Seduced and Betrayed (1995)

Former All My Children mainstay Susan Lucci and David Charvet star in this TV movie "Seduced And Betrayed".Mary Ellen Trainor and Gabrielle Carteris co-star in this screenplay written by Cameron Kent about a rich and older widow Victoria Landers who draws a young married man and contractor Dan Hiller for the restoration of her house in Phoenix,Arizona into a web of seduction,passion and betrayal.Well,after I have been into watching Lethal Seduction and Bad Sister and I got into this which has a similar storyline with the two those two movies mentioned about an older woman seducing a younger woman into an illicit affair.But unlike the them,it does not involve High School students but rather a married man getting involved into adultery.And just like them,things start to go awry and harmful when the older woman starts to behave psychotically and turn to her manipulative and violent tendencies when the man started to go out of relationship for she would not take "no" for an answer.The viewer would say,I have been there many times and Fatal Attraction as well as classic 60's movie The Graduate come to mind.But despite of these reasons and the movie being two decades old,it was nice to see Susan Lucci in another role other than Erica Kane.Being a talented actress as evidenced by he 19 Emmy Award nominations,she played a great evil and manipulative seductress in Victoria.She never overplayed the role as she used her natural beauty and charms.As the violent woman,she was definitely convincing. Watch this TV movie directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá for her alone.

(Some Spoilers) Coming to Phoenix Arizona to start a new life with his wife Cheryl, Gaberella Carteris, and six year-old son Justin, Zach Glicksman, Dan Hiller, David Charvet, didn't realize went he was getting into when he accidentally bumped the fender of Victoria Landers', Susan Lucci, flaming red sports-car.Victoria seeing what a prize the boyishly handsome as well as innocent Dan is immediately went into high gear and got his number, or business card, in case her car suffered any damages. Victoria's car was quite all right but Dan's life turned out to be a disaster area with her squeezing every drop of blood, and penny, out of it as well as the lives of both Cheryl and little Justin.Being an up and coming contractor Victoria got the hard up, for cash, Dan a job at her palatial estate fixing or improving everything that needed or didn't need improvement on it. What really needed improvement for Victoria was her love life in that she's having a hard time as of late keeping on to her boyfriends. It was "lucky" Dan who was the one, in Victoria's devious mind, to spice things for her by having him stolen away from his wife Cheryl. By making Cheryl think that he, not Victoria, was the aggressor in this soon to become wild and adulteress affair Victoria planned to have the reluctant Dan thrown out into the street, and out of his house, with no place to go but back to her!It didn't take long for Dan to get under the covers, as well as go skinny-dipping, with Victoria but the price he was to pay for his youthful indiscretion, Dan was only 22 at the time, was the loss of his wife and family. Victoria used everything in her arsenal to not only get Dan in the sack with her but keep him for getting work, as a contractor, to support his young family. Heartless and determined to get and keep Dan all for herself Victoria went as far as putting young Justin's life at risk by having him left alone in the house as Dan and Cheryl went out to dinner to patch up their differences.Dan and Cheryl having called for a babysitter, Marissa Hall, to watch over the sickly Justin, he just got out of the hospital, Victoria told her that her father suffered a near-fatal heart-attack and that she's her replacement, a lie on Victoria's part, to get Marissa to leave Justin alone. Calling family services, and of course not leaving her name, Vitoria told them that the Hillers are unfit parents which had them rush over to the Hiller house and take Justin, in tears, away from his shocked and startled parents when they got home!As you would expect Victoria's obsession with the handsome and hunky Dan Hiller got him to finally break off all relationships, that included his only source of income, with her. Mad as a hornet, or black widow, by being dropped and made to look like a foolish and love-sick school girl Victoria was not going to let Dan get away so easy. **SPOILER ALERT** What Victoria didn't realize was that Dan had the goods on her in an affair that she had years before she ever met him. An affair that lead to the death, or murder, of her lover Judge Reardon who like Dan dropped her like a hot potato. Overplaying her hand Victoria went a bit too far in silencing the very person who can finger her in Judge Reardon's death, and what she's now doing to Dan, in that crime: Vctoria's late lover's wife Charlotte Reardon, Mary Ellen Trainor. That mistake on Victoria's part was all that Dan, and the police, needed to put her away for good but, in knowing that she was beaten in her own game, Victoria ended up doing the job for them!

I enjoyed the movie because my son Zach was the little boy in the movie. It was the only movie he ever appeared in. (He was actually cast in another movie, but his scene was cut.) He just graduated high school and will begin college in the fall. It is really nice that people talk about his one movie. By the way, on the set Susan Lucci, Gabrielle Carteris and David Charvet were all really nice to Zach and he enjoyed the experience. The movie was filmed in Phoenix, Arizona. Susan's husband Helmut was frequently on the set. In one scene where Zach was in the hospital, he is supposed to be sick. He wasn't acting. On that day, he really was sick. The film is sort of unbelievable, but it was great escapism.

Small Spoilers I really enjoyed this movie. I'm a Christian, and I believe that extramarital affairs are sinful. I like the fact that this movie gave consequences for those actions. There are actually not very many people in this movie. But attention girls: hot guy alert! Although David Charvet hasn't been in many movies and is apparently better-known in France for his music, he's a cutie, and his job with his character is superb. I will say, though, that this movie is thoroughly unbelievable. It could happen, but I doubt it ever would. I think this movie has that trying-too-hard feeling to it. The music is overly spooky; the rainy-thunderstorm-nights happen all too often; the eerie darkness comes fairly often. Otherwise, this movie is good. I give it a 9 out of 10 stars. Please e-mail me if you'd like to discuss this or other movies.