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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: As a general rule, true crime movies are about as boring as national security briefings, but this one is good enough to watch over and over. With the exception of the kids who play John List's sons - who don't have big enough roles to make any impressions - the entire cast does an amazing job.
Gabrielle's first appearance in the movie is as a corpse, and her second appearance is an abbreviated version of her third. That third appearance is unforgettable in every sense of the word - she's crying her eyes out as her religious fanatic of a father wipes forcefully wipes off makeup from her face after her school play. Since the scene is a flashback and you know how she eventually ends up, it's even more effective - especially after you've gotten a dose of what her father and grandmother are really like. Only a true sociopath could fail to really feel sorry for Patty List in this scene. It couldn't have been an easy scene to play, and it certainly wasn't an easy one to watch - which is a testimony to how well it was done. Her last appearance shows Patty List getting killed just after she thanks her father for picking her up from school, and the way Patty's death was handled was a great example of walking that fine line between "utterly shocking" and "gross, but not overly so for the scene."
The chief investigator in the movie is David Caruso of "NYPD Blue" and "CSI Miami" fame, and in this movie you can see how good he was before he decided that the best acting strategy was being over the top in every scene. List's wife is beautifully portrayed by Beverly D'Angelo, and both of the actresses who play List's mother do an outstanding job, particularly the one who plays Patty's grandmother. Rarely does a movie generate so much contempt toward a grandmother from a viewer.
For all of Robert Blake's recent troubles, it's easy to overlook the amazing job he did in this movie (especially since it's so hard to find that I had to borrow it from a friend who lives in England). I'm not old enough to have gotten an appreciation of his work in "Baretta" and I'm not terribly familiar with the rest of his career, but his portrayal of a troubled religious nutjob was absolutely spot on. He was good enough to the point where you could almost sorry for him as he shot his oldest son repeatedly, went to his den to get another gun and emptied that one into the kid as well.
KUDOS TO GABRIELLE: I can't stress enough how well she did the aforementioned third scene. It's incredible how much mileage she gets out of such a limited role - even more amazing since the movie was made around the time when she was just starting her career. Her performance really makes the viewer want to jump into the screen and throttle Patty's father.
APPEARING HERE AND ELSEWHERE WITH GABRIELLE: Garry Chalk, who plays Tom Walton, played FBI agent Forsch in "Breaking News" episode "Bad Water," White Cloud in "Floating Away," a district attorney in "Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story," and appeared in "The Disappearance of Vonnie." Robert Wisden, who plays Dana (assistant to Caruso's character), played Dr. Morse in the "Chris Isaak Show" episode "Fantasia," Chief Coroner James Flynn in both episodes of "Da Vinci's Inquest" in which Gabrielle appears, Armand in "Floating Away," and Detective Randy Winkler in "The Disappearance of Vonnie." Roger R. Cross, who plays Dennis, played CJ Leon in "Just Cause" episode "Hide and Seek," a police officer in "Disappearance of Vonnie," and Robert Fernandez in "Voyage of Terror." Tom Butler, who plays Michael Linder, played D.A. DeLion in "The Disappearance of Vonnie" and Admiral McKay Riles in "Breaking News" episode "Victims."
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