The Burning Bed

Wasn't it a special 2-night Event?

I wish seldom seen movies like this were rerun on tv.

I bet it's on YouTube.

Another powerful TV movie that was just as good, if not better, is "A Case Of Rape" starring Elizabeth Montgomery. It was made back in the day when rape was still not seen as a serious crime, and the movie brings out all the anguish and the injustice that the rape victim had to go through. Riveting and so memorable.

Wasn't O.J. Simpson in "A Case of Rape" as a cop?

I remember being very impressed by FF in "Bed."

Great movie, but read the book.

the book was better

No, but I half remember a TV movie with Nancy McKeon (Joe from FoL) in which her abusive ex finds her and stomps her head in in public after you think she's gotten away and will be rewarded for her courage with safety. No one intervenes. Extremely realistic and blood curdling.

R8, that was the Tracey Thurman case. Both that movie and The Burning Bed were based on true stories. Thurman sued the city of Torrington, CT for repeatedly failing to enforce her restraining order against her husband. The husband didn't just stomp her head, he stabbed her multiple times and left her partly paralyzed. The police took their sweet fucking time responding to the call, something like a half hour. Her scars are horrific.

Does anyone remember a TV movie with Angie Dickenson called "The Suicide's Wife" (based on a book)? She was terrific in that.

Kind of a weird coincidence but I thought about this movie yesterday. A well made but harrowing examination of domestic abuse. And it was a made for t.v movie which was pretty ballsy for a broadcast network to produce at the time. Fawcett was stellar. Something About Amelia, another well made but equally disturbing made for t.v movie about a father who molests his daughter, and starred Ted Danson of all people, was made around the same time. Early eighties. I also remember A Case Of Rape. Now it's just all lame sit-coms, over the top dramas, and resurrected game shows on network t.v. Oh, and the Country Music Awards which is televised three times a year apparently.

Farrah Fawcett was so good in that movie. I really loved Farrah. I wonder how her junkie son is doing? Hopefully staying sober. So sad.

She did a great job as Diane Downs in Small Sacrifices. Chilling.

Farrah was also excellent in Murder in Texas, a two-part TV movie she made just prior to Burning Bed. It too was based on a true story and had everyone talking about her unexpected transformation to serious actress.

Oh my God, can't believe you brought up Something About Amelia, R11. I agree that these two movies shared something in the area of overall tone, if not subject matter.

Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ᴡᴇ sʟᴇᴇᴘ ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ᴏᴜʀ ʙᴇᴅs ᴀʀᴇ ʙᴜʀɴɪɴɢ?!

Um, the synopsis for Something About Amelia needs to be reviewed STAT:

[quote]"Amelia Bennett is a thirteen-year-old girl. She has a little sister and well-off parents who love her dearly, her father Steven in particular who is used to calling her "Princess". Now, "princess" is one of the traditional endearing names men give to their little girls. But it is also a fond name they can call adult women they have sex with. Of course, who is the father who has not more or less desired his daughter ? But few are those who actually give in to their sexual impulses. Steven, as for him, has actually done it. He has broken the ultimate taboo. As a result, Amelia is totally upset. So is her family..."

I prefer "Extremities" for movies where Farrah Fawcett gets beat up a lot.

Why the fuck did she do Extremities, anyway? That role was practically back to back to the one she played in Burning Bed. Was she looking for an Oscar?

Extremities was an incredible move.

They used to show The Burning Bed a lot as a weekend matinee on TV. It was strange.

Someone mentioned one of the many Nancy McKeon tv movies up thread. Was the one mentioned the one where cops go into the bedroom after covering the place in some sort of powder that will glow in the dark if there's blood? They turn off the lights and the room is basically lit up with blood stains all over the place.

Jane Kaczmareck plays the social worker who helps Amelia get removed from her home in "Something About Amelia." Glenn Close is quite good playing Ted Danson'a wife. They would, of course, reunite years later on "Damages."

Roxana Zal (who played Amelia) won an Emmy for her performance that year.

Something about Amelia was really fucked up.

I noticed someone mention that it featured Ted Danson of all people. No mention of G!!!!

Anyway, the ending of that movie was so fucked up. Doesn't the father just move right back in with the family as if nothing's ever happened?

Something About Amelia is on Youtube.

Apparently Tracey Thurman's son has had a number of brushes with the law. Very sad.

I own it. An Oscar calibre performance from Fawcett.

She was also riveting in "Extremeties".

I remember watching this movie with my parents, my dad was very uncomfortable with it. Later I found out why. He used to beat the shit out of mom. The bastard has been dead for more than 20 years now.

