Saturday, December 31, 2011

MIND OVER MURDER (1979)




PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*




MIND OVER MURDER is a decent enough TV-movie about an assistant district attorney, name of "Suzy" (Deborah Raffin), who suddenly gains the power to hear other people's thoughts.  This proves to be somewhat helpful as she starts picking up the thoughts of the perps she's trying to convict. She doesn't do what many people with such a gift would do-- running around reading as many minds as possible-- but tries to restrict the power of her gift to criminal matters.  In the film's one memorable comic scene, she has one accidental encounter with the thoughts of the married man she's sleeping with, as she learns that he really has no intention of leaving his wife.

Apart from this scene, most of the film is routine movie-of-the-week mush.  Director Ivan Nagy does well with her experiences of other people's memories, which are depicted as chaotic when funneled through Suzy's perceptions.  Apart from that, its only other interest is its cast of seasoned veterans: in addition to Rafferty, we also get Andrew Prine, Paul Lukather, Bruce Davison and (in a small role) a pre-Freddy Robert Englund.

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