From The Legend of Lizzie Borden and A Case of Rape in the 1970s to Sins of the Mother and Black Widow Murders in the ’90s, Elizabeth Montgomery was the queen of the based-on-a-true-story TV movie. Sadly, though her bearing was regal as ever in 1992’s With Murder in Mind (also known as With Savage Intent), the film around her is every bit as soggy as her rain-drenched surroundings in The Victim.
Murder’s structural problems begin and end with its screenplay, credited to Daniel Freudenberger (A Strange Affair). In the 90 minutes we spend with Gayle Wolfer, a successful realtor in Western New York who survives a heinous shooting, we learn virtually nothing about her other than she’s a new grandma and, we’re repeatedly told, an inspiration. If the idea was that our affection for Montgomery would transfer seamlessly to her brusque character, Freudenberger and director Michael Tuchner (Summer of My German Soldier) were mistaken.
The film is normal enough in its opening scenes, as we’re introduced to Gayle’s grown daughters and doting boyfriend Bob (Richard Foxworth, Montgomery’s real-life partner), who is also an employee. Her trip to Sardinia, where she’s slated to show a ramshackle rural property to a jittery new client, Furman (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.), is first tinged with humor and then fraught with suspense when he pulls a gun.
Sketchy homeowner Ted (Kevin O’Rourke) has something Furman wants, and Gayle worries she might, too. When Furman leads her, bound and gagged, to a bedroom and tries to make her comfortable, she questions whether he’s about to hurt her. “Oh, no. No, no, no,” he replies. “I’m not in the hurting business.” And then he shoots her three times in the head and neck. Police struggle to establish a clear motive, speculating that Ted was targeted over the sale of his drug-trafficking operation and Gayle was collateral damage.
Despite the severity of her injuries, which Tuchner lingers on almost grotesquely, Gayle survives. When she isn’t waging a losing battle against PTSD or retreating to the bottom of a bottle, she cracks the case on a whim in highly unusual circumstances. Strolling through a county fair with Bob, she hears Furman’s voice emanating from the body of Samuel Carver (Rollins), an auxiliary cop on horseback. Though detectives fret about the reliability of cross-racial witness identifications, they’re overruled by Gayle’s police captain buddy.
Freudenberger gives us no compelling reasons to trust her dramatic identification but several to question Gayle’s certitude as she’s gripped by paranoia. Tuchner blithely ignores those seeds of doubt on his way to a hackneyed ending and expects viewers to do likewise, which is a tall task. I assume there’s more to the real-life case than what is shown in With Murder in Mind, but there’s not enough freely available information for me to judge what’s missing. We’re told again and again (usually by Bob) that Gayle’s an unstoppable force of nature, but we’re mostly only privy to her as an understandably traumatized obsessive.
At Bob’s kookiest, he sweet-talks her with an oddly graphic reference to gaping head wounds: “Nothing can stop you. You’re a locomotive. Scars on your face and some bullets got in. But what’s precious about you, what’s strong and sexy and smart, that couldn’t leak out.” Oy vey! Montgomery and Rollins were formidable talents who probably could’ve ad-libbed a better film than what was scripted. Offscreen, time was running out for them both, which adds to Murder’s gloom. The only lights in the darkness are Maureen O’Sullivan as Gayle’s great-aunt and Danton Stone as a colorful underworld sleaze.
For a behind-the-scenes look at the making of “With Murder in Mind,” including interviews with the gracious Wolfer, visit reporter Rich Newberg’s original WIVB segments at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s digital collection.
Streaming and DVD availability
With Murder in Mind isn’t currently available on DVD or authorized streaming platforms, but you can catch it on YouTube under its alternate title, With Savage Intent. Many of Montgomery’s other TV movies have been released on DVD through Warner Archives and can be found on Amazon.
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Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.
Lisa
Always love some EM during her TV movie heyday! Never watched this one. I do remember the Black Widow one where she serves up Anti Ant as a main course!!!
Cranky
Hey, Lisa! Thanks for the comment. I’ve not seen Montgomery’s “Black Widow” yet but look forward to catching it on YouTube. And, of course, there’s another “Black Widow” I still need to get around to reviewing, the lesbian-tension classic with Debra Winger and Theresa Russell.