Addicted to His Love (1988)

Larry Hogan (Barry Bostwick) is a serial womaniser and swindler, preying on the owner of a beauty salon, Cassie Robbins (Linda Purl). Although she is the one most hesitant to believe the worst of him amongst Vivian Langford (Polly Bergen), Betty Ann Brendan (Dee Wallace Stone) and Jenny Barrett (Erin Gray), it is her contribution which finally helps Larry be prosecuted for fraud.

Cassie is the dramatic centre of the movie, whereas the romances of the other ladies has a comic edge, and Purl brings a pathos to her shy character. Her disbelief at Larry's duplicity is demonstrated by her repeating a line of denial as she walks away, and Purl freezes in reaction to Larry's return after standing her up at their proposed wedding - the pain of her humiliation recalls silent movie acting.

The teleplay by Ronni Simon describes Larry as `like an animal stalking his prey', and has Vivian moralise with `He took the one thing we can't list on a police report - our pride'. There is a funny line `A woman at 40 is more likely to be shot by a terrorist than get married', and a funny exchange in `He wasn't even that good. He wasn't that bad either'. Although the climax where the women gather to entrap Larry is more silly than amusing, the best scene is at a restaurant where Larry has to move from sharing a table with Betty Ann and Jenny.

Director Arthur Allan Seidelman uses the music score by Richard Bettis with it's saxophone jazz for the comedy, and opens with an American Gigolo-style montage of Larry dressing. It's just a pity that Boswick's kind of sincerity is the type nobody would believe. Bergin has a campy drag queen appearance - at one point she wears a huge fur coat - and her face turns into a grimace after she speaks her lines, but Gray's voice has an unusual resonance, and even Wallace Stone has some schoolgirl-ish charm.