Years before the nighttime and daytime soaps of those names came this movie of the week about a well to do family living on the Pacific coast dealing with the kidnapping of a three year old girl, leaving grandmother Geraldine Fitzgerald grief-stricken and mother Shirley Jones panicking. Years later, the widowed Jones (Fitzgerald's daughter-in-law) is shocked when evidence that her daughter may be alive, taken allegedly by the troubled mother of a dead child, and all hell breaks loose in the greedy family with blacksheep son Ross Martin making threats and Jones unsure, while matriarch Fitzgerald seems intent on making the presence of young Stephanie Zimbalist bring her granddaughter back to her.
There's obviously something wrong with the family dynamics with sinister plots against Zimbalist obviously trying to scare her away. Claude Akins, as the only father whom Zimbalist has ever known, seemingly plays a kindly character, and Fitzgerald, while domineering, is obviously the nicest member of her family. Daniel Zippi as Martin's son is the obvious suspect, with handsome family acquaintance Patrick Wayne seemingly only interested in the inheritance Zimbalist would inherit. I remembered seeing this when it first aired and in an early rerun, so it was nice to watch it unfold all over again even if I remembered the surprising twist. Fitzgerald is fabulous and dominates the screen as she dominates the family. Fun soapy potboiler where the least possible suspect really shows some surprising colors.
There's obviously something wrong with the family dynamics with sinister plots against Zimbalist obviously trying to scare her away. Claude Akins, as the only father whom Zimbalist has ever known, seemingly plays a kindly character, and Fitzgerald, while domineering, is obviously the nicest member of her family. Daniel Zippi as Martin's son is the obvious suspect, with handsome family acquaintance Patrick Wayne seemingly only interested in the inheritance Zimbalist would inherit. I remembered seeing this when it first aired and in an early rerun, so it was nice to watch it unfold all over again even if I remembered the surprising twist. Fitzgerald is fabulous and dominates the screen as she dominates the family. Fun soapy potboiler where the least possible suspect really shows some surprising colors.