HER DEADLY RIVAL
US, 1995, 90 minutes, Colour.
Harry Hamlyn, Annie Potts, Lisa Zane, Roma Maffia.
Directed by James Heyman.
Her Deadly Rival is a film about multiple personalities – although audiences might have guessed that something like this was at the core of the plot, the revelation does not come until the end. Harry Hamlyn is an ordinary husband, in love with his wife, stalked by a mysterious woman on the phone who threatens to wreck his marriage and life. He confides in his wife when she comes to stay with him in another city where he works, she is suspicious, moody, gets help from her sister-in-law. Eventually, it is revealed that the wife has multiple personality and she is the stalker. Her finally cannot bring himself to believe this.
Harry Hamlyn has appeared in many similar telemovies. Annie Potts is the wife of the director, James Heyman. Roma Maffia has a strong role as the police investigator.
The film is in the vein of many of the multiple personality films including The Three Faces of Eve with Joanne Woodward, and Sybil with Sally Field.
1.An entertaining telemovie? Domestic drama? Marriage drama? Psychological drama?
2.The city locations, the workplaces, homes, construction sites? Authentic locations? Musical score?
3.The situation of the marriage, twelve years, the love for each other? Jim and his having to transfer his work, Kris being by herself, coming to live with him? The stalking situation?
4.The framework of the film: Jim waking in the night, hearing Kris and the struggle, the shooting? The interspersing of the interviews with Officer Caldwell? The resolution and the truth?
5.Jim, an ordinary man, the American way of life, prosperity, work? Love for his wife? The necessary separation, the phone calls? His mates at work, Jean, meeting the girl in the bar? The telephone calls, the cumulative effect, the seductive attitude, his resistance? His first listening, his then trying to get rid of the stalker? His sister-in-law and her antagonism and attitudes towards Kris and himself? Kris, the home, her trying, her growing suspicions, growing desperation? His deciding to meet the stalker, her not turning up? Suspicions that it was Jean – and Kris running out of the restaurant? The shooting? His final disbelief?
6.Kris, nice, love for her husband, not wanting him to go away, her coming, buying the house, her sister coming, her fears, jealousy, worrying about the stalker, the phone calls? The irony of the truth, her being absent when the phone calls came – audience suspecting that she was the stalker or not? Her killing herself? The trigger for this in his moving to the other city for work?
7.Jean, genial, at work, skills, under suspicion, her boyfriend?
8.The woman in the bar, her friendliness? The bar where Kris did the phoning under the name Lauren? Jim and the confrontation?
9.Lynne, her support of her sister, antagonism towards Jim, confrontations?
10.Officer Caldwell, the arrest, the initial interrogations, the questioning, her realisation of the truth, her support of Jim?
11.The screenplay giving sufficient clues? The dramatic revelation? The theories of multiple personality, their effect, manifestations, triggers? One personality killing the other in the suicide?
