In the tradition of TV movies of the ‘80s and ‘90s that
featured a main character missing one of their keen senses, Blind Witness (1989) is one of the
better ones. Victoria Principal stars as
Maggie Kemlich a blind woman who has a successful job and an even more
successful husband (Stephen Macht). One
night their home is broken into and Maggie narrowly escapes alive when the
burglars believe that she will never be able to identify them. She has little time to mourn the loss of her
husband because the police don’t believe that she can identify the killers
because they see her as handicapped.
Only Det. Mike Tuthill (Paul Le Mat) sees her as a credible witness and
the two go on a search to find her husband’s real killers despite the
tremendous odds and the threat to her own life when the killers fear that she
may, in fact, be able to single them out.
The film still plays very well mostly because of Principal’s
endearing performance. A lot of the rest
of the film can even be seen as passé and out of date as police procedure now
does not summarily dismiss the witness accounts of people with
disabilities. The teleplay was written
by Edmond Stevens and Robert Carrington (with story credit to Tom Sullivan) and
the film was directed by Richard A. Colla who made a career out of directing TV
movies and television shows from the ‘60s to the ‘90s.
This is indeed a film that showcases Principal’s talents but
it also allows Le Mat to shine as well.
For most horror fans Le Mat will be most remembered for his role in Puppetmaster (1989) but he was also
featured in Lonesome Dove: The Series
and Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years. He’s one of those character actors whose face
you know but you can’t remember from where.
As TV movies go, this is not a bad one at all.
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