A popular cast, starring Lindsay Wagner and Jameson Parker in the title roles, and featuring Joy Garrett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dabney Coleman and Andrew Prine, along with familiar character actors Macon McCalman, James Sloyan and John Harkins, may draw you toward this film about an unwed teenage mother facing no options for herself nor the baby but to profit from his sale via an illegal adoption agency.
The story begins in a rural Texas community bearing an antiquated Truman campaign board, indicating that it begins quite some time after 1948, the one election cycle for which Harry S. Truman has sought the U.S. Presidency, along with running mate, Alben W. Barkley, who is not cited, which indicates that the road sign was posted between the time in which Truman has cinched the Primary elections that spring, before announcing his Vice-Presidential selection at the Democratic Convention that summer.
But, around the corner, we observe a movie theater marquis announcing "Mildred Pierce," starring Joan Crawford, which is released in 1945. This, quite possibly could indicate a film re-release, but questions about this production's historical accuracy begin to emerge rather immediately.
Anyway, Kimball Smythe (Andrew Prine) narrates this saga, specifying that he has yet to meet Callie (Lindsay Wagner), which provides evidence that Kimball couldn't be the baby's father, and whoever would have been is no longer a part of Callie's life, and neither does the film provide information upon her family. In other words, her back-story begins with the birth of her child, whom she is not permitted to hold, before she is sent into one direction, and he into another.
Jeannie (Joy Garrett), a lady with a past and now a waitress, befriends Callie, who arrives to wait tables during her evening shift. Jeannie continuously stands beside her new friend and offers support and encouragement for Callie to take courses as a courtroom stenographer. At the restaurant, Jennie suggests that she make lonely newspaper Publisher Randall Bordeaux (Dabney Coleman) to feel welcome, and when she later meets him in her new position as stenographer, they rekindle a flirtation, leading to marriage.
Callie consults a shady Private Investigator, Deacon (Macon McCalman, who often plays a good guy gone wrong), paying him a large fee, which she cannot afford, to locate the son whom she has given up for adoption. Deacon absconds with her money and creates an enemy for life once the now Callie Bordeaux reigns in power through her joint ownership of a powerful family newspaper operation, especially after a mass murder advances her station.
Randy Bordeaux (who grows up to become Jameson Parker) is quickly set back into Callie's lap with no objections from his adoptive parents, perhaps because of his rebellious streak and irresponsible nature such as holding up his own engagement party to elope with cheap gold-digger Sue Lynn Bordeaux (Michelle Pfeiffer).
Jeannie, meanwhile, marries wealth oil tycoon Arthur Cotham (John Harkins) and stands beside Callie, as does Kimball although he is given little to do except to yearn over his unrequited romance.
Fashions and hairstyles seem appropriate enough for the fast-paced period sketches through the 1950's, 60's and 70's, but a promising sketch of a role model in Callie Bordeaux is ruined by an over-extensive trial occupying about a third of the film after a second murder is committed.
Corrupt District Attorney Bubba Wrench (James Sloyan, who's often cast in these roles) does not represent justice, by trying the wrong suspect, and presenting false testimony to over the truth without proof to judge and jury even when the perpetrator confesses to the crime, thus teaching anything but a moral lesson to "Callie & Son," as it misses its mark to entertain and to educate by any means.
(Extra points for the appearances of Joy Garrett, Dabney Coleman, Andrew Prine and Jameson Parker.)
