It’s 1993, peak Virginia Madsen time, and she’d take a role in Caroline at Midnight, another “erotic thriller”, or it’s supposed to be at least. It wasn’t received that well and it went straight to video. There are six reviews of the film on iMDB.com and three of them mention the nudity content of the film. So, it’s that kind of film.
Not Virginia Madsen nudity, no – Caroline at Midnight also stars Mia Sara, it’s her nude scenes causing the kerfuffle there. Oh, those little internet scamps and them reviewing a movie based on the level of flesh on show.
Caroline at Midnight sees reporter Jack Lynch (Clayton Rohner) summoned to the new home of his ex, the titular Caroline (Caroline Barclay) via a phone call. Only one problem, Caroline is dead and when he arrives he finds himself at a Cemetary. And, instead of his ex he finds Victoria (Mia Sara) there instead. Victoria spins him a tale of the grisly end of Caroline at the hands of her husband, Ray (Tim Daly).
And, yeah – It doesn’t take a genius to work out the rest of the plot and it’s all lies, deception, mystery and intrigue from this point on. With a sprinkling of eroticism. Ish. I said at the start that “it’s that kind of film”, that wasn’t a knock at this kind of film. No, I think some of the “erotic thrillers” of the 90’s are worth a watch. I mean, they are few and far between but there are some definite good ones out there. Virginia herself has been in a few before this that were of much better quality.
And of course, fans of the 80’s heavy Modern Girls might also take some delight in reuniting Clayton Rohner and Virginia Madsen some years later. Though it could be said that Caroline at Midnight is as much a product of the 90’s as Modern Girls was of the 80’s. It’s hard to recommend this one, it’s not a great film by any standards, even less so thirty years later. Virginia Madsen is barely in it. When she is in it, she’s in top form though – Looking gorgeous as ever and playing her role with the level you’d expect.
Sadly, another role in which she’s wasted though. It’s unfortunately another part that could have pretty much been played by anyone else.
Availability:
Nope. This one is hard to find. It’s never had a DVD release. There only seems to be NTSC VHS versions floating around, and for some reason most of those are screeners.
You won’t find it anywhere to stream, officially, but there are copies to be had if you go looking.
Frasier is without doubt one of my favourite shows, it’s rare a TV show can make me laugh like this one does.
If you don’t know then Frasier follows, well, Frasier who is a Psychologist who works for a Radio Station and gives advice over the air. It’s a spin off from Cheers where the character would first be seen. Frasier lives with his Dad, Martin (the late John Mahoney), and his Dad’s care worker, Daphne (Jane Leeves). He has a brother called Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and the Producer of his Radio Show, Roz (Peri Gilpin) is often kicking around somewhere. They make up the core cast, along with Eddie the Dog, The show follows Frasier as he makes his way through life, normally from one blunder to another.
Virginia Madsen took a guest role on the show for three episodes in the sixth season. Technically, four episodes but the last two are Parts 1 and 2 and I’ve never seen them apart. The box set even plays them as one episode on the DVD.
She plays Cassandra Stone, she works at the same Radio Station as Frasier as a Public Relations Executive.When we first meet her it’s in the episode 14 of the Season in an episode called “Three Valentines“. Frasier is out for the evening with Cassandra, but doesn’t quite know if he’s on a date or not. He’s had mixed signals and ends up sat at the table waiting for her unsure on if this is a Business meeting or not. Things aren’t any clearer after she arrives and Frasier spends the dinner confused. It doesn’t get any clearer. Not even after Cassandra invites him back to her room to make things easier the next day for a meeting they are both going to.
And. not even after they end up in bed together…
We next see Cassandra in the 21st Episode, “When a Man Loves Two Women“. By this point Frasier and Cassandra are dating, but on random meeting with an old girlfriend, Faye, Frasier gets confused about who it is he really wants. Ultimately he decides that life with Faye is what he wants the most. Well, that is until he learns that Cassandra has being seeing someone else as well. This brings out the green eyed monster in him and he decides it is Cassandra that is the one for him. But, in typical Frasier fashion, once he sits down to talk to Cassandra he realises that it’s Faye he wants. Or, is it… Once he’s back with Faye he starts to doubt that decision as well. (C’mon Frasier – It’s a no brainer here, surely?- Right? RIGHT?)
