WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN

US, 1985, 92 minutes, Colour.
Jill Clayburgh, Frederic Forrest, Max Gail, Barnard Hughes.
Directed by Bruce Malmuth.

Where are the children is a thriller based on the novel by prestigious thriller writer Mary Higgins Clark. However, the film is rather slight - and ultimately has a touch of the hysterical.

Jill Clayburgh is a mother whose children are abducted. However, she was convicted of the murder of her previous children. Frederic Forrest is the sinister kidnapper. Max Gail is the distraught husband and Barnard Hughes a sympathetic psychologist.

With the good cast, Cape Cod locations, an eerie story, the film is enjoyable on the Sunday Night at the Movies level rather than any exploration of character or themes. Direction is by Bruce Malmuth, director of the thriller Nighthawks with Sylvester Stallone.

1.Interesting and enjoyable thriller? The work of Mary Higgins Clark?

2.Cape Cod locations, the town, atmosphere, weather? Musical score?

3.The credibility of the plot - the characters and their psychological motivation, justice and the law, marriage and children, child molestation and perversity? The coincidences?

4.The initial portrait of the family: Nancy and Clay, happy together, the children, the domestic sequences? Ordinary life? Preparing for the disappearance? Nancy and the shower, the children gone?

5.Jonathan and Dorothy and their friendship? Dorothy at the estate agents, and her sympathy? Jonathan and his psychology, eccentricity?

6.Courtney Parrish and his watching the children through the telescope, getting the photos delivered to the radio station, the taking of the children, his treatment of them, drugging them, his attitude towards them? The bath, the milk? Dorothy and showing the visitor around, his hostile reaction? Hitting the children? Mikey escaping, chasing, tormenting? The phone call? Nancy's arrival? The confrontation, his story, the suicide? The end and the confrontation, his death?

7.Nancy, the truth about her past, in the house, to the police station, the facts of the situation? Jonathan and his questioning her, the story of her husband, treating her as a little girl, the molestation of the children? The return home, the puzzle? Realising that she had seen the boyfriend? Mikey's phone call? Confrontation with Parrish, the fight, the rescue?

8.Clay, the concerned and loving father, aggressive, anguish? The final rescue?

9.The lover, his return, watching, the phone unanswered, being identified on television, taking the car, caught, the interrogation, his letter?

10.The visitor from New York, looking over the house, in the bar, hearing about Parrish, the return, trying to rescue the children, injured?

11.Jonathan, the support, knowing the truth, questions? Dorothy and her support, finding the mitten?

12.The picture of the police, doing their job, interrogations?

13.A suspense thriller, psychological overtones, moral issues? The Gothic touch?