Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney in the notorious Charles Manson murder case, crossed over to the defence for drifters Jennifer Jenkins and her boyfriend Buck Walker, charged with the murder of wealthy yacht owners Mac and Muff Graham in the early Seventies. This TV movie is based on his book documenting the case, and tells the story mainly in flashback during the preparations for the trial. As Bugliosi, Richard Crenna is convincing and authoritative. Deidre Hall presents a particularly sympathetic portrait of Muff and Rachel Ward establishes Jennifer's enigmatic character surprisingly well. Nothing wrong with the acting, then, and director Tommy Lee Wallace (who has helmed such horrors as Fright Night II and the gory Halloween III) has the drama well under control. What lets the movie down is its lack of a unifying theme, despite attempts to draw in social and legal implications.

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