Customer Reviews

Disappearance of Aimee [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One woman torn between secret passion or the religious conformity of her career!

Faye Dunaway is Aimee Semple McPherson, a flamboyant yet complex woman loved by millions but still remaining an enigma. At the peak of her career Aimee mysterously vanishes!

When Aimee suddenly re-surfaces after a prolonged traumatic absence, she is put on trial to prove her innocence in a sensational and fiery court case of the decade, where the truth about Aimee Semple McPherson is finally made known.

Bette Davis superbly portrays Aimee's domineering and over-powering mother in this riveting drama. The Disappearance of AImee probes the hidden secrets of Aimee's life.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AIMEE features the combined talents of Faye Dunaway and Bette Davis. The movie recounts the strange disappearance of enigmatic evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson in the late-1920s. `Sister MacPherson' vanished without a trace while swimming, only to reappear weeks later saying she had been abducted and held for ransom in Mexico before escaping. Aimee is taken to court because it was alleged that she had actually taken off with her married lover, made a mockery of her religious principals and in effect denounced herself as a fraud. In real life Aimee Semple MacPherson was cleared of all charges but doubt lingered throughout the years until her death, about what really happened. This movie attempts to make light of this.

The movie is a fascinating glimpse into the life of a media-savvy religious celebrity. Faye Dunaway is amazing as Aimee, with Bette Davis as her controlling and manipulative mother.

Quality TV movie. With Severn Darden, Lelia Goldoni, James Sloyan, John Lehne, Barry Brown and James Woods.

It was definitely a heated set. It's a great movie, but you can tell that Bette wanted to kill Faye Dunaway. It's a good thing there were no guns handy on that set, or this may have been the end of Ms. Dunaway's career. I've read Bette's second autobiography "This 'N' That"(1987), in which she says Ms. Dunaway was late almost everyday, even the day they filmed the church scenes with all those extra's and NO air condition. Bette said, she began singing in the church to entertain the extra's until Ms. Dunaway decided to come to work, among the songs she sang to the extra's behind the scenes was the theme song from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?". I would think Bette disliked Faye Dunaway about the same as she disliked Joan Crawford.

However, the film is great, the music is delightful, and Bette delivers a tour-de-force performance. I highly recommend this film. Also, if you liked this film I suggest you seek out some of Bette's other TV-Movies, such as "Right of Way", "Little Gloria... Happy at Last", and "As Summers Die".

It's a shame that the majority of Bette's films have yet to be released on DVD, hopefully they will be released soon, to speed up the process you can go to WWW.TCM.COM, search the particular movie, and vote for it to be released on DVD.

I have not seen this film as of yet but I plan to buy it. I just wanted to counter what another reviewer said here of Bette Davis's opinion of Faye. According to Faye's autobiography, Bette wanted to make this movie as a vehicle for herself when she was age appropriate to play Aimee. Of course, that never happened and Faye eventually played the role with Bette in the secondary lead. On the set, Bette pushed to have more screen time than Faye and Faye fought back and won.

The things that Bette said about Faye not only in her book, "This and That" but also on Johnny Carson's show, were lies as a sort of revenge. I have to believe Faye because she didn't speak out at the time to defend herself. Interestingly enough, the tables have been turned because Faye got into another back and forth with another actress, only this time she's the elder. It was announced recently that a remake of "Bonnie and Clyde" is being considered with Hilary Duff as Bonnie. Faye commented that "at least they could get a real actress." Duff replied that "My fans don't know who she is" and "I'd probably say that as well if I looked like that." Sharpen those claws girls!