Craig Weston (Wayne Rogers) is happily married to Janet (Bonnie Bedelia), whose father (Pat Hingle) is Wayne's boss and owner of a large Houston-based international construction firm. The couple has two young daughters, a beautiful home in Houston, and a secure future, but all of this might be expunged after a Vietnamese woman with whom Craig had a love affair in Saigon during the War there, ten years prior, arrives in Texas to confront him with a surprise package - a son from their liaison, along with a request to assume custody of the youth because she is dying of leukemia. It becomes immediately clear that this is an unabashed melodrama in the trite soap opera manner but, because of strong contributions from cast and crew, there are few dull passages, the actors giving their best efforts to pull what they can from what is rather weak material, with the accomplished Bedelia gaining performing honours for her intensely detailed turn as Craig's bewildered wife, whose comfortable existence is challenged by unexpected events. Direction by Robert Day is leisurely as is appropriate for milking the tepid screenplay, and production quality for this piece made for television is generally high, particularly noteworthy efforts coming from dependable Mark Snow for his illustrative scoring, and from Judy Summers for well-crafted designing and employment of colour, while editor Ira Heyman in his final assignment and costumer Donna Barrish in her first are quite skillful, and whereas substantial cutting does not serve to elevate the below standard and predictable storyline, it makes of this fare a satisfactory experience for a viewer.
Review of The Lady from Yesterday
