Power, Passion & Murder (Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Natica Jackson) (1987) Reviews

• Watch the original version!

  summerisle2005-03-27

  The original version "Naticia Jackson" was part of the series "Tales from the Hollywood Hills" and runs 56 minutes. The home video edition called "Power, Passion and Murders" combined two episodes from the series (the other episode is "A Table at Ciro's"). The problem is, that they inter-cut both stories instead to show just one after the other, which is pretty confusing. Try to watch the original, which is an excellent piece about the classic days of Hollywood in the 30's. Michelle Pfeiffer is unbelievable good as the screen goddess Natica Jackson (reminescent of Veronica Lake, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth and all the others).

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• A nice piece

  tobybarlowny2006-01-01

  I thought there was an interesting intersection of themes in this short piece. I think the art direction and the pacing is quite nice. I think it's actually one of Michelle Pfeiffer's more interesting works as an actress. The piece was engaging enough that I went and tracked down the John O'Hara short story it was based on, which is quite lovely. The filmmakers managed to convey the same feeling of distance the story possessed, which is rare for an adaptation. I actually just read an old Paris Review that interviewed Budd Schulberg, who worked on this as well, he was quite a character. So I suppose I'm simply pleased this little piece exists. I would recommend it for many reasons and I'm quite surprised that it has garnered such negativity from other reviewers.

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• A Very Young Michelle Pfeiffer

  whpratt12006-02-23

  Missed this TV film and recently obtained the DVD for One Buck and thought it was a very well produced and directed film. The film portrays the 1930's and you will see all the antique cars, fashions and old furniture. There is an older film producer and his wife who have been around Hollywood for a long time and his wife Goes One Way in the marriage and he goes The Other Way. If the husband likes a young innocent gal looking for stardom, he eventually puts her on a casting couch and nature takes it's course. Michelle Pfeiffer,(Natica Jackson),"What Lies Beneath",2000, is a big Hollywood star who has had many men, but finds herself falling in love with a man who has a wife and several children. There is plenty of romance, drama and typical Hollywood problems in the 1930's.

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• Good Michelle Pfeiffer Performance in an otherwise run of the mill TV effort

  med_19782007-11-03

  I bought this on DVD for my brother who is a big Michelle Pfeiffer fan. I decided to watch it myself earlier this week. It is a reasonably entertaining piece containing two completely separate story lines. The section with Michelle Pfeiffer was by far the more interesting of the two. She plays a rising Hollywood actress who has had many short unfulfilling relationships. She literally bumps into Brian Kerwin (A regular married guy with Kids)after driving her car into the back of his. After being initially hostile to one another he offers to drive her home as she no longer feels comfortable to drive. Romance develops eventually leading to tragedy when his wife finds out. What happens at the end I was not prepared for but the slow pacing and routine TV direction takes any drama out of the plot. The other section involves an old Studio boss played by Darren McGavin. This section actually has the better cast with Kenneth McMillan, Lois Chiles, Steven Bauer & Stella Stevens. They all want something from the studio boss but in the end when he is asked to resign, they all realize their careers will now be going nowhere. It passes the time but is not all that interesting and I am glad this was not bought for me. I am not a Michelle Pffeifer fan but she was admittedly the only actor worth watching in this film and even in 1983 she was a decent actress. Overall though unless you are a fan of hers avoid this as it is very routine.

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• Odd Little Movie, with Considerable Charm

  Ravenwood482006-06-07

  There is a substantial list of reasons why this is not a particularly good movie, but not much point in going into them. That being said, there are some very good reasons to watch it, and it's not a bad movie either. Be prepared to tolerate some annoying lighting (which, though, is sometimes quite good) and plot twists, and some slow spots, and you might just enjoy much about it. For one, the performances are just about all good to very good, usually, and I think in this case, a sign of good directing. Michelle Pfeiffer is huge fun to watch in one of her relatively early roles, several orders of magnitude better than in Scarface, made about the same time. That wonderful quality of hers of showing us her thoughts moment to moment through subtle shifts of expression is on full display here. Her character here is talented and complex, and that and the situations that arise give her plenty of opportunity to show it. Hector Elizondo and Darren McGaven (not listed above, but definitely a major character) also give good, nicely nuanced performances, and so do several minor characters. Another appealing plus is that there's real chemistry between and among the performers. Pfeiffer's love scenes with a chemist she meets due to a fender bender (I've forgotten his name, sorry) are staged and charged with a subtle energy that most movie love scenes, for all their frenetic movement and heavy breathing, don't even hint at. Her interactions with her director on the set and with Elizondo also seem quietly real, the depth (or lack thereof) of their friendships evident in the mundane daily interactions all of us know. I can think of ten or twelve very nice moments, some among minor characters, that are wonderfully realized, and a reminder that any movie can be made with insight and humane intelligence: yes, these are insignificant and often misguided individuals, but they are human beings, too, and aren't they, the movie asks, interesting to watch? The script is problematic mostly because it's in service to the uneven plot, but much of the dialogue is realistic, with people having real conversations, rather than spouting epigrams and staring meaningfully at each other. And it's often clever, as well. So, yes, this is indeed a small and very minor movie, and yes, everybody involved had to know it. And yes, the plot has some serious deficiencies, particularly a completely unexpected and unsatisfying ending, and the principles knew that, too. But they went about their business as professionals, and shrewd, talented, and intelligent professionals at that. I was annoyed at the ending, but enjoyed the movie considerably more than the average Hollywood dreck.

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