressive cast, and each performance is very good, especially Waterston's playing against type as a bad guy! I didn't think he had it in him, but he sure did! As Michael he was sadistic and with such a self-assuredly smarmy swagger, I wanted to reach through the screen and help the ladies hold him under!
And speaking of the ladies, Tuesday Weld--so dreamy and creamy as Thalia on DOBIE GILLIS a decade earlier--looked uncannily like Mia Farrow here (but is a much better actress). Weld's Vicky is the strong character, driving the action and bulldozing through the feeble protests of battered wife Claire. Joan Hackett does a fine job in a role that required her to play a fearful woman fast retreating into herself and her music. Vicky capitalizes on Claire's malleability, manipulating and dominating her weak will.
As has been noted, there are lesbian overtones as Vicky sits on Claire's lap tending her wounds ("Am I interrupting a tender moment?" sneers Michael when barging in). Later Claire and Vicky lay side by side in bed. It seemed to be pushing the envelope for the time, though just a few weeks earlier POLICE WOMAN broadcast its controversial "Flowers of Evil" episode in which lesbianism figured large in the plot.
Oh, while on that subject of that series, Ed Bernard, who played the coroner, was playing Det. Joe Styles on POLICE WOMAN at the time this movie was broadcast in November 1974. He had a beard on that series, so I suspect this movie was filmed a year earlier in the fall of 1973. Shining in a small role, Bernard sure made the most of his one scene, going all Columbo on the hapless Hackett (if she stayed another minute she would have cracked and confessed all!). Michael Lerner would be the film's fourth star as Jerry, a kindhearted fellow teacher also bullied by the malicious Michael. Utterly wasted was veteran actor R.G. Armstrong, who was relegated to a tiny part basically playing Onslow from KEEPING UP APPEARANCES, slunk in his recliner guzzling beer and grousing about the girls running the bathtub in the middle of the day.
The film boasts eerie atmosphere and strong acting by three very appealing performers. Director John Badham had honed his skills and was building up a head of steam here that soon led to his leap from the small to the silver screen with blockbusters including SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, WAR GAMES, and BLUE THUNDER.
So what's not to like? The film did drag in places, such as the school photograph scene that took so long to unfold for very little payoff. Yes, the ending was a series of shockers, but they were not especially satisfying. I feel that way about the bleak endings of a lot of late sixties/early seventies films, however, and this was no exception, though at the very end I envisioned how schlockmeister William Castle would have closed it out: The End ... or is it??