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VOICES WITHIN
Remember the Sally Field starring, multiple personality
themed, based on fact small screen thriller
SYBIL? Well, here's its vastly
inferior counterpart, a 1990 TV movie based on the harrowing story of Trudi
Chase, a woman who, due to unimaginable childhood abuse, lived with 18 different
personalities. Naturally, such a story would need a strong actress at its
center, and yet in this film Trudi is played by SHELLEY LONG???
The Package
Yes, that Shelley Long, the onetime CHEERS
starlet who went on to a failed movie career (with bombs like HELLO AGAIN and
TROOP BEVERLY HILLS). She also starred in this TV movie that attempted to
dramatize the book WHEN RABBIT HOWLS by "The troops for Trudi Chase" (in other
words, her 18 personalities). Shown in 1990 on ABC as a two night, four-hour
extravaganza (and then edited down to 107 minutes for Canadian video), the film
is a bummer, paying scant lip service to the book. Instead, in tried-and-true TV
movie fashion, it concentrates mostly on Trudi's problems with her hubby, and
ends with her being "cured" by psychiatrist Tom Conti and confronting her
abusive father for the obligatory "uplifting" coda.
As for Shelley, she's not as bad as you might think-but
then, she's certainly not very good. Semi-competent is the word I'd use for her
emoting here, meaning that it won't satisfy trash movie fans, but it's not
nearly good enough to match Sally Field's justifiably renowned work in SYBIL.
The Story
Trudi is an attractive young woman with a seemingly
bright future: she lands a cushy job and has an affair with her boss. Marriage
follows, and a daughter, but her "mood swings" pose a problem. Having been
abused as a child (presented as flashbacks that have, naturally, been severely
truncated from the near-unimaginable horrors presented in the book), she has
eighteen personalities jostling around in her head. In short order, her hubby
dumps her and she has a nervous breakdown, ending up in the office of a
supershrink. There follow several screaming and crying sessions in the
psychiatrist's office (think of similar scenes in ORDINARY PEOPLE or, yes,
SYBIL), which inspire her to confront her father and make everything better
(yeah, right!).
The Direction
Lamont Johnson was the director (and co-producer) and
does pretty much what you'd expect: turns out a competent product unencumbered
by surprise, energy, imagination or any trace of individuality. Despite the
subject matter, the film is so bland it's difficult to see what TV audiences
ever saw in it (and I understand the ratings were respectable)--of course, like
most TV movies, it's pretty dated by now, meaning that the majority of the
millions of viewers who originally tuned in probably feel the same way.
Vital Statistics
VOICES WITHIN: THE LIVES OF TRUDI CHASE
Itzbinso Long productions/P.A. Productions, Inc.
Director: Lamont Johnson
Producers: Harry R. Sherman, Lamont Johnson
Screenplay: E. Jack Neuman
(Based upon the book WHEN RABBIT HOWLS by "The Troops for Trudi Chase")
Cinematography: William Wages
Editor: Susan B. Browdy
Cast: Shelley Long, Tom Conti, John Rubinstein, Alan Fudge, Jamie Rose,
Christine Healy, Ernie Lively, Frank Converse