The Seduction

romance

source: The Seduction

THE SEDUCTION (1982) I am so happy they decided to restore this retro, schlocky gem that I might have never seen. It stars a fierce and gorgeous Morgan Fairchild as a tv news personality who finds herself stalked by a sexy, obsessive stalker played by a hunky Andrew Stevens. It's pretty by the numbers but it's a fun horroresque, erotic thriller that really delivers. Not to spoil anything but basically she just reaches the point where she refuses to be the victim and fights back. It's pretty damn satisfying. Budget: $3m Box Office: $11.4m 7.5/10

An extremely silly "thriller". First of all, the Dereck character in real life would have gotten arrested for a number of offensives he commits. (He wouldn't have gotten serious sentences, but he would at least been arrested.) Second, the plot is really thin - see how many times and ways the filmmakers pad out the movie, including, but not limited to people walking around slowly from point A to B, Fairchild undressing, Fairchild showering or bathing, Fairchild in a hot tub, Fairchild driving around, etc. etc. Third, Dereck doesn't really become creepy or frightening until near the end of the movie - most of the movie, he acts like a confused little boy. However, credit to the crew who lit and photographed the movie. Their work is definitely above average. Pity that the other material of THE SEDUCTION doesn't deserve it.

***SPOILERS*** Movie about an obsessed maniac Derek Sanford, Andrew Stevens, who after making life a living hell for the person he's been stalking all throughout the movie pretty L.A TV news anchorwoman Jamie Douglas, Morgan Fairchild,ends up getting all that coming to him from the one who really loves him and whom at the same time he's been treating like garbage! Livng almost next door to Jamie Derek spends most of his spear time away from the photo lab just watching and photographing Jamie from afar. It's when Jamie's boyfriend Brandon, Michael Sarrazin, comes into the picture that Derek blows a fuse. Feeling that Brandon is a threat to his love life with Jamie Derek does everything to split the two lovebirds up. Things get so out of hand that Jamie and Brandon go to the police in the person of LAPD Capt. Maxwell, Vince Edwards, to stop the by now out of control love crazed Derek before he does something really bad! **SPOILERS*** It's when stopping Derek becomes almost an impossibility in that the law is unable to stop him Jamie finally takes the law, and a 12 gage shotgun, into her own hands in an attempt to blow the creep away for good. As things turned out it wasn't Jamie but the one who really loved him who put an end to Derek's insanity which wasn't, for those of us watching the movie, soon enough! Movie legend Bette Davis was so impressed with Morgan Fairchild's performance in the movie that she personally wrote her about what a great job of acting she did in it!

This movie is really bad. I mean really really bad. Morgan Fairchild struts her stuff, tosses her hair, gets stalked by some idiot, and tosses her hair some more. Seriously, every shot is just Ms Fairchild looking sexy, swimming in a pool naked, taking a bubble bath, making sexy faces in the rearview mirror of her car, combing her hair!! She never stops combing her hair!! No matter who's stalking her. Breaking into her house, killing her boyfriends (in the most ridiculous way possible) - she doesn't even get upset!!! She just makes more sexy faces in the mirror, pouts her lips, combs her hair some more, gets into her satin sheeted bed. It's absolutely outlandish! Then suddenly at the last 15 minutes of the film she tosses around a rifle like its a hairbrush, still making sexy faces. If you are a fan of hers, you will probably love this flick. She looks absolutely 80's stunning in every scene. But if you want to watch a movie - you're out of luck!

Just like VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and THE LUCKY LADY, 1982's THE SEDUCTION is one of those movies that is so bad that it is funny. It is funny but not to the point of multiple viewings, like DOLLS, it's funny once and that's it. Morgan Fairchild (in one of the worst performances by an actress in a 1980's film) plays a television anchorwoman who gets stalked by a psycho (Andrew Stevens, in an equally bad performance). This incredibly tired plot has been done so many times and it has been done so much better than this. Fairchild can't act and Stevens is way over the top. Michael Sarrazin is wasted as Fairchild's boyfriend and Vince Edwards is wooden as a police office to whom Sarrazin goes to for help. Maybe one of the ten worst films ever made. Unless you have wet dreams about Morgan Fairchild, don't bother.

