HELL HATH NO FURY

US, 1991, 85 minutes, Colour.
Barbara Eden, Loretta Swit.
Directed by Thomas J.Wright.

Hell Hath No Fury is the beginning of the quotation which finishes: `like a woman scorned'. This psychological thriller takes up the theme - seemingly in an implausible way, but, once the audience is hooked on the characters and the situation, carries it through with the courage of its convictions.

Loretta Swit gets her chance to portray a criminally insane and jealous woman. After murdering her boyfriend, she goes after her first boyfriend of 20 years earlier, now a successful furniture salesman and married to Barbara Eden and with a young daughter. Swit jealously murders him and tries to frame Barbara Eden. She then infiltrates herself into Eden's life, killing her best friend and attempting to kill her daughter.

While the plot sounds wildly melodramatic, it is presented in the popular telemovie style for the wide audience. Barbara Eden is expert at this kind of film. There are various twists, audiences identifying with the heroine as the unjustly accused woman. There is a particularly obnoxious detective who makes sure that audience sympathy is with Barbara Eden. Needless to say there is a melodramatic finale and a happy conclusion. Popular entertainment of its kind.

1.The popularity of this kind of psychological thriller telemovie? Relationships, families, success - and the dark side and echoes from the past?

2.The small town, families, shops, police precincts? The musical score?

3.The title and the quotation? Connie as a woman scorned? Her deadly vengeance?

4.Connie, her background - and the revelation that she had tried to kill her parents, injuring her mother, then not telling the truth to the police? Her memories of Nebraska, the relationship with Stanley, Terri taking Stanley from her? Her strange life, her boyfriend, the brutality - and her shooting him? The car, stalking Stanley and Terri? The confrontation with Stanley, the meal, making him write the note, shooting him? Her friendship with Terri, pretending her name was Nettie? The listening, the outings, the sympathy? The confrontation with Marlene and shooting her in the shop? Framing Terri? The finale with the phone call to Michelle, taking her from the airport, phoning Terri, the rendezvous, the violent confrontation and her madness? Terri defeating her? Going off in the ambulance?

5.Terri and her relationship with Stanley, his success as a salesman? The TV advertisements? Signing the documents - and the revelation of how much he had spent? Terri's life, the strain with Michelle? Michelle's love for her father? Friendship with Marlene, her work, getting the job? The shock of Stanley's death? The police and their investigations, accusations? The lawyer and the financial difficulties? The tension with Michelle? At work, friendship with Marlene - and Marlene's death? The arrest and the imprisonment? The encounter with the black woman in the cell? Getting out, standing on her own feet? The decision to find Connie? Meeting Nettie, the friendship and sympathy? The difficulties with Michelle, the airport, her frantic drive? The confrontation with Connie, the fight in the house? The police, the detective's apology? The reconciliation with her daughter - and managing the shop? The clash with Marlene's husband, his suspicions - and the reconciliation? A credible character - victim?

6.Stanley, his success, love for his family? Coming home, encountering Connie, the meal? Her terrorising him, his death? His leaving his family poor? Michelle, her love for her father, the reconciliation with her mother, the encounter with Connie?

7.Marlene and her husband, friendship, suspicions of the affair, the brutality of the murder? Connie and her malevolence?

8.The police, the detective with his mind made up, his callous treatment of Terri? The sympathetic detective? The police and their investigation of Connie's initial murder, the interrogations, following leads? The contact with the police and the solving of the case?

9.Popular ingredients for a melodramatic, psychological thriller? The dramatisation of criminal insanity?