''Masquerade'' is a 1988 American
romantic mystery thriller film directed by
Bob Swaim
Robert Frank "Bob" Swaim, Jr. (born November 2, 1943) is an American film director.
Life and career
Swaim was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Eleanor (Connor) and Robert Frank Swaim. He grew up in the Reseda area of Los Angeles and gradua ...
and starring
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and podcast host. He made his acting debut at the age of 15 with ABC's short-lived sitcom ''A New Kind of Family'' (1979–1980). Following numerous television roles in ...
,
Meg Tilly
Meg Tilly (born Margaret Elizabeth Chan on February 14, 1960) is an American-Canadian actress and writer.
For her role in the 1985 film ''Agnes of God'', she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting A ...
,
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall (; born 21 August 1956) is a British-Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones on HBO's ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), for which she received five Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe A ...
and
Doug Savant
Douglas Peter Savant (born June 21, 1964) is an American actor, known for his roles as Matt Fielding in the Fox prime time soap opera '' Melrose Place'' (1992–97), Tom Scavo in ABC comedy-drama '' Desperate Housewives'' (2004–12), and as Sgt. ...
. Written by
Dick Wolf
Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American film and television producer, best known for his Law & Order (franchise), ''Law & Order'' franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four internat ...
, the film is about a recently orphaned millionairess who falls in love with a young yacht racing captain who isn't completely truthful with her about his past.
The film was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best (Mystery) Motion Picture in 1989.
Plot
Young yachting captain Tim Whalen is having an affair with Brooke Morrison, the wife of his boss, Granger Morrison, in the upscale town of
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
, Long Island. Tim is the new captain of Granger's racing sailboat ''Obsession''. Young heiress Olivia Lawrence, following the recent death of her mother, returns home to Southampton after graduating from college. At a party, Olivia is introduced to Tim, who asks her to dance. Impressed with her knowledge of sailing, Tim asks her to go sailing with him, and she accepts.
Olivia is living in the family mansion with her alcoholic stepfather, Tony Gateworth, and his new live-in girlfriend, Anne Briscoe. Her mother's will provided that Gateworth retain access to the family's eight properties. Olivia has nothing but contempt for her stepfather, who married her mother for her money. At her family attorney's office in New York City, Olivia learns she cannot restrict Gateworth's access to her homes, and the nearly one million dollars a year he receives from the estate barely covers his gambling debts.
Olivia and Tim go sailing on her boat ''Masquerade'', which was her late father's pride and joy. Later, at Olivia's mansion, they are confronted by a drunk Gateworth who insults Tim, his former sailing competitor. In the coming days, Olivia and Tim begin dating and eventually fall in love. However, Olivia's newfound happiness is soon offset by another ugly confrontation with Gateworth who tells her as her "guardian" he wants Tim out of her life. Olivia confides to her aunt that Tim is the first man she has felt comfortable with and that he isn't interested in her money. Later that day, at a lobster house on the outskirts of town, Gateworth and Tim meet surreptitiously to discuss their conspiracy to murder Olivia for her money. When Tim expresses doubts, Gateworth threatens to expose his past. He tells him the next step is to gain Olivia's confidence by having Tim defend her against him.
That weekend, Olivia and Tim have passionate sex in the mansion. Afterwards, a drunken Gateworth breaks into Olivia's room as planned, but Tim double-crosses him and kills Gateworth with his own pistol. Believing they will be accused of murdering Gateworth, Olivia covers up Tim's role in the killing by claiming she killed Gateworth in self-defense. Tim establishes an alibi with an unsuspecting Brooke by resetting her bedside clock. During the investigation, Officer Mike McGill —a childhood friend with a romantic interest in Olivia—finds evidence that Tim may have been involved in the killing, but he does not report it to his captain, presumably because of his feelings for Olivia.
Anne then begins questioning the investigation's findings, and tells the authorities about Olivia and Tim. Meanwhile, Tim breaks up with Brooke, who later confirms Tim's alibi to the police. Not long after Anne informs McGill that her friend saw Gateworth at a diner with Tim, she is found hanged in an apparent suicide. McGill requests an autopsy.
While sailing aboard ''Masquerade'', Olivia asks Tim to marry her, but he is reluctant, telling her he once spent 30 days in jail for writing bad checks. He also tells her about his affair with Brooke. His "honesty" convinces Olivia he is the right man, and the couple are soon married. Later, Olivia reveals she is pregnant. That night, Tim drives to the marina where he meets secretly with McGill, who was part of the original conspiracy—who in fact planned everything. Tim is reluctant about killing Olivia, but McGill insists she must die in a staged car accident. He threatens to put Tim away for Gateworth's murder if he doesn't cooperate.
When McGill learns that Tim has no intention of killing Olivia and that they are planning to sail for Florida on ''Masquerade'' the next day, he sabotages Olivia's sailboat and plants incriminating evidence in Tim's linen drawer. Tim discovers McGill's treachery and races to the marina to save Olivia, but is killed in the gas explosion meant to kill Olivia. In the marina office afterwards, Olivia discovers a newspaper clipping with a picture of Tim, Gateworth and McGill, just as McGill enters the office. Seeing that she has figured out the conspiracy, he tries to kill her. In the ensuing struggle, Olivia pushes McGill out a window causing his death.
At Tim's funeral, Olivia learns from her family attorney that Tim had recently insisted he be removed from Olivia's will, and however it may have started, he came to love Olivia in the end.
