The Civil War will never end for some people. That’s fine with ABC.
Almost a decade after North & South: Books I and II rung up big ratings, the concluding installment of John Jakes’ trilogy, Heaven and Hell, is being given a three-night showcase on ABC.
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Heaven and Hell wasn’t even written when North & South played over 18 hours in 1985-86. As soon as the novel was finished a year later, ABC and David Wolper, who produced the first two miniseries, cut a deal for it.
It almost seems as if Jakes was prescient in writing Book III, sensing who might be unavailable for the next sequel. Patrick Swayze, who the summer after North & South aired had the time of his life Dirty Dancing, has gotten too big in film to tie himself up doing six hours of television. Coincidentally, his pivotal character, Orry Main, is killed in the opening scene of Heaven and Hell.
Interestingly, Swayze is seen in the recap that brings the audience up to speed on the story. In Orry’s death scene, shot on a foggy night, there is a double.
Heaven and Hell is built around James Read and Lesley-Anne Down, neither of whom has done much of note since North & South.
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Read plays George Hazard, who became best friends with Orry at West Point. Their brotherly relationship endured in spite of the fact that George fought for the North and Orry for the South. Down is Madeline Main, Orry’s widow.
Also reprising roles are Wendy Kilbourne, Read’s real-life wife; Genie Francis; Jonathan Frakes, Francis’s real-life husband; Terri Garber and Philip Casnoff, who earned praise for the daunting title role of The Frank Sinatra Story.
For some mystifying reason, Casnoff hasn’t been able to cash in big on those plaudits. You have to wonder if maybe Frank didn’t like the CBS miniseries too much.
Kilbourne plays Read’s wife Constance; Francis is Orry’s sister Brett, who married George’s brother Billy; Frakes is George’s older brother Stanley; Garber is the promiscuous, scheming Ashton Main; and Casnoff once again is the heavy of the piece as Elkanah Bent.
Casnoff had dimension in Books I and II as another former West Pointer, a sadistic creep whose malevolence was exposed by Orry and George, resulting in Elkanah’s expulsion from the academy. In Heaven and Hell, he is reduced to a cartoonish, hissing embodiment of evil, who shows up, does his dirty work, then disappears for a while.
New to the top of the marquee for Book III is Kyle Chandler as Charles Main, who also is on Elkanah’s hit list.
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Other significant newcomers are Robert Wagner as Cooper Main, who schemes to steal the family plantation, Mont Royal, from the widow Madeline, and Rya Kihlstedt as Willa Parker, an actress who becomes the love of Charles Main’s life.
Making noteworthy minor contributions are Rip Torn, Cliff de Young, Steve Harris, Stan Shaw, Chris Burke, Mariette Hartley and Gregory Zaragoza. Totally wasted (no pun intended) is Peter O’Toole as a drunken actor.
Heaven and Hell picks up the story of the Hazards and Mains at the end of the war, the dawn of Reconstruction.
George Hazard returns to the prosperous family iron works business in Pennsylvania. Down south, the Union’s scorched earth policy has left the once glorious Main homestead in ruins. When Elkanah wreaks his first vengeance, Madeline is left only with freed slaves to help her. Fortunately, she has treated them well and they remain loyal. Elkanah’s second strike unwittingly supplies Madeline with additional support.
Meanwhile, Charles Main, also a West Pointer, is still suffering from picking the wrong side in the war so he opts to go west and enlist in the cavalry. There, he winds up in double jeopardy. In addition to having Elkanah tracking him, Charles develops a blood feud with an Indian named Scar.
Before the story proceeds very far, viewers should be able to develop a sense of how most of the main plot lines will turn out. The predictability is balanced by the fact that the resolutions in most cases will be satisfying to the masses.
With a lot of popcorn and not too many expectations, Heaven and Hell is more the former than the latter.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHO
