Ordeal

Cold-as-ice Diana Muldaur schemes with young lover James Stacy to leave her overbearing husband stranded in the middle of the Mojave desert with a broken leg. Who of us cannot wonder: Could I survive if this happened to me? Arthur Hill is the perfect chap for this rigorous acting workout: he's an Everyman, a survivor. As for Muldaur, one of the busiest actresses of the decade, she plays this unlikable woman straight, with no camp or melodramatic overtones; intelligent, glamorous, stylish with scarves in her red hair, Muldaur never gave an unconvincing performance. ABC movie-of-the-week, directed by Lee H. Katzin and written by Francis M. Cockrell and Leon Tokatyanis, is a well-done tale of suspense. **1/2 from ****

In the 1970s, Diana Muldaur often played really nasty, conniving women--tough but unscrupulous broads. And, that's exactly who she is in "Ordeal".

The film begins with Richard Damian (Arthur Hill) out in the middle of the desert with his wife and the man who is her lover. When Richard gets badly hurt, Kay Damian (Muldaur) leaves him for dead...as she doesn't love him and wants to have fun with her boy toy! She eventually reports his disappearance to the police...after she assumes he's already dead. The problem is he isn't dead and Richard lives to somehow survive and get revenge on his faithless wife. Will he somehow make it? And, if so, what's next?

Much of the film is spend showing Richard's survival ordeal in the desert and occasionally cutting back to brief segments with Kay playing with her boy toy. Late in the film, the two schemers decide to return to the desert to make 100% sure he's indeed dead.

This is a good film because the bad folks are incredibly evil--the audience just wants to see them get theirs! However, the ending...well, it left me waiting and hoping for SOMETHING more. In other words, you have an excellent film that at the end just didn't deliver.

This made for TV drama is a re-make of a 1953 film called "Inferno", directed by Roy Ward Baker which featured Rhonda Fleming and Robert Ryan. "Inferno" was shot in 3-D. "Ordeal" is an effective re-casting of the original, but Arthur Hill cannot match the grim intensity that Robert Ryan brought to the role of the stranded husband. Diana Muldaur, while lacking Rhonda Fleming's glamor, is actually more convincing in her role as the faithless wife. On the whole, I slightly prefer the original, but the TV version is certainly worth your time. Oddly enough, the male actors who play the lovers of the women in both films are equally bland and ineffective.

"Ordeal" is a quality television film from 1973 with a very good cast and great production values. The story of a somewhat shallow rich man who literally wanders the desert and in the process discovers his deeper self. The bright ,arrid Arizona desert is used to great effect and I was really impressed by the film's stately score. Seemingly all the main characters in the movie are unlikeable ,but Arthur Hill lets us see the subtle transformation from a man on a mission of hateful revenge(against a fed-up wife and the shifty trail guide who left him to die with a broken leg in the merciless desert)to a man who, in overcoming incredible obstacles(almost too incredible), he finds his place-connection in this stark natural world and an inner peace.The scene where he finds a water hole is beautifully done.This film is certainly a worth a look.

You find out a lot about yourself, when you're lost in the desert. I'm sure Arthur Hill's survivalist techniques in "Ordeal" are open to challenge, but that is not the point of this excellent TV movie. It's all about a life changing experience, that transforms a pompous ass of a husband, into a person who realizes that perhaps he should share the blame for his attempted murder. Arthur Hill is the husband, and Diana Muldaur the wife who leaves him to die. James Stacy is along for the ride as Muldaur's accomplice and lover. The desert photography is outstanding, and dozens of animal species show up on screen. The entire film is character driven, however all of the main characters are unpleasant. ...... - MERK