Virginia Madsen in Love Kills

Love Kills is another one from the Virginia Madsen golden age of made for TV movies. It premiered on USA Network in 1991 and would also reunite her with Electric Dreams co-star, Lenny Von Dohlen.

But this is a very different movie than Electric Dreams.

Virginia Madsen plays Rebecca Bishop, a fashion photographer who after finding out about yet another affair by her husband, Drew Bishop (Jim Metzler) decides to even the playing field and get a little action for herself.
On a photo shoot she meets Jonathan Brinkman (Lenny Von Dohlen) who suits her nicely. After a little wining and dining she hooks up with him for a night of rumpy pumpy, but all is not as it seems.

It turns out that Jonathan is actually a hitman, hired by Rebecca’s husband to kill her. But not to panic, now that he’s got to know Rebecca, he’s actually fallen for her and wants to protect her instead. Or, so he says.

Rebecca confronts Drew but he says that it’s all lies and that Jonathan is actually an ex-patient of his and that he’s got some sick and twisted agenda of his own. Or, so he says…

And – Yeah, it’s that roundabout. Rebecca doesn’t know who to believe, her husband has his reasons for lying, but equally plausible is Jonathan’s claims so it really does keep you guessing until the end just what the truth is.

Love Kills was actually one of the ones I was looking forward to rewatching the most. I hadn’t seen it in a long, long time and I didn’t really remember much other than the basics. My copy is on VHS and so it’s not that easy a decision to just sit down and give it a go one night. Fortunately, there are other ways to watch it in this day and age.
Was I happy? Well. Yes, and no. The film is definitely different than I remember it through my rose coloured glasses. I’d totally missed the first time round that it was Lenny in the role of Virginia’s lover, so that was a nice surprise. The film itself though, I mean. It was never great, but now it’s just aged. It’s not a bad thing, there is a time and place for this kind of movie and I’ll probably watch it again sometime in the future, but my glasses won’t be as rosy.

Virginia basically carries this one on her back though. If it wasn’t for her then I think this one would be lost forever to the annals of time. It was good to see the chemistry with Lenny is still there, it’s weird but satisfying. There are shades of Linda, Victim of Love and Bitter Vengeance in her performance, but that isn’t a surprise given they were all around at the same time and this was pretty much Virginia Madsen’s thing at the time.

Availability:

Not great, never released on DVD but you can find VHS copies if you look hard enough. Also, YouTube can be your friend here.

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