There's no doubt about Morgan Fairchild's (neé Patsy McClenny) porcelain beauty, especially when she's all glamorized up, as she is here. That lustrous blond hair with nary a strand out of place, That surgically perfect nose, those over-sized blue doll's eyes with those alluring black lashes. (She wears them even while swimming otherwise nude.) Her acting is adequate for a community playhouse, but her voice is that of a high school girl -- and not even a senior, but a freshman.

She's one of those TV news babes and a real dish, with the figure to go with her features. It's no wonder that her neighbor, Andrew Stevens, takes photos of her naked with his telephoto lens or falls in love with her from afar before he begins to make a real nuisance of himself. Having a fan who is obsessed with you is a real problem. I know, because beautiful women throw themselves at my feet all the time, begging me to mistreat them.

As is usual in these stalker movies, the cops are of no help at all, the stalker is clever and murderous, the boy friend is either away at the wrong time or disabled somehow. Occasionally, as here, he is stabbed to death just about the time he reaches ejaculatory inevitability.

Then the movie falls completely apart. With her boy friend's bloody body pulled from the jacuzzi and buried by the maniac, Fairchild calls the murderer instead of the homicide squad and tells him, "It's just you and me now." It's a horn of plenty of clichés, with hands reaching from out of the frame to grab the heroine by the shoulder, accompanied by a loud sting on the sound track.

There's no need to go on about the film but it does have a few good points. It opens with Morgan Fairchild swimming naked in her pool, while we listen to a romantic ballad under the credits ("Love's Hiding Place"). Another scene, rather artistic I thought, has her undress and slide into a bath tub full of lather, while Stevens gawks at her from a closet. The linkage between the murderer in the closet and the theme, "Love's Hiding Place", is so subtle that the insensitive among us are liable to miss it. There must be other virtues. I'll think of them sooner or later.

After an erotic, sinuous credits-sequence with a shadowy woman gliding through the waters of a swimming pool, we get mired in straight-faced, B-movie hell. Morgan Fairchild, looking unsure and as stiff as her hairdo, plays a TV news anchorwoman who attracts a stalker. Truly mines the depths of drive-in cliches--and dispatches with one character in such a ridiculous fashion it may have invented a new cliche--"The Seduction" is just half-undressed tripe. Too bad, it had the possibilities of being a juicy, nasty little thriller with soft-core edges. There's nothing edgy about Fairchild's presence: she's as slick as lip gloss and about as permanent. * from ****

I must say that I had my share of reservations going into David Schmoeller's The Seduction regarding a disturbed "erotomaniac" stalking a popular newscaster, but I was pleasantly surprised at it's quality in regards to the fabulous look and better-than-expected acting.

Mac Ahlberg's photographic work and Lalo Schifrin's score really enhance the mood of The Seduction and Morgan Fairchild has never been as beautiful or enchanting as she is here in this movie. I was quite impressed with a young, handsome Andrew Stevens(..whose cold, dark eyes are well utilized)as Fairchild's tormenting stalker. There's a chilling scene where he wipes the blood from a knife he had just buried into a victim's back, cutting away pieces of apple, slowly chewing as if savoring every taste. Stevens makes for a really unsettling creep, his good looks actually adding something extra to his psychopath. The luxurious locations(..such as Fairchild's palatial mansion and pool)in LA also add a great deal of vogue and splendor establishing the allure of affluence and wealth.

Some nice supporting turns include Michael Sarrazin as Fairchild's reporter lover who becomes fed up with Stevens' intrusive ways, Vince Edwards as the cop they turn to for help(..who tells them that his hands are tied due to Stevens having not committed a "real crime"),and Colleen Camp(..at the peak of her sexiness)as Fairchild's brassy commercial actress pal. Kevin Brophy is a fellow station co-worker of Fairchild's.

I guess if I had to pick a favorite scene it'd be Fairchild's bath as Stevens peeps on her from a closet, sweating away as she strokes / caresses her body. Pretty violent conclusion as the heated confrontation ensues with Stevens attempting to force Fairchild into a sexual scenario(..this is where we watch as Stevens delusion shatters when Fairchild turns the tables psychologically against him). Wendy Smith Howard has a small but pivotal role as a woman enamored with Stevens, rejected by him when she attempts to express her love to him. Not a flattering view of the police as Fairchild and Sarrazin's pleas for protection are met with little assistance. Actually a film ahead of it's time in regards to the invasion of a public figure's privacy, before the internet / reality show boom.

Fairchild's beauty is well captured throughout, and the camera simply adores her.