QUIET KILLER
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
100 min., not rated, Drama, 1992 Director: Sheldon Larry Cast: Kate Jackson, Al Waxman, Jeffrey Nordling, Chip Zien, Barbara Williams, David Hewlett, Jerry Orbach, Howard Hesseman, Kathleen Robertson
Kathleen Robertson comes down with what she thinks is just a cold. She flies into New York City on a plane. While on the flight she gets really sick and when the plane lands Congressman Hesseman brings her to her house. Soon after, she dies. A hospital does an autopsy on Robertson's body. Kate Jackson, a doctor at the hospital, finds out that Robertson died of the pneumonic (bubonic) plague. Jackson has to try to stop the spread of the disease before it wipes out the population of New York City.
QUIET KILLER is a television film that aired on TV a few weeks ago. I feel that it is a very good film, and worth mentioning. It will probably show up on repeats in a year to two years, or might show up on video cassette. I suggest that if you find this film, you see it. I give QUIET KILLER a four on a scale of zero to five. Because this film was made for television it doesn't contain anything objectionable.
QUIET KILLER is based on the book THE BLACK DEATH by Gweneth Cravens and John C. Marr, which I had never heard of before I saw this film. The way that the title of the film is done I think is creative. Germ cells that are supposed to look like the pneumonic plague cells are moving inside the letters in the words of the title. The acting in the film, I feel, is quite good.
The reason that I watched this film initially was because Howard Hesseman starred in it. I have been a fan of Howard since he did show "WKRP in Cincinnati." This is not Howard's best film. I feel that his best film was either the television film THE DIAMOND TRAP or POLICE ACADEMY 2: THEIR FIRST ASSIGNMENT. In this movie, like most of the current films Howard has been in, he isn't on the screen very much. I really didn't expect this film to be very good because I felt, from the write-ups on it, that it was going to be boring. Instead it was a very suspenseful film that is well written. The plot doesn't let down at all during the film which means the film never gets boring.
Ken J. blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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