One of countless little TV-movies from the glory days of the 70's when folks could be entertained for ninety minutes by a star or two (or more) that they'd come to love. Here, Blake portrays a wealthy divorcée who's recovering from a rather traumatic experience in her home. Despite the presence of attentive pal Haymes, she hires pretty, young Sterling to assist her with correspondence and to keep her company. Unfortunately, as shown in a prologue featuring Benson as a defenseless old woman, Sterling is a duplicitous thief and is in cahoots with Groom to bilk women out of their savings, silver and jewelry. Sterling and Blake strike up a sort of mother-daughter relationship and Sterling is considering going straight, but Groom shows up to carry out his end of the plan and things get complicated. Blake, finally ending her two-decade run as Miss Kitty on "Gunsmoke", must have welcomed the chance to play a contemporary character (though every costume she wears features a floor length skirt!) She imbues her character with warmth and concern, though sometimes she does look rather silly with a fall that doesn't exactly match her own shade of hair and a series of loud maxi-skirts.) Sterling does well in a sort of "Marnie"-like role. Haymes, who had long since lost his career, at least gets to work again and shares a nice chemistry with Blake. Groom seems a little white-bread to be playing so tough a character, but he gives it his best. In the prologue, he hilariously uses a pair of panty hose to obscure his face even though his features are completely visible save the control-top waistband that smears across his mouth! The film is very low-budget and suffers from either bad editing or halting performances, especially at the beginning, since there seems to be great pause between the lines at times. It's also rather pat, silly and scant (even though it's based on a novel!) However, there is a remarkable amount of suspense around the 3/4 mark as Blake attempts to evade an intruder in her labyrinth-like home. Though no one is likely to have nightmares after this (unless it's over the clothes!), it's a fun way to spend 74 minutes, watching a few name stars enact a simple, but compelling little tale.
Review of Betrayal
