A Death of Innocence (1971 TV Movie) User Reviews

An excellent portrait of an antisocial-dependent personality disorder.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 21 January 2017]

This story is an interesting portrait of a really evil young lady and what makes it more interesting is that it's seen through the eyes of her very naive parents. The story begins with the parents (Shelly Winters and John Randolph) flying to New York City to meet with a lawyer (Arthur Kennedy). It seems their daughter Buffy (Tisha Sterling) is being held for murder and the parents are absolutely positive it's all a misunderstanding, as their sweet girl never could have done anything so wretched. However, through the course of the film, the mother starts to see another side to her daughter--a side that seems far more concerned about her boyfriend (also charged with murder) and whose biggest concern is what her parents can buy her!

This is an excellent film and it is an excellent look at what would no doubt be considered a Depent Personality with Antisocial features (or, possibly an Antisocial AND Dependent Personality). I used to be a psychotherapist and unfortunately worked with many people like this. Such a person is an individual whose sole concern is the person they depend upon---other things just aren't important. What their partner wants or demands, they do. And, since they also are antisocial (since they lack a conscience), they don't mind using or killing someone in order to keep the person loving them. In essence, if the man (or woman in many other cases) says 'kill'....they do, lest they lose the man because they disobeyed! Sick? Absolutely...and absolutely detestable. But the way the film let this out slowly and showing the mother's reaction...that what made this a very special made for TV movie. Very well done and chilling to see a murderer with this little regard for her actions.

Far above par 1970s TV movie

[mls4182 · 8/10 · 30 December 2021]

I enjoy watching 1970s TV movies for the time capsules they are but also because most are so hokey and badly written they are unintentionally funny.

This film was well written and acted. The great Shelley Winters had few roles worthy of her talent at this stage of her career. This is one of them.

The only problem I had with the script was blaming the mother for not being more of a strict disciinarian. Nonsense. We are responsible for our own actions.

Coming to terms that your daughter's a sociopath.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 29 October 2021]

The long suffering mother and the scheming daughter has been a plot device on daytime soap operas for decades: Erica/Mona, Rachel! Ada, Heather/Alice, Jill/Liz. Just a few, but they are powerful plot relationships, and in the case of Shelley Winters and Tisha Sterling here, I see elements of mother and daughter of this TV movie in all of those soap characters, particularly Alice and Heather of "General Hospital". Tisha Sterling even resembles Robin Mattson (particularly in the similar hairstyles), and this TV movie came years before that intense soap opera storyline.

For the role of the long suffering mother here, Shelley Winters is playing against type, soft spoken and concerned, certain at first that her daughter is innocent of the crime of murder. Coming with her husband John Randolph from Iowa, Winters remains around for the trial, and over the course of the trial comes to realize how the big city has turned her into a very scheming young woman, involved with a manipulative man who manipulated her into aiding him in a crime of which she had obviously no regret.

The powerful performance of Shelley Winters is really what makes this TV movie of the week rise to something special, and she is greatly aided with the help of Randolph and Sterling, Arthur Kennedy as the defense attorney, Harold Gould as a prosecuting attorney and a surprise cameo by Ann Sothern (Sterling's real mother) as the mother of the man Sterling is involved with. Made up to be unrecognizable, veteran actress Sothern greatly resembles Roseanne Barr in her one big scene, a pathetic shell of a woman destroyed by circumstances and her own weaknesses that Winters can't bear to be around her for more than a couple of minutes. It's powerful drama, painful in many ways, and Winters proves again how fantastic on screen she is.

Mothers too fond of their children for their own good

[clanciai · 9/10 · 14 February 2022]

Shelley Winters makes a great performance here as the mother from Idaho going to New York to face the trial of her daughter for homicide. Naturally she gets confused by the imposing impressions of the great city and its thronging masses, and she immediately gets importuned by opportunists who want to make money out of the case, like a journalist, who knows her business. When Buffy, the daughter, first appears on the screen you must like her mother feel that she is incapable of any wickedness, but gradually an interesting case is psychologically exposed and wrapped up. John Randolph plays the father, who is equally convinced it must all be some misunderstanding, and the lawyer, Arthur Kennedy, really puts some effort in making the best of it. However, Buffy (Tisha Sterling) gets the last word, which settles the case but unsettles everyone. The most interesting part of the film is the careful examination of Shelley Winters' gradual awakening to an alien reality shattering her universe, as the truth as always is implacable and irrevocable. Buffy's final triumph is a grotesque and devastating turning of the tables in the most drastic possible way, and it is a great scene. At times you have to wonder, is it really Buffy who is on trial or is it her parents?

strong social drama

[petersjoelen · 8/10 · 29 November 2020]

In dutch there is a term that goes as fallows : soft healers are making stinking wounds . In other words if you don't correct bad behavior it will get worse . That is in esence the the story of this film . In these modern times of upraising kids and the lack of punishment for bad behavior ( it seems almost a taboo to strike your child ) i don't think this movie could be made in this time . In the movie the mother at the end realizes the mistakes she made , i don't think that is realistic , i think most parents would not be able to confront themselves with this hard truth . To bad that the father was absent during most of the later moments because he is equally responsible ( maybe even more ) than his wife .