LINDA

US, 1973, 73 minutes, Colour.
Stella Stevens, Ed Nelson, John Mc Intyre, John Saxon.
Directed by Jack Smight.

Linda is an interesting, competent early telemovie from the 70s. It is a crime investigation, a murder mystery. Stella Stevens is good in the central role and there is a supporting cast of performers who generally appeared from this time on in telemovies. However, the film was directed by Jack Smight who made a big impact with some of his feature films of the 1960s including Harper, The Illustrated Man, No Way to Treat a Lady.

1. The quality of this telemovie? Style, audience interest?

2. The strength of the film as a murder story? Conventional crime thriller?

3. The impact of the opening, the calm and the beach, the shock murders, the cover-up of the plot? How involving?

4. The film as an exploration of conventional marital problems? Of marital problems and murder? The cover-up on the part of Linda and Jeff?

5. The film's focus on Linda as central to the film? Her strength, a controller? Her beauty? Her lies and her ability to pretend and act? Her despising of Paul? Her pushing of Jeff? Her plotting and not breaking with the tape? Her final hardness after arrest and imprisonment? A portrait of an evil woman?

6. The contrast with Paul: as victim, his love for Linda, trying to make her happy, for example the flashbacks? The fact that he was used by her? His trying to tell the truth, but his alibi all pre-planned? The police attitude towards him? His escape? Overhearing their plotting? Agreeing to the contriving with the tape? His visiting Linda at the end? An ordinary but violent man, hurt?

7. How well drawn was the character of Jeff? His sharing in the plot, his love for Linda, his weakness and capacity for breaking? The tape recorder?

8. Journeyman and his role as a lawyer? The grizzled and old experienced man? His testing of Paul? His working for him? The contrast with the defence lawyer? His idea about the tape and its use? The morality of using such a tape?

9. Vern and his role with the local authority?

10. How impressive were the twists of the plot, the dramatics? The value of this kind of murder story?