`Mother's Secret' Is Better Than `Justice'

"Deception: A Mother's Secret," "NBC Sunday Night at the Movies," 9 p.m., KING-TV. "A Mother's Justice," "NBC Monday Night at the Movies," 9 p.m., KING-TV.

Mother's Day is coming a bit early to NBC with two new movies in which mothers play key roles, even though both films (and mothers) are quite different: The first is fiction; the second is a docudrama.

"A Mother's Secret" is the more interesting. Sandor Stern's script concerns a happily-married couple, Terry and Amanda Milner, played by Mary Page Keller and Steven Weber. She has a young son, Jay, played by Robert Gorman, from a previous marriage. Terry wants to adopt the boy but when he sets out to find the boy's father, he runs into conflicting information about Jay, his father, and Amanda, which completely changes their relationship.

Stern, who also directed, manages to keep the film fairly suspenseful in the first half - and if the finale becomes overly sentimental, most viewers will probably also find it greatly satisfying.

In addition to Weber, who stars in NBC's "Wings," the cast includes Katherine Helmond in a nice performance as Terry's critical but loving mother.

"A Mother's Justice" is the story of a Columbus, Ohio, nurse whose daughter was raped. When the woman became exasperated with local police, whom she felt were not doing much to find the rapist, she set herself up as a decoy in the hope of finding the rapist - and was almost too successful.

Meredith Baxter plays the woman, Rita Baldridge, called Lilah Comminger in the film, and gives her a refreshingly brusque, no-nonsense manner. Also giving good performances are G.W. Bailey, as Lilah's husband, and Carrie Hamilton as her daughter, the rapist's victim. Writer James Henerson has avoided making the daughter a total victim - she's written and portrayed as not the brightest or most disciplined girl in the world - just as he's worked to keep Lilah from being presented as a saint. Vancouver, B.C., is standing in for Columbus, Ohio.

`Eagle' soars "Land of the Eagle," four-part, eight-hour miniseries, airing in two-hour segments this Sunday through Wednesday on KCTS-TV.

Produced by the BBC, "Land of the Eagle" is an ambitious project in much the same vein as PBS' recent "Columbus" series and is, in fact, an excellent companion piece. "Land of the Eagle" attempts to show us what the North American continent must have looked like to the early explorers and settlers, at the same time maintaining its p.c. (politically correct) credentials by focusing on Indian culture that already existed and which those explorers and settlers changed or destroyed.

It's no coincidence "Land of the Eagle" usurps the spot on the Sunday night schedule "Nature" usually occupies - "Land of the Eagle" is a special "Nature" presentation, hosted by George Page.

Three years in the making and involving the work of 30 cinematographers, "Land of the Eagle" is stunning, and when it hews to its historical narrative, it's fascinating stuff. Where the series stumbles is when it becomes most like "Nature" and goes off to describe the mating habits of animals and the like. "Nature" fans love that sort of thing but here it does tend to slow the flow of the narrative.

Whenever possible, historical drawings and writings have been brought in to accompany the pictures, and that's all to the good. Not nearly as useful are all manner of Indian myths and legends that emphasize how nature, animals and Indians were in harmony with each other. When Indian tribes warred with each other, however, they tend to rush right by that information.

The two hours airing Sunday night are "The Great Encounter" and "Confronting the Wilderness." The settlement at Jamestown is the focus of Part 1; the French explorations in Canada are the focus of the second part. The third episode, "Conquering the Swamps," ventures to Florida and the Spanish explorers, while the fourth segment focuses on the Great Plains, "Across the Sea of Grass." Tuesday night's segments will look at the Rocky Mountains, "Into the Shining Mountains," and the Southwest desert, "Living on the Edge." The series concludes Wednesday night with a program about Alaska, "The First and Last Frontier," and another about California, "Searching for Paradise." KCTS-TV will repeat the first four hours Thursday, at 10 a.m., and the final four hours Friday, at the same time.

While the "Land of the Eagle" is a praiseworthy attempt to blend history and natural science, avid "Nature" fans will probably enjoy the series most. There's also an excellent companion volume from Summit Books ($30), and Time-Life Video is offering a series of eight one-hour videotapes of the series.

Don't miss `Elephants' "Mysterious Elephants of the Congo," 7 p.m. Sunday, TBS/cable.

The newest "World of Audubon" special, co-produced by Turner Broadcasting and PBS (and which will eventually air on PBS) concerns the Pygmies of Central Africa and the forest elephants that live in that area.

Narrated by Jane Fonda, "Mysterious Elephants" is, like most specials on Africa, stunningly photographed - no matter how many documentaries one sees on African wildlife and scenery, it still remains an exotic locale for most American viewers.

But like an earlier Discovery Channel documentary, "Mysterious Elephants" has more on its mind than sightseeing. It chronicles the sad saga of elephants being hunted by poachers for their highly-prized ivory tusks.

In addition, the plight of both the Pygmies and the elephants are exacerbated by encroaching civilization that brings logging and road-building to the area - and drives the elephants away. As an instructive armchair safari, "Mysterious Elephants of the Congo" is hard to beat. TBS repeats it at 9:05 p.m. Monday, 8:05 a.m. Saturday and again Dec. 3.