Once upon a decade, actually about thirty years ago, Aaron Spelling was the absolute King of the Made-for-TV-Movie, and this is a typical example of his labors. I can't say that it's dated, or campy or just plain awful, because I haven't seen it since it originally aired. So I will have to rely on my childhood memories of it, which is to say that it kept me on the edge of my seat, when it didn't scare the living crap out of me!
Five women, alumni and former sorority sisters from the same college, decide to hold a resort-based reunion some years after they graduated and went their separate ways. The resort is on an island, (in Washington state or off the Nantucket coast; I don't recall and I don't believe the movie made it very specific.) A little soap-operatic dish ensues as the girls relive past glories, rivalries and friendships, and it becomes obvious that some of them have some unfinished business between them from the old school days, some of which were not as wonderful as time may have made them seem.
But just when you think you've gotten stuck in some kind of melodramatic character study/chick flick, WHAM! Here comes the surprises, as the girls "get over themselves" quick, fast and in a hurry! One of the girls winds up dead, strangled to death. Soon after the initial panic over THAT, they find that the captain of the ferry boat who brought them to the island is dead as well, not to mention a sweet little dog befriended by the murdered woman, (pets never do seem to fare very well in these shockers, do they?) Well, there's not a whole plethora of suspects for the freaked-out femmes to chose from, considering that there are only two men left on the island, both employees of the resort (Bradford Dillman and Robert Conrad.) At the time the movie was made, this WAS an inspired bit of casting, since one actor was well-known for playing extremely evil or creepy characters, while the other was famed for playing studly, usually shirtless heroes. (Guess which is which...now you know the major 'plot twist', a device that has been worn down by countless movies since.
I guess the title could've been more accurate, but "Two Dead Bodies, One Dead Dog and Four Hysterical Basket Cases" doesn't sound as good, or as dramatic.
So if you figured out from my clue who the "killer" really is, then you know that the girls eventually deal with him. Or, more specifically, one girl does--ROOM 222's Denise Nicholas (the future Mrs. Denise Nicholas-Hill). We never find out if the remaining Desperate Women live happily ever after, but at least they do LIVE.
Writing this has me curious to see this again now. Maybe Nick At Nite or one of the Encore channels will dig it up and dust it off one of these days. Well, it will serve as a kind of historical cinematic artifact...hearkening back to the days when TV movies were actually fun to watch, no matter how trashy or cheesy they seemed to be then (and now), and proof that Aaron Spelling was a true boon to that class of actress known as the 'TV Movie Queen,' of which this cast were spectacular examples, and many of them had Aaron to thank for keeping them working well into the next decade, (including the beauteous Ms. Hackett. Joan, we miss you.)
Five women, alumni and former sorority sisters from the same college, decide to hold a resort-based reunion some years after they graduated and went their separate ways. The resort is on an island, (in Washington state or off the Nantucket coast; I don't recall and I don't believe the movie made it very specific.) A little soap-operatic dish ensues as the girls relive past glories, rivalries and friendships, and it becomes obvious that some of them have some unfinished business between them from the old school days, some of which were not as wonderful as time may have made them seem.
But just when you think you've gotten stuck in some kind of melodramatic character study/chick flick, WHAM! Here comes the surprises, as the girls "get over themselves" quick, fast and in a hurry! One of the girls winds up dead, strangled to death. Soon after the initial panic over THAT, they find that the captain of the ferry boat who brought them to the island is dead as well, not to mention a sweet little dog befriended by the murdered woman, (pets never do seem to fare very well in these shockers, do they?) Well, there's not a whole plethora of suspects for the freaked-out femmes to chose from, considering that there are only two men left on the island, both employees of the resort (Bradford Dillman and Robert Conrad.) At the time the movie was made, this WAS an inspired bit of casting, since one actor was well-known for playing extremely evil or creepy characters, while the other was famed for playing studly, usually shirtless heroes. (Guess which is which...now you know the major 'plot twist', a device that has been worn down by countless movies since.
I guess the title could've been more accurate, but "Two Dead Bodies, One Dead Dog and Four Hysterical Basket Cases" doesn't sound as good, or as dramatic.
So if you figured out from my clue who the "killer" really is, then you know that the girls eventually deal with him. Or, more specifically, one girl does--ROOM 222's Denise Nicholas (the future Mrs. Denise Nicholas-Hill). We never find out if the remaining Desperate Women live happily ever after, but at least they do LIVE.
Writing this has me curious to see this again now. Maybe Nick At Nite or one of the Encore channels will dig it up and dust it off one of these days. Well, it will serve as a kind of historical cinematic artifact...hearkening back to the days when TV movies were actually fun to watch, no matter how trashy or cheesy they seemed to be then (and now), and proof that Aaron Spelling was a true boon to that class of actress known as the 'TV Movie Queen,' of which this cast were spectacular examples, and many of them had Aaron to thank for keeping them working well into the next decade, (including the beauteous Ms. Hackett. Joan, we miss you.)