Her Hidden Truth (1995) (TV)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Dan Lerner

Writer (WGA):

Pamela K. Long (written by)

Release Date:

12 November 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

A young Billie Calhoun is accused of killing her mother and sister in a house fire. she is taken to a juvenile detention center...

Plot Keywords:

Handcuffs | Death By Fire | False Accusation Of Murder | Tied Up | Murder

Cast

Kellie Martin	...	Billie Calhoun
Antonio Sabato Jr.	...	Det. Matt Samoni
Ken Howard	...	Jack Devereaux
Reed Diamond	...	Clay Devereaux
Bruce Weitz	...	Lt. Ricky Levine
Cindy Pickett	...	Laney Devereaux
Gordon Clapp	...	Father Paul
Mary Donnelly-Haskell	...	Dr. Jane Wilson
Lisa Thornhill	...	Jean Calhoun
Red West	...	Fireman Leon Sykes
Harold Surratt	...	Jazz, Lab Tech
Allison Porter	...	Young Billie
Dennis Letts	...	The Prosecutor
Diana Taylor	...	Officer Val Johnson
David Dwyer	...	Mr. Gleason

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Company:

Ascato TV Inc.

Ultimate Lifetime Movie!

I'm not sure how to rate this -- on the one hand, it has some of the dumbest writing and one of the most obvious "mysteries" I have seen (I knew who the killer was before he was even introduced!) On the other hand, this is almost like a complete study of the formulas for Lifetime Movies -- if it only had a rape and some drug abuse worked in, it would have had everything.

The story is that Billie Calhoun, at age 10, was framed for the murder of her single mother and baby sister, and has spent the last 8 years in juvie. She is set to be released early for good behavior, but a cackling, gleefully evil psychiatrist who obviously has some kind of ulterior motive (which is only barely explained later) advises that Billie be kept longer. The prison guards all just *know* Billie is innocent, and they arrange to let her escape so she can discover the truth of what happened. Billie's legal guardian is a local priest (who obviously is played by a man who had auditioned for the handsome-young-cop-role, since the fellow would have had to have been around 13 years old when Billie was 10) and he knows the truth about who killed Billie's mother and sister, but he never mentioned it to her before this time, and when he intends to tell her, he is suddenly murdered. Billie is the one to discover the body and of course she proceeds to touch everything in sight with her bare hands including the murder weapon before she flees, making it seem as if she had been the killer. Soon the cops are hot on her tail, but Billie manages to find a sympathetic handsome-young-cop and he starts up a completely inappropriate romantic relationship with her that is so creepy I started wondering if it should have been counted as a rape. (The girl is completely at his mercy -- she's an escaped convict that he is hiding in his house, and he's a cop. What's she going to do, reject his advances?) Without giving away too much of the ending, Billie and the Cop set out to find the EVIL HEARTLESS MEN who caused all this. Oh, and somehow Billie knows how to drive even though she's spent all her life in juvie.

Dumb writing, but if you're like me and don't exactly watch Lifetime Movies because you expect them to be good, then this is definitely one to see!