Tattered Web, A (1971)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Silly but entertaining made-for-TV thriller has Lloyd Bridges playing Sgt. Ed Stagg. He learns that his son-in-law (Frank Converse) has been having an affair so he goes to the woman to make her put an end to the affair. Stagg accidentally kills her so he must protect himself but also try to keep the police from finding out who her boyfriend was. I've come to expect a certain amount of silliness when it comes to these made-for-TV flicks from the 70s. It really doesn't matter what they're about but the majority of them are entertaining but also very campy. That's pretty much the case here as we get a pretty good story but it's mixed in with some very dumb moments. One of the biggest killers of this type of film are how over dramatic they can be and this here usually happens right before we go to commercial as the music blares and we get a silly zoom shot towards the guilty person. We get quite a bit of that here but we also get some very silly moments including the scenes at the start when Bridges busts into the woman's house and just keeps insulting her and calling her a tramp. I couldn't help but laugh at this as well as some of the more sillier moments including a priceless sequence where Bridges is trying to protect his daughter yet he never realizes that he's just putting a burden on her. The entire "protecting the daughter" is driven into the ground here as we get countless dialogue scenes with Bridges expressing his love for his daughter, which is fine but at times they are way too cute and over the top. With that said, the story itself is a pretty interesting one and I thought it was also rather clever as we had Bridges trying to do two things at once. I think it goes against his character that he'd do so many wrong things to try and clear everything up. As for the actor, he's great fun to watch here as he really gives it his all and keeps the film moving from start to finish. We also get a great supporting cast that includes Murray Hamilton, Broderick Crawford, Val Avery, Whit Bissell, John Fielder and Anne Helm as the other woman. The daughter in the film has to be one of the dumbest characters in the history of film as you'd think you were watching a 2-year-old. She can never figure things out and is constantly coming off either stupid or just downright ignorant and one can't help but grow frustrated with her. If you're a fan of the genre then this here is pretty much a must-see.