I'm not really sure if this movie was originally made for TV; but I wouldn't be surprised if it was as it has all the hallmarks of a made for TV thriller, and unfortunately that isn't a good thing. The film is called The Seduction but there's nothing really seductive about it; admittedly 'The Tired, Cliché Ridden, Suspense-less Thriller' might not have been the wisest choice for a title; but at least it would have been a bit more apt! The movie takes the often used idea of a stalker taking his stalking of a famous person too far; in this case the famous person is pretty newswoman Jamie Douglas. Morgan Fairchild, who takes the lead role, is actually one of the best things about the film; she delivers a good performance and looks nice too, unfortunately it's wasted with such tired material. There's very little suspense in the film and director David Schmoeller (who previously directed the decent seventies horror Tourist Trap) seems more keen to focus on humdrum events. There's the odd sex scene and it's slightly steamy but nothing to get excited about. The ending is actually fairly well done but it's not worth an hour and a half of tedium getting there! Overall, I'm actually quite disappointed in this because I love a good throwaway thriller; but this is not a decent example and therefore not recommended.

for anyone who might tend toward romantic obsession, here's your cure. do yourself (or a friend) a favor and (get him to) watch this film. fifteen minutes into the film, you just want to punch andrew stevens in the mouth. the problem is that the harasser never seems to know what a jerk and a fool he is being. here's the message, written in big red letters. too bad more men don't see themselves this way until it's too late. of course, derek (mr. stevens' character) becomes a very bad person by the time he gets his due. if only derek could see himself in this movie, maybe then he wouldn't have taken that first step. sure, not all crushes are actually stalkings. and there is the risk that the truly disturbed stalkers won't understand that this movie is supposed to help them not to do it. the movie may just make a lot of people paranoid. still, it as an effective counterpoint to the CINEMA PARADISO-style treatment of unrequited love, and too much of that sort of fantasy romance in cinema just exacerbates this social problem. it's not so much a thriller as a public service announcement. amazingly, farrah fawcett is in BURNING BED just two years later. one has to think that blossom kahn had more to do with this film than the credits reveal. it's obvious why morgan fairchild took the script. ms. fairchild was never the bimbo that people accused her of being. (i have a friend who was at a bio lab at harvard when she phoned to discuss primate genetics for several hours! no kidding!) the kind of power that julia roberts uses today to deliver ERIN BROCKOVITCH was enjoyed by ms. fairchild in 1982, and she seems to have used it here. ms. fairchild even gives up her body with shocking compliance (with dozens of * scenes, and almost constant appearance on screen) in order to keep the drooling men in their seats until the lesson is complete. as easy as it is thus to applaud ms. fairchild, mr. stevens deserves greater praise. not many leading men would have taken such a role in 1982, and mr. stevens is the perfectly detestable pretty-boy delusional peter-pan smarm. the boys will watch this film for ms. fairchild, and they will learn to leave the girls alone because of mr. stevens.

I've seen this movie about three times,and its preposterousness(is that a word or did I just make one up?)made it something that practically all parties involved,particularly the leads, would probably want to forget they took part in. Having said that,it is at least marginally interest-emitting and,of course,lovingly sexual. I recall that when this movie was being primed for release in early 1982,the selling point was almost entirely around the (still)lovely Morgan Fairchild--who,at the time,was nursing a floundering career after her series "Flamingo Road" was left to whither on the vine by NBC--and her sex/* scenes. Sure enough,the scenes where she is sans trow are lovingly shot and have a lushness of editing and sound(her bubble bath scene has a particularly rapturous feel,reminiscent of Angie Dickinson's opening scene in Dressed to Kill) that would make the viewer believe that Andrew Stevens' creepy script boy stalker ISN'T the only one stalking Fairchild's eye-candy news anchor-lady. Another IMDb commenter gave away some perceivably important plot points. Suffice it to say,the thriller/suspense/mystery element of this movie languishes behind the soft-core erotic quality of the film up until the last twenty minutes of the film,when suddenly the urgency of a dangerous stalker(with amazing ability to hide and enter people's abodes)with rapist/deadly abilities comes to the top of the agenda. This is probably ONLY a recommend for FAirchild fans and worshipers,since it is a donut-hole without her.