SEDUCED

US, 1985, 100 minutes, Colour.
Cybill Shepherd, Gregory Harrison, Jose Ferrer, Mel Ferrer, Ray Wise, Adrienne Barbeau, Michael C. Gynne, Jordan Christopher.
Directed by Jerrold Freedman.

Seduced is a glossy melodrama, a star vehicle for Gregory Harrison (Trapper John) and Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting). There is a strong supporting guest role cast including Jose Ferrer and Mel Ferrer. The film is familiar material: a charming D.A., big business corporations, murder, glamour and affluence, seduction. It is an '80s variation on the Double Indemnity story, - but opts for glamour rather than for dramatic tension and character study. Direction is by Jerrold Freedman, a director of many mini-series and telemovies.

1. Interesting and entertaining telemovie? The world of the glamorous bestseller?

2. Telemovie style: the American city, affluence, the Caribbean, the world of gangsters? Musical score?

3. The Double Indemnity tradition in American.~-crime melodramas? The male victim? The female shrewd seducer? The predictability of the plot? 1980s gloss? The title - Mike seduced by Vicki? At the end, vice versa?

4, Audience response to the basic situation: the big company, the mergers, money and deals, secrecy, plots, murder, wills and changed wills, seduction, the complexities of the investigation, the law, the shootouts? Enjoyable at a soap opera level?

5. Gregory Harrison and his style as Mike: success, his father, District Attorney, other people's jealousy of his position, his job, his past with, Vicki, meeting her socially, her husband's death, his being seduced, the Caribbean holiday, the pursuit and the photography? His visits to his mother? Mr Killian and his hold over him, expectations? His rival? The arrest of Randolph and the interrogation, his visit to the nightclub and his girlfriend for an alibi? The will and Barbara being disinherited? The dangers, the gangsters and his identifying them, the shoot-out, his being wounded? His position being compromised? The truth? Confronting Vicki? His seducing her and her not killing him?

6. Cybill Shepherd and her glamorous style as Vicki, her wealthy wedding, memories of the past, the death of her husband, her seducing Mike, Barbara being cut out of the will and their clashes? her plans, double-dealing, past affair, killing the gangster, setting up Mike, her not being able to shoot him at the end?

7. Arthur and his shady background, deals, playing with people, his death? His first wife and her cattiness and the will? Barbara and her anger? The complexity of rich families?

8. Killian and the good of the company, respectability?

9. The gangster and the shooting of Arthur? The set-up for Vicki to shoot him? Her affair with the photographer, his deals, the confrontation with Mike, his death?

10. Themes of wealth, passion? The law? A glossy tale of good and evil, right and wrong?