Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story

Plot synopsis:
Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) is an ordinary middle-class electronics store owner who occasionally moonlights doing surveillance work. He attends a group therapy session because his wife, Amy (Annie Potts), has lost interest in sex and he fears their marriage is in trouble.
Grady is soon approached by the owner of a fashion design house to spy on an employee, Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner), who is suspected of selling clothing patterns to his competitors. Grady discovers the accusations are unfounded, but also finds out that Joanna is moonlighting as a prostitute using the name China Blue, and shedding her business attire for provocative clothing and a platinum wig.
Grady keeps quiet about Joanna's double life. After having an erotic encounter with her in her China Blue persona, Grady begins seeing her on a regular basis, first professionally, then romantically. However, their involvement is complicated by his guilt and her intimacy issues — not to mention her clientele of regular patrons and their bizarre sexual fetishes.
Among them is the "Reverend" Peter Shayne (Anthony Perkins), who alternately spends his time delivering soapbox sermons on the street, visiting peep shows while sniffing amyl nitrite, and patronizing prostitutes. Shayne has been seeing China Blue as a customer and declares a misguided need to "save" her. (When he says, "Save your soul, whore!", she replies, "Save your money, shithead.") Underscoring Shayne's contradictory nature is the cache of sex toys he carries in a small doctor's bag with his Bible.
Grady admits he may leave his wife and children, but Joanna feels put-upon and depressed. She seeks solace in turning tricks because the encounters are not fraught with emotional entanglements. She dominates a young policeman in an S&M session, penetrating him with his nightstick, and endures a botched three-way in a limousine. A session with a dying man whose wife wants China Blue to give him sexual gratification one last time inspires Joanna to reveal her real first name, suggesting for the first time that she is the proverbial "hooker with a heart of gold."
Shayne grows increasingly psychotic: he carries a sharpened metallic vibrator he nicknames "Superman" and starts stalking Joanna. He moves into a seedy motel next door to her nighttime place of business and watches her activities through a peephole. He also sets up a shrine with candles and numerous photos of her. Sensing that he is mentally unhinged, Joanna no longer wishes to see him, but Shayne follows her home to her actual apartment. Once there, he begs her to kill him.
Grady comes there to tell Joanna that he has left home. He hears shouting from her apartment, breaks down her door and finds someone he assumes is Joanna, cowering in terror, not realizing it is actually Shayne in her China Blue disguise. Joanna, now wearing Shayne's clothing, leaps from the shadows and stabs Shayne with the "Superman" vibrator before he can attack Grady with a large pair of scissors. Shayne dies, convinced that his sacrifice has "saved" them both.
The film ends with Grady addressing his group therapist about