sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** One of the best Lifetime Movie Network films ever ever made in that it's so off-the-wall and unbelievable yet at the same time a true story which makes you take it's mind boggling plot seriously. The film proves the famous saying that "Truth is stranger the fiction" and there's nothing more stranger and more eye-popping and hard to take then the storyline, based on a true story, of the film "Deadly Relations"Decorated US Marine Corps. combat veteran Len Fagot, Robert Urich, has the kind of life and family that most of us dream about. A very successful disability claims lawyer Len also has a loving and dedicated wife Shirley, Shelly Fabares, and four beautiful daughters Carol, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joanne, Georgia Emelin, Nancy, Jillian Boyd,and Shirley Jr,Joy Farmer. Len runs his household like a Marine boot camp with his word being the last word in anything that goes on there. It's when his oldest daughter Joanne breaks ranks and announces her engagement to George Westerfield, Matthew Perry, that the feeling betrayed and feeling hurt Len goes into action. Putting on an act that he's in favor of Joanne's decision he behind everyone backs plans to insure her husband to be and then have him knocked for the insurance money! Things get a bit strange when the straight laced and dedicated family man Len Fagot is caught literately with his pants down making out in a car with his new lady gardener Marty, Roxana Zal, by his youngest daughter Shirley Jr no less!Even though Shirley Jr. is shocked to see what her dad is doing behind her mom's as well as her and her sisters backs she's told by a very embarrassed Len that it, his fooling around with Marty, all has to do with his heart condition that Marty in offering her professional services, besides gardening, to him has greatly elevated!We soon begin to see that Len is slowly going both out of his mind and depleting his bank account as he insures everyone in his family,including himself,in order to make a killing on them if they ever happen to meet an unfortunate end. This goes so far that Len ends up shooting off, in a so-called hunting accident, his left hand in order for him to collect the insurance money! This insane act on Len's part backfires with the insurance company, smelling a rat, refusing to pay off!***SPOILERS*** Len overplays his hand, his good hand, by trying to set up his daughter Carol's husband Mike Holland, Tony Higgins, in his latest insurance fraud scam but that proves to be a bit too difficult for him. By then Len has completely lost it, as well as his savings, and everyone in the family from his wife Shirley on down know what a sick and homicidal nut case he really was. Mike who's been smuggling pot across the Mexican border had the by now desperate Len make him a partner in crime to get a cut in his pot profits .This resulted with Mike's latest pot shipment, that Len was hoping would bail him out of his financial troubles, intercepted by corrupt US drug agents who ended up selling it themselves!Completely out of his skull and desperate for cash Len goes through with his plan to knock off Mike,like he did George,to get the insurance money. But by then his favorite daughter Carol just had about all she could take from her money hungry as well as boozed up and pill popping father and decided to turn him, with her sworn court testimony,into the police and local D.A's office. This lead to Len making a complete fool of himself in court, where he was on trail for murder and insurance fraud, and later when facing life behind bars took the easy way out by ending it all.

greyjamie I haven't seen the movie, but decided to research it after spending the day and talking about it with my grandmother, Barbara Fagot Mathews. So whoever did "research" to find out if it is a true story... here's the newspaper article: http://www.geocities.com/murder_stories3/carol_donahue1.htmlBy the way, he was my grandmother's first cousin. She knew him very well as a child, but after a serious fight between Leonard his once inseparable cousin (her brother, my great uncle), they stopped talking to that side of the family.Apparently I have to have 10 lines to comment, so now I will babble. Was the movie any good? Maybe I'll try to get a copy of it.

hawgdogsgal I, too, just happened upon this movie by being too lazy to change the channel. It ended up to be quite a good movie. It was a little different for me to see Robert Urich as a "bad guy". One of the things that actually stuck out for me was the house the family lived in. It looked like something Frank Lloyd Wright would have built, and I actually did try to find out where the house was (no luck). I also thought Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent, as was Robert Urich. I pretty much like Urich in most anything. I was a little disappointed that Shelley Fabares didn't have more screen time; I really like her. If you like suspense (as opposed to thrills), you will definitely like this movie.

Larry Peebles This movie is so "real," I felt it must be based on fact. But after a little research, I realized that it's just a very intriguing story, expertly crafted. Good performances all around. Highly recommended.