By JOHN CORRY
Published: March 7, 1987
LEAD: ''Deadly Deception'' is melodrama, occasionally unpleasant, vaguely depressing, only fitfully interesting. The two-hour CBS movie, at 9 P.M. Sunday, is about the disappearance of a baby. First, however, the baby's mother is hanged. This is cheerless stuff.
''Deadly Deception'' is melodrama, occasionally unpleasant, vaguely depressing, only fitfully interesting. The two-hour CBS movie, at 9 P.M. Sunday, is about the disappearance of a baby. First, however, the baby's mother is hanged. This is cheerless stuff.
The movie was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, although we're meant to think it's rural California. Laurie Shoat (Margaret Gibson) is lured to a motel rendezvous with her baby and there meets her nasty end. Her aggrieved husband (Matt Salinger) wants to unravel the mystery. The movie throws dream sequences and Freudian darkness into all this, but not to much effect. Low-budget melodrama is still low-budget melodrama.
When the mystery is unraveled, though, ''Deadly Deception'' does give us a slightly embarrassed-looking Mildred Natwick in a ''special guest appearance.'' Miss Natwick descends a flight of stairs in a supposedly spooky old mansion. Actually, it's not spooky in the slightest, but it is nice to see Miss Natwick.
Mr. Salinger moves stolidly through all this. ''Deadly Deception'' - produced by Andrew Gottlieb, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, written by Gordon Cotler - poses him artfully in a leather jacket over a white turtleneck and plaid shirts. The jacket is the kind that's meant to look worn when it's brand new. The clothes give Mr. Salinger, who's supposed to be a carpenter, a certain picturesqueness. In the absence of much else to do, Mr. Salinger at least displays some presence.
The movie's other presence is provided by Bonnie Bartlett, who plays Mr. Salinger's mother. She does seem to be acting a part. Otherwise, not much is going on in ''Deadly Deception.'' Mostly it just wants to kill time.
Deadly Deception (1987) TV Movie
Cast: Bonnie Bartlett, Christopher Allport, James Noble, Lisa Eilbacher, Matt Salinger
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