Cast
*
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and podcast host. He made his acting debut at the age of 15 with ABC's short-lived sitcom ''A New Kind of Family'' (1979–1980). Following numerous television roles in ...
as Tim Whalen
*
Meg Tilly
Meg Tilly (born Margaret Elizabeth Chan on February 14, 1960) is an American-Canadian actress and writer.
For her role in the 1985 film ''Agnes of God'', she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting A ...
as Olivia Lawrence
*
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall (; born 21 August 1956) is a British-Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones on HBO's ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), for which she received five Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe A ...
as Brooke Morrison
*
Doug Savant
Douglas Peter Savant (born June 21, 1964) is an American actor, known for his roles as Matt Fielding in the Fox prime time soap opera '' Melrose Place'' (1992–97), Tom Scavo in ABC comedy-drama '' Desperate Housewives'' (2004–12), and as Sgt. ...
as Officer Mike McGill
*
John Glover as Tony Gateworth
*
Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American actress. After appearing in small roles early in her career, Delany received her breakthrough role as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television drama ''China Beach'' (1988–1991), for which s ...
as Anne Briscoe
* Erik Holland as Chief of Police
* Brian Davies as Granger Morrison
*
Barton Heyman
Barton Heyman (born January 24, 1937, in Washington, D.C. - died May 16, 1996, in Manhattan, New York City, New York) was an American actor. Heyman was a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied theater arts.
As an ...
as Tommy McGill
*
Bernie McInerney
Bernie McInerney (born December 4, 1936) is an American character actor.
Personal life
McInerney grew up in Delaware where his father was an auditor with the DuPont Company. McInerney came to acting at a young age, announcing the World Serie ...
as Harland Fitzgerald
* Bill Lopatto as Weyburn
* Pirie MacDonald as Theodore Cantrell
*
Maeve McGuire
Maeve McGuire (born July 24, 1937) is an American actress, known for her role as "Nicole Travis Drake" on the soap opera ''The Edge of Night'', which she played from 1968 to 1974 and from 1975 to 1977. Nicole originally started off as a schemer b ...
as Aunt Eleanor
*
Ira Wheeler
Ira or IRA may refer to:
*Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name
* Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name
*Iran, UNDP code IRA
Law
* Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status o ...
as Uncle Charles
* Timothy Landfield as Sam
* Karen McLaughlin as Jillian
* Nada Rowand as Mrs. Chase
* Edwin Bordo as Mortician
* Bruce Tuthill as Lt. Wacker
* James Caulfield as Cop #1
*
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. An early bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells and the Steve Miller Band, he began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until h ...
as Cop #2
* Henry Ravelo as Alberto
* Lois Diane Hicks as Judge
* Dorothy Lancaster as Nun
* Marilyn Raphael as Maid
* Dick Wolf as Sedgewick
* Evan O'Neill as Debutante
* Jimmy Raitt as Store Manager
* Robert D. Wilson Sr. as Dock Man
* Michael Tadross as Kid on Dock
* Benjamin Lee Swaim as French Boy #1
* Christopher Thomas Swaim as French Boy #2
Production
The film was originally called ''Dying for Love''.
Dick Wolf
Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American film and television producer, best known for his Law & Order (franchise), ''Law & Order'' franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four internat ...
claimed the title was changed because of studio nervousness due to a series of AIDS-awareness condom ads equating making love with death.
It was the first American film from Bob Swaim. It was greenlit by
Alan Ladd Jr. at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Asked about the torrid sex scene with Rob Lowe, Meg Tilly said, "I have nothing against nudity if it serves a purpose other than bringing in more dollars, but I'd never done a love scene before and I found it hard to do. We all feel sensitive about the way we behave in bed and it's strange having someone watch and correct you--and Bob (Swaim) did give quite a bit of direction in those scenes," she added with a laugh.
Filming locations
The film was shot over ten weeks.
* New York City, New York, USA
*
Riverhead,
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, New York, USA
*
Sag Harbor
Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiner's Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...
, Long Island, New York, USA
*
Shelter Island, Long Island, New York, USA (boat explosion)
*
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
, Long Island, New York, USA
Reception
Critical response
The film received mixed reviews upon its release. In his review in the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', Roger Ebert gave the film three of four stars. Ebert singling out Meg Tilly's performance wrote, "Tilly's acting style is the right choice for the movie: Her dreaminess, which at first seems distracting, becomes an important part of the suspense, because while she drifts in her romantic reverie, a sweet smile on her face, we're mentally screaming at her to wake up and smell the coffee."
In her review in ''The Washington Post'', Rita Kempley called the film "mushy" and "pockey". Kempley reduces the director's efforts to "a gym teacher's sense of the erotic matched with a jackhammer's flair for the subtleties of psychological artifice."
Awards and nominations
* 1989 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nomination for Best Motion Picture (Dick Wolf)
Box office
The film earned $15,855,828 in gross revenue in the United States.
Film ratings
In New Zealand, the film was rated M for offensive language and sexual references. In the United States, it was rated R.
References
External links
*
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes, 1013488-masquerade
1988 films
1988 romance films
1988 thriller films
1980s mystery thriller films
1980s romantic thriller films
American mystery thriller films
American romantic thriller films
Films directed by Bob Swaim
Films scored by John Barry (composer)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Seafaring films
Films about the upper class
1980s English-language films
1980s American films