Amelia Earhart

Outstanding biography teaming John Forsythe and Susan Clark in the title roles of the producer, twice married, who took a chance and married the famous aviator.

Both give tremendous performances and this was certainly one of Forsyth's greatest triumphs in his professional career. He sure came a long way from "Bachelor Father."

Clark has the right spirit and is consumed in passion for her desire to fly early on in life. She makes a complex character come alive in a totally mesmerizing performance. This woman was certainly ahead of her time with regard to her ideas about the roles of women in life and in particular marriage.

With a wonderful supporting cast, this film is memorable. It dealt correctly with her tragic disappearance in 1937 since we never knew exactly what happened. Did she see something that imperial Japan didn't want her to see and pay for it with her life? No one shall ever know.

This 1976 TV movie, not surprisingly, is not as good as "Amelia" (2009), and it is a bit too long, but it does a decent job. The TV movie tries to cover more of the famous flyer's life than "Amelia" does, and so one may learn some additional information from the older movie, especially about Earhart's childhood. The acting in the TV movie is pretty good, and the airplane scenes are better than you might expect from a TV movie of the time.

Interestingly, the TV movie portrays George Putnam in a less flattering light than the 2009 movie (with the Richard Gere role being played here by John Forsythe of "Dynasty" and "Charlie's Angels" fame). Also, the TV movie replaces "Amelia's" focus on secondary male lead of Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) with flying instructor Paul Mantz (Stephen Macht). I've written more about the 2009 movie on my website (www.chimesfreedom.com). I'm not sure which movie is more accurate about the personal relationships, but if you're looking to watch an interesting movie, I'd recommend "Amelia" over the TV movie. But if you're curious about learning more after watching that movie, check out this movie too.

My memory spanning 23 years recalls Susan Clark doing fairly well in this bio of Amelia Earhart. In as much as I haven't seen a rerun of this film, and I have seen other bio films about Amelia, I cannot comment much more except I thought it pretty good at the time. I'll try to follow my own advice and try to see this one again. I gave it an 8.