femme fetale Archives - Virginia Madsen

Third Degree Burn is a TV Movie from 1989 made for HBO Television. And, another of my early awakenings for Virginia. I can’t remember how or where I first came across this one but it’s always been one of my favourites. I think I used to get this one mixed up with Linda for a while. No particular reason, just sticks in my head from around the same time.

Anyways, it’s another Thriller movie. With another Private Eye. And, well. Yeah, such was the time I suppose.

This time we see Private Eye Scott Weston (Treat Williams) hired by Clay Reynolds (Richard Masur) who suspects his wife, Anne (Mrs Madsen), has been cheating on him. He wants Scott to follow her and report back on any shenanigans she might be getting up to.
Scott ends up introducing himself to Anne when he rescues her from a breakdown on the side of the road. The two hit it off and before you know it he finds out that Anne is indeed getting up to shenanigans behind her husband’s back, with him.
BUT – In a twist, it’s not long before Clay is killed and Scott finds himself squarely in the frame for his murder even though he’s innocent.

And what follows is a cat and mouse between various players as Scott tries to prove his innocence with everything working against him.
And as I wrote that I realised just why it reminds me of Linda.

Third Degree Burn isn’t ever going to win any awards for, well, anything – BUT – It is a fun thriller that keeps you on your toes. It’s well acted for the most part, Treat Williams keep up his end of the bargain against Virginia well.

Virginia is in fine form here doing her thing as the mysterious femme fatale, there aren’t many that do this kind of role as well as her and I imagine anyone that is up for this kind of role these days would study her performance in films like this.
There seems to be a lot of negative reviews about this film online – But, as I’ve said a few times now on this site – The film is what it is, switch your brain off and go along for the ride on this one. It’s just trying to entertain, and it does.

Availability:

Not that easy. It’s never had an official release on DVD, it can be found on VHS but then you need a VHS player. There are copies on YouTube but they tend to be fairly low in quality. I own the VHS and I did manage to find a copy on DVD as a backup which is probably better than the VHS. Don’t expect it to come with a case, sleeve or properly printed disc though if you do find one.

Gallery:

Third Degree Burn - Production Stills 6 images

Trailer:
#Nope

Pseudo DVD Cover:
I’m not a graphic designer, I don’t claim to be a graphic designer and I never actually want to be a graphic designer.

However, I don’t like gaps in my DVD collection and so I made this from a scan of the VHS cover to print out and slot in there.

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I think I’d credit Slam Dance as being the first time we see Virginia Madsen do her Femme Fatale thing. It was a bit of a break in stride for her at this point in her career. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to see more of her do her thing in the movie, despite her being on the poster.

When I originally watched this movie back in the day, I thought it was “OK” – I didn’t feel the urge to watch it again. Hell, even when it came time to watch it again on this project I can’t say it was top of my list.

The internet seems divided on this film, reading the reviews on iMDB.com there are quite a few split opinions on it.Unfortunately, after the rewatch I’m falling down on the “what a mess this is” side of things. There is a lot that can be said about how the film looks, how it’s shot and the other technical stuff – It’s a very well made film. But, the plot and the story don’t do it justice. Mutton dressed as Lamb in film form.

I didn’t enjoy it, I contemplated turning it off a few times in all honesty but I got distracted with how little Virginia is actually in this one. Which is probably the opposite of what normally distracts me in one of her movies.

Slam Dance is a neo-noir thriller. CC Drood (Tom Hulce) is a cartoonist, he’s married to Helen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) but he’s been involved with a call girl, Yolanda Caldwell (Mrs Madsen). The cad.

Yolanda is found murdered near the start of the movie and Drood’s name is firmly on the lips and minds of the investigating Police officers, Detective Benjamin Smiley (Harry Dean Stanton) and Detective John Gilbert (John Doe).

Drood knows he is innocent but can see for himself how bad it is and so he sets about proving his own innocence.And, that’s about all I can manage to describe without going down a rabbit hole with plots and other totally unnecessary things about the film. Probably doesn’t help that I only had one eye on it to be honest.

BUT – I’m not on my own, Googling the film while I was watching and checking out what others had to say about it, they pretty much say the same. I was thinking I might be missing something, but seems not – Style over substance seems to be the overall consensus about this one.

It’s hard to give any real guidance on Virginia’s performance in this one, I mean for sure it’s a sign of things to come but she’s basically wasted here.

Probably worth a mention that this is the first film which she’d share credits with both Harry Dean Stanton and Robert Beltran, both of whom she’d work with again. Harry on Blue Tiger and Ballad of the Nightingale (Los Angeles Cannes (Solo Andata), Robert on Star Trek: Voyager.

It’s also hard to recommend you watch it as a Virginia fan for the same reason, obviously as a collector you’re going to want to show up for this one, but other than that…

It does actually say something when the DVD cover actually manages to spell one of the lead actors names wrong… 🙄
Availability:
Good. Not hard to find on DVD at all.