I miss network TV movies and mini-series. Many of them were excellent. I agree that Small Sacrifices was very good and Fawcett excellent.

Nancy McKeon was terrific in the Tracy Thurman story and I thought she was going to have a career resurgence as a dramatic actress she was so good in it.

I Know My First Name is Steven was another devastating mini-series. I found it suspenseful and terrifying. And so tragic when Steven Stayner died only months after the mini-series aired.

Steven Stayner's brother became a serial killer.

[quote]Why the fuck did she do Extremities, anyway? That role was practically back to back to the one she played in Burning Bed. Was she looking for an Oscar?

Probably sentimental reasons (and Oscar hopes too)

She did the play off-Broadway(after Susan Sarandon and then Karen Allen had played the part) and that was where she first got acclaim as an actress and that role led to her getting the part in Burning Bed.

R11/R22 I always thought Amelia was played by the actress who played Albert's "GF", Sylvia, on Little House on the Prairie.

I think I'm confusing the molestation element. Remember Sylvia was molested/raped(?) by a clown???

No, R31, not the same girl. The little sister in Something About Amelia however (the one who is the catalyst for Amelia squealing on Daddy), played Cassandra on Little House.

I singled out Danson because he was the lead and that struck me as really outside the box casting because at the time he did SAA he was the lead on Cheers playing the wildly popular good guy Sam Malone. So it was a real departure from the character who made him famous and something of a risk career wise. Glenn was also very good. Tragically, and sadly, in many cases where a child is molested by a parent the spouse of the abuser refuses to believe the child and the family remains intact. It was a fucked up ending but not outside the bounds of reality.

[quote]It was a fucked up ending but not outside the bounds of reality.

True, but what made it fucked up wasn't just that he moves back in it was the way the ending gave the impression that, "oh, everything is totally fine and this wasn't a big deal at all!!!"

What I find interesting about both Glenn and Danson is how old they looked in the movie.

[quote]Parnell was not charged with the numerous sexual assaults on Steven Stayner and other boys because most of them occurred outside the jurisdiction of the Merced county prosecutor or were by then outside the statute of limitations. The Mendocino County prosecutors, acting almost entirely alone, decided not to prosecute Parnell for the sexual assaults that occurred in their jurisdiction. This is likely due to the prosecutors' belief that they were "protecting" Stayner because rape and molestation victims were seen as "damaged goods." They may also have felt that they were respecting the Stayner parents' reluctance to discuss Parnell's crimes because of the stigma of male sexual abuse

WTF???

Diana Scarwid Star of Extremities.

Someone mentioned Francine Hughes in another thread. I didn't realize she had died.

Anyway, I remember watching The Burning Bed in the late 1990s. It was hard to watch but did an excellent job of portraying domestic violence.

I think the most disturbing film I've watched on this subject, though, is Lee Tamahori's Once Were Warriors.

He called her two names.

He called her a bitch and a whore.

Is r38 supposed to make sense?

From her daughter's court testimony, fuckface R39.

r40 = the ghost of Mickey Hughes

There were so many horrifying TV movies back in the day:

Death Scream: about the murder Kitty Genovese. 37 people watched her get murdered, but no one called the Police. There is a documentary on NetFlix about this case.

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night: Susan Day played an abusive mother. The end of this movie STILL haunts me.

God Bless This Child: Mare Winningham plays a mother who becomes homeless, and out of no falt of her own, has to try and survive the system. ANOTHER ending that is painful to watch.

Child Of Rage: Marette Hartley plays a therapist of a 5 year old who is adopted by a family, but the little girl has rage issues because of something she experienced in her past. There is a scene where the little girl is sitting on her grandfather's lap and says some horribly innaproprate things, totally gross, I might add.

Those where the days...

Just watched "Extremities" last night. Christ, that Diana Scarwid is a shit actress. I didn't find Fawcett all that great either and the whole thing seemed really dated.

r42 I'd forgotten about Child of Rage! I remember the lap-sitting scene -- wow that was disturbing.

Bastard out of Carolina was also very hard to watch

Fallen Angel- Dana Hill is lured into kiddie porn by Richard Masur.

[quote]37 people watched her get murdered, but no one called the Police. There is a documentary on NetFlix about this case.

As the documentary correctly points out, it isn’t true that no one called the police.

R47. True. The documentary tells the true story. It was manipulated by the press to match the narrative of uncaring New Yorkers. It was offensive.

r43 I will have to check it out ... mostly because I enjoy dated films