Moving on to Episodes 23 and 24 – “Shutout in Seattle Parts 1 and 2“. Frasier has been seeing Faye for a good few weeks now, but he keeps calling her Cassandra by mistake, obviously she’s still on his mind in a big way (well, yeah, Frasier). He’s managed to cover it up so far by insisting that his Aunt is called Cassandra and that Faye reminds her of his Aunt. Faye seems to be OK with this, but then in a fleeting moment it all goes terribly wrong and Cassandra bumps into Faye, introducing herself as she does… Game over Frasier, game over. You fool.
Although she has limited screen in time in all three shows, it’s an utter delight to see her in this kind of role. Sure she’s the sexy smart woman we’ve seen her do before, but just to see her shine in a proper comedy role is worth the price of admission. I honestly wish the Producers of the show had found a bigger role for her in this show, but I’ll take what I got.
Virginia Madsen throughly enjoyed her time on the show, speaking in 2013 with The AV Club she’d remember her time with the cast and crew fondly;
“When I did Cassandra, I wasn’t quite to the point where I was when I did Sideways, but I was just starting to turn my life around. I was still a good deal heavier than I wanted to be, but I was starting to get really healthy, Jack was a little bit bigger at that point, and life was all coming together, but I wasn’t getting any work. I wasn’t really getting movies that were… well, they were sort of pay-the-mortgage movies. So I decided that I would try and guest star in shows that I really liked, so that I could continue learning as an actor. Star Trek: Voyager was one of those, because I’m a huge Star Trek fan, and Frasier was another one, because I’m a huge fan of that show and because I wanted to learn about comedy. I’d never really done any comedy before.
So my agent called and asked if I could meet the show creator, and they said, “Well, we have an episode for her!” I was like, “What?!?” [Laughs.] I just got offered the part! And it was a three-episode arc for a season finale… or, rather, I did one episode, then they turned it into that. But I just couldn’t believe it. Those people on that show, it was like they were a theater company, and they made me feel like I was a part of the cast, not just a guest star. I’m sure that they could see that I was still very vulnerable at that time. I was not very confident. But I really wanted to learn, and they were just like, “Here, Virginia, we’ll show you how to do it! Come on the stage with us, we’ll teach you how to dance!” And they did! And that did so much for my self-esteem. To perform in front of a live audience was just icing on the cake, and I will always be grateful to those actors and the showrunner for giving me that chance, because it really created momentum for change… very big change…in my life.”
Frasier will be forever a part of her history, and Virginia Madsen will live on in Frasier history, even if by proxy. The first episode she was in, Three Valentines, is widely regarded as one of the best episodes as it featured the infamous scene of Niles getting ready for a date and things going disastrously wrong. It is genuine comedy gold and has me in creases each and every time I see it.
In fact, I don’t have a trailer or any other video for this page, so you can have a giggle at that instead…
Availability:
Excellent. The DVD’s for both the Season and the Full Series are easy to find, and cheap! – Not sure why but I feel like I stole both the Season box set and the series box set when I picked up mine.
The show is currently a part of the Paramount+ line up as well if you’re a subscriber, or as it seems there is a lot of this, you can probably find copies of the episode(s) to watch on YouTube as well.
Linda. This one is special. Not that it’s a particularly good film. It isn’t, I mean, it’s not the worse film I’ve ever seen. Far from it in fact. No. It’s special for an entirely different reason.
You see, this one – This is the first film I, unknowingly, came across Virginia Madsen in a film.
I can’t remember how old I was, I was young. I was flicking through the TV on a bored Saturday afternoon and came across Linda playing on one of the channels. For whatever reason I left it on. The film had already started, I don’t particularly remember *why* I settled in it to watch but by the end I knew I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It’d probably take a few more years before I could put a name to the face, but I got there in the end 😉
Linda is a TV Movie from 1993 and first aired on the 8th October on the USA Network. It’s based on the 1956 novella by John D. MacDonald called Border Town Girl. Or part of it perhaps, it’s a book with two stories. The second one is Linda. Perhaps Mr MacDonald is best known for another of his novels that made it to the big screen, Cape Fear.
It’s actually the second time the novella has been adapted into a film, the first time was twenty years before in 1973 with Stella Stevens as Linda and the films was also known as, Linda.
Interestingly Cape Fear would be another book that made it to the big screen twice, once in 1962 and again in 1991.
