Triplice inganno

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

Nick Rawlings, airline pilot, played with a clean-shaven smile and mindless amorality by Jack Wagner, has his bigamous lifestyle crash just as he weds wife number three, the youngest and blondest of the trio (Nicole Eggert). Somehow he was able to fool wife number one (Shelly Hack) for sixteen years, and wife number two (Joan Severance) for three years before they got wise. Neither wife seemed quite that dumb, but this is Hollywood. In reality these women wanted to be fooled of course, or didn't give a damn; but it makes a diverting story this way with wife number one only catching on after she finds a receipt in the trunk of his car for a nine thousand dollar ring that he does NOT give to her for their anniversary. When she discovers that it's an engagement ring for someone else, she hires a PI, cancels all his credit cars, sells his car, etc.

It's kind of fun to watch it all play out even if the characters are pure surface. The real problem (aside from Jack Wagner who has all the charm of a snake; but perhaps that's intentional) is the ending. How to sew it up and make the audience feel they've experienced the travails of bigamy? Turns out that real engagement with the subject was not even considered. Perhaps to the credit of director Alan Metzger it can be said he didn't even try. How horrible it would have been had he manufactured some phony catharsis and half baked it with some sort of deep philosophy. Instead Metzger had the cast walk through the production like it was a high school play: say your lines, look pretty, wear your costume and take a bow. For the audience it was kind of like cotton candy when what you really want is a steak.

Still this movie did demonstrate beyond any shadow of a doubt that one man is not enough for three women. However, that's a "duh."

Once again Shelly Hack is in a film as a woman married to a wacko. In the original `Stepfather' which ended up spawning two sequels she played an airhead bimbo who marries a serial killer then assumes her place as dumb stay at home cookie baking wifey before hubby snaps his cap. In this turkey she plays a woman married to a `Here I am girls I'm an airline pilot and just so darned good looking ya can't resist me can ya? Didn't think so' schnook. The viewer is led to believe that the Hack character has been married to Capt. Bigamy for sixteen years and has never suspected anything until she finds a receipt for an expensive piece of jewelry that she thinks is intended for her but then never gets it. Capt. Bigamy meanwhile is shown carousing with his 2nd wife (Joan Severance) and cheating on her with another girl friend who he intends to marry as well. One interesting character is the soon to be 3rd wife's father who looks like when he was Capt. Bigamy's age he was running the same type of scam i.e. multiple wives. He can't stand to see some young buck come along and put the moves on his babe daughter (Nicole Eggert) in the same manner that he used to operate. There is a subplot involving a teen-age son with main wife (Shelly Hack) who is trying to get into a preppy type school and that part just sort of falls flat. The ending is the best part because it essentially sends two messages. For women it's ` Ladies watch out who you marry' and for men it's `Don't worry guys there are plenty more where those three bimbos came from'

This teleflick about a man who juggles three wives may sound serious, but it really plays out like a comedy/drama. There is peppy music playing in the background at almost all times, and Jack Wagner's character is, as the previous reviewer commented, a big snake. But that's what makes the movie so much fun to watch, as are Shelley Hack, Nicole Eggert and Joan Severance as the three wronged women in his life.

No real reason for all these ladies to for him. (plot is based on true story of a cargo pilot). Perhaps if it were a zanny 1960's comody style it might have worked. The son, ERIC, palyed by brilliant dramatist, KALEN MILLS, was so fierce,it caused the producers to fear an unsympathetic audience reaction to the character of JACK RAWLINGS, so sceans had to be refilmed, further muddying up what might have been a clear cut drama. All in all, a typically bad made for TV movie.

I saw this movie in the Wal-Mart $1 bin in the checkout line. I figured if it stunk its only a buck, but it was actually a good movie.

The sound is very scratchy in parts, but the movie itself is good. It seems like something you'd see on lifetime or something like that seeing as how the man is the villain. We just can't win can we?

The plot is a good one, and of course you can't expect stunning visuals or audio, it's a great movie for a rainy day.

I give this a firm 8/10 just for the good plot and pretty decent acting for such a flick.

I have a feeling they won't have this featured as an in-flight movie.