TERROR STALKS THE CLASS REUNION / FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE
Canada, 1992, 95 minutes, Colour.
Kate Nelligan, Jennifer Beals, Geraint Wyn Davies, Werner Stocker, Madeleine Robinson.
Directed by Clive Donner.
Terror Stalks the Class Reunion is based on a short story by Mary Higgins Clark. Perhaps the title was too sensationalist – for DVD release it was changed to For Better and for Worse.
This is a serviceable murder mystery – with a red herring about an escaped convict, the main focus being on the abduction of a lecturer, in the vein of John Fowles’ The Collector, the mad student wanting to marry his teacher, setting up a wedding ceremony. However, the policeman in charge of the search for the escapee pretends to be the clergyman – and there is a dramatic, melodramatic, rescue and finale.
Kate Nelligan is the teacher, Jennifer Beals is also a former student who has joined the army. Geraint Wyn Daves is the psychopathic former student. Veteran French actress, Madeleine Robinson, appears as the keeper of the hotel.
Nothing particularly startling, a German setting, and an elaboration of a short story into feature-length film, Mary Higgins Clark style.
1. The popularity of Mary Higgins Clark novels? Mysteries? Characters? PG ratings?
2. The German setting? The military base? American soldiers in Germany? Education in Germany and military bases? The atmosphere of celebration, the abduction, the imprisonment, the rescue? The musical score?
3. Kay, her husband, the tensions? Her past teaching? At the celebration, her speech? Her past students? Meeting Virginia again? The encounter with Tony, the lift, his abducting her? Imprisonment, her resistance? Her being chained? His delusions, the TV and the pasta? The wedding dress? The preparations for the wedding? The ceremony, his setting up the bomb? The priest, the gun, the escape? Her being reconciled with her husband – and her demands on him to return, Tony unbooking his flight? The complications and the resolution?
4. Virginia, student, in the army? Her meeting again with Franz? The past relationship? Franz and his investigations, the escapee? The interrogation of the escapee’s mother? - and the lapsing of that story?
5. Kay’s husband, the tensions, his work? His having to be away, stranded at the airport, his return, his concern, the work with Virginia and Franz?
6. The hotel, Madame Delalande? The background of the escapee, the police and the information about his crimes? Seeing him, in hiding? His mother?
7. The police, Franz, the clashes between Franz and the locals? The raid on the house? His turning them back?
8. The picture of Tony, the blue glasses, his focus on Kay? Buying the wedding dress? His disguise as Anton, working at the hotel? With the old man – and getting him to be the witness for the wedding? His scheme, abduction of Kay? Smooth talk? Chaining her in the house? The preparation of the house? The photos of her? His years as a student, his being besotted with her? His misinterpreting her? Looking after her, the wedding dress, the preparation for the wedding, the old man as witness? The ceremony? Checking the priest? The tables turned, the gun? His going to the bomb and exploding it?
9. Popular potboiling ingredients for a crime thriller?