The story revolves around two couples who decide to go away together on a short break. They become quick friends after Jeff and Stella Jeffries (Ted McGinley and Laura Harrington) relocate and move in next door to Paul (Richard Thomas) and Linda (Virginia,naturally)They’ve known each other for about a year at this point and regularly spend time together and the two couples decide to go on a short break away together, Paul is reluctant at first but both Jeff and Linda push the idea of it.
While they are away two members of opposite couples, Jeff and Linda get a little, friendlier, than the other two would like, and quickly. It all starts rather abruptly with Linda whisking off Jeff early on the first morning.
Stella takes it as a sign of an ongoing affair but Paul isn’t so sure. She’s convinced they’ve gone away on holiday so they could thinly disguise their affair and if discovered then Paul and herself couldn’t kick up much of a fuss.
Linda and Jeff spend more and more time together while Stella and Paul begrudgingly get to know each other better.
Paul confronts Linda about her spending so much time with Jeff and she admits she was just doing it to make him jealous. They sleep together but the next morning he wakes to find Linda and Jeff on the beach spending more time together. He confronts Jeff but he puts his mind at ease, seemingly, before running back to Linda to flirt some more in front of Paul.
Enraged Paul runs over and attacks Jeff, the fight is over quickly with Jeff getting the upper hand and Linda drags him off leaving Paul to lick his wounds being comforted by Stella.
Stella and Paul do grow closer, eventually kissing though they both suspect it’s what Jeff and Linda want to happen. Stella tries to take things to the next level by inviting Paul to a Motel, they embrace again but neither of them can go through with it.
Paul goes back to the cabin he’s sharing with Linda who is waiting for him. He starts to pack and announces his intentions to go home the following day.
He meets Stella on the beach the next day and spend more time together. They talk about if they should leave but fall asleep on the beach.
They both awake. Jeff is sitting casually beside Stella, but Linda. Linda has a shotgun, she shoots Stella in cold blood while she’s still lying on the back before turning the gun on Jeff and taking shots at him as he runs to the beach.
Paul runs to help Linda but finds her unresponsive, he asks her to wait while he runs into town for help.
He returns with the Sheriff, but Linda is gone. He takes them to the beach and they find Stella’s body but there is no sign of Jeff. Paul goes through everything that happened with The Sheriff at the beach, but just as they are finishing up they spot Linda, and Jeff coming towards them along the beach.
Jeff immediately blames Paul for his wife’s death and attacks him in front of everyone.
Paul has been set up for the death of Stella.
Jeff and Linda collude together to continue framing Paul, their stories are airtight and the frame job is completely successful and Paul finds himself in jail.I’ll stop there or I’ll give the whole movie away and if you’ve not seen this one already then I really would recommend finding a copy and giving it a watch.
I think this is some of Virginia’s finest work, I mean – OK – It’s not the best film ever, even though I really like it even after all this time. Virginia plays a range from home making housewife, sexy seductress, femme fatale, aggrieved wife and a woman of some repent. It genuinely shows her talent and she shines through the whole thing.
Linda is portrayed as such a ‘real’ person, even the little things like he complaining at the start of the film she should have done more with the exercise video she got, just ace. There is a scene at the end in particular, the final one between Paul and Linda. Watching her in that scene alone is kind of mesmerising. Seeing her in this scene after seeing her in the rest of the movie is quite the thing.
Richard Thomas is also great in this to be fair, he plays Paul brilliantly and you end up routing for him. You know he’s been set up as you see the murder but Linda and Jeff have seemingly thought of everything. Watching him as he realises the extent of what Linda has done to set him up and realising the woman he’s been married to all of these years has never properly loved him is properly excellent. A far cry from “John-Boy Walton” for sure. He narrates the movie sporadically which helps to keep you on his side I think.
Availability:
Not good unfortunately. There are VHS copies floating around but it’s never had a DVD release. You can find so called “fair use” DVD copies on some corners of the Internet.
I said at the start that “it’s that kind of film”, that wasn’t a knock at this kind of film. No, I think some of the “erotic thrillers” of the 90’s are worth a watch. I mean, they are few and far between but there are some definite good ones out there. Virginia herself has been in a few before this that were of much better quality.
It’s hard to recommend this one, it’s not a great film by any standards, even less so thirty years later. Virginia Madsen is barely in it. When she is in it, she’s in top form though – Looking gorgeous as ever and playing her role with the level you’d expect.
