Rule's `Dead By Sunset' Is Complicated, Chilling

"Dead by Sunset," NBC miniseries, 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday, KING-TV.

Ann Rule, the successful and popular Seattle crime writer who previously told us the stories of Ted Bundy and Diane Downs, has focused on another truly frightening character in "Dead by Sunset," her newest book which has been turned into a two-part movie.

It's the story of Brad Cunningham, an Oregon wheeler-dealer described by a professor of psychiatry as having a "malignant narcissism." Cunningham is in the Oregon State Penitentiary, having finally been found guilty last December of the murder of his wife, Cheryl, eight years after her death.

Rule (and screenwriter Wesley Bishop) attempt to tell the story of Cunningham's skewed personality, his five wives and the complicated legal procedures that finally brought him to justice.

It's a tall order and the film is not always successful, alternating between being too long - and not long enough. Cunningham's life story was a complicated one, a tale of business successes and failures, of five messy marriages, played out by a chilling, manipulative personality who had little or no regard for anyone but himself.

And it is that very complication that sometimes leaves a viewer wondering what, precisely, is going on in the movie - wives and relatives come and go quickly, before one has a handle on who they are and where they fit into the story. The two court cases, one a civil suit, the other a criminal case, are even less clear.

Instead, the focus is too often on Cunningham's three sons, who become a kind of battleground where the combatants are Cunningham, his fourth wife, Cheryl, and Sara, the woman he married after Cheryl's death. A few less scenes in which the adults expound on how much the children mean to them and a few more scenes explaining some of the legal maneuvering would have helped "Dead By Sunset" a great deal.

Karen Arthur directed "Dead by Sunset," which stars bland-faced Ken Olin as Cunningham, Annette O'Toole as Cheryl and Lindsay Frost as Sara. Olin, the actor who came to stardom in "thirtysomething," sometimes seems impossibly bland - but with that blandness comes a kind of inscrutability that makes it impossible to peer beneath the surface. It's that quality that makes Olin a good choice for Cunningham, who evidently was able to convince anybody of anything, to follow abusive behavior with protestations of love and caring - and make it work.

O'Toole and Frost's performances are solid enough, able to make distinctions between two roles that were rather alike: Both of the women they're playing were attractive, had successful careers, were loving parents - and evidently were easily taken in by Cunningham's charm. The only other character that comes at all into focus is a lawyer, Mike Shinn, who is played by John Terry. There are other members of both families, but they're neither written nor played in a manner that makes them meaningful or distinctive.

In last week's "Streets of Laredo," Alexis Cruz played a young killer with absolutely no moral center - but he was fictional and in the last century. In the filmed-in-Oregon "Dead by Sunset," Brad Cunningham appears to have been a contemporary counterpart - for real.

---------------- `Words' to catch ----------------

"Westwords," 9 p.m. Monday, KCTS-TV.

Jean Walkinshaw, in her newest documentary for KCTS-TV, is exploring the idea that a certain spirit informs writers working in the American West, that a sharply-defined sense of space, place and history informs their work in a manner that sets them apart from their East Coast counterparts.

It's an interesting idea and Walkinshaw has collected often eloquent testimony from six quite different contemporary writers that, despite differences in style, substance and location, do share certain characteristics that prove her point. The six are Tony Hillerman and Rudolfo Anaya from New Mexico, Maxine Hong Kingston from California, William Kittredge from Montana, Terry Tempest Williams from Utah and Ivan Doig of Seattle via Montana.

Examples of each author's work have been chosen to illuminate the program's theme, as well as give a flavor of their work, sometimes by having the authors read a portion from their work, on camera, other times by having them read off-camera while scenes are dramatized.

Walkinshaw is the hour-long film's producer and editor and her equal collaborator is photographer/field director Tom Speer, whose camera has captured stunning scene after scene, whether in the cowboy country of Montana, the natural beauty of Utah, familiar sights in Washington or the startlingly dramatic landscape of the Southwest. Jeff Tassen's original score is another plus.

Together the they have created an unusual document that looks at writing from a different perspective - and makes a good case for its point of view.

----------------- Don't miss Terkel -----------------

"Upon Reflection," 12:30 p.m. Sunday, KCTS-TV.

Spending just 30 minutes with Studs Terkel is frustrating - because you want him to keep on talking, you don't want his reminiscences and insightful observations to stop.

This "oral historian" and Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose newest book is "Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It," is interviewed by Marcia Alvar in this week's edition of "Upon Reflection" and while it may be too short, it's 30 minutes for the archives.

Terkel is a spinner of yarns who loves history - and understands its importance - and he makes a strong case here for learning from the past. Terkel is the kind of guy you want to have around as the century ends because he helps to put everything that has been happening in the 20th century into perspective in a manner that relates history to people. His comments are also laced with humor and a great zest for his subject matter - and life.

Incidentally, Terkel will also be interviewed by Laine Pomeroy on "New Paradigms" at 9:30 tonight on Public Access Channel 29.

----------- Video notes -----------

That exuberant commentator on politics and economics, Ben Wattenberg, armed with dozens of charts and graphs, picks apart the Clinton administration in a PBS special, "Values Matter Most: A Television Essay by Ben Wattenberg," at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on KCTS-TV . . . Children (and grown-ups who remember the past) may enjoy "Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects," a new two-hour animated movie at 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday on TNT, featuring the last appearance of the original Jonny Quest before a new series featuring the latest animation Techniques will debut next fall . . . Children may also enjoy a Showtime special, "The Song Spinner,' a fanciful tale involving a little girl's adventures in a kingdom where all noise has been banned, starring Patti LuPone and Brent Carver, at 6 p.m. this Sunday . . . If you're one of those who still loves to hash over the assassination of President Kennedy, then the History Channel has a documentary, "The Men Who Killed Kennedy: The Truth Shall Make You Free," at 6 and 10 p.m. Sunday . . . Fans of the popular group, Boyz II Men, will undoubtedly enjoy their energetic concert performances on "Boyz II Men: Going Home," a special on the Disney Channel at 9 tonight.