User Reviews

I was really surprised when Victoria Principal didn't get nominated for an Emmy for this TV movie. It's easily her best acting and she really did deserve an Emmy for work her work in this. She plays Rae Colton, a beautiful woman who realizes that she will never make it in Hollywood and is broke and on her own when her married lover (Don Murray) dies, begins to spiral downward as she tries to cope with her grief and rebuild her life. What I like so much about this movie is that the ending was not the usual fake, happy ending in a lot of movies like this. Rae goes through everything from being mistaken for a whore by a German businessman she gets drunk and has sex with, to being stood up in Las Vegas by an old high school classmate she had hoped to build a relationship with. Her mother can't accept that Rae just didn't make it in Hollywood and she bumps into her former fiancé to find out he is happily married. With no money and no one to turn to, she becomes the mistress to another married, rich businessman. The movie ends on a down note when she expresses to her friend Margo that she wishes she could be like a deer and just die, the way deer can when they are hopelessly trapped. I think this is one of the best TV movies ever, and Victoria Principal should be very proud of her work in this. Find this on video and you will be pleasantly surprised.

When it comes to all those Made-for-TV movies, some are really good, others not so bad, some you can take or leave and some that are just plain awful! Mistress falls into that last one.

Why Victoria Principal would agree to star in this is beyond me, maybe she felt sorry for the (crummy) writer, and thought being a TV star might be a help? Not even Barbra Streisand or some other famous name could help this!

The whole idea that a mediocre "actress/singer/dancer/whatever" (as her character, Rae phrases it) who was obviously getting nowhere professionally, would be a longtime mistress to a wealthy married, man and NOT demand some financial security is just plain ridiculous! She didn't want to cheapen their relationship??? Newsflash: being mistress to a married man with children hardly gives things a moral ground.

She goes on like this for years, not making demands, just assuming one of these days he'll get around to a divorce (sell this gal the Brooklyn Bridge) and then BOOM!! He croaks while they're having fun in the sheets. (Talk about coming and going!) Of course, he left her nothing in his will (did she really think he would???) and of course, she can't even attend his funeral (what would Wifey think) and of course she ends up down and out and not knowing what's next.

A trip home's no good, as her mother lives in some LaLa Land, where her baby girl's going to be a star! There's an ex-boyfriend who's never forgotten her, who lives in a fantasyland of his own (must be something in the local well) and assumes she's famous (so how come no one's heard of her?), then gets a rude awakening when he learns of her mistress past and dumps her.

In between all this, she gets a job but goofs it up, auditions for acting/singing roles but goofs them up too, picks up (not one but) two guys in a bar and takes them home, sleeps with one, and then goes ballistic when he pays her for her services!! Well, gee, she just met the guys, takes them home cavorts in the pool with one while the other watches, then sleeps with the guy (maybe the other watched that, too?), and is all offended because he thought she was a working girl? She should have thanked him; at least she's good at something!

In the end, she becomes the mistress of another married man, only this time she wises up and makes sure she gets something out of the deal.

The End. (Thank you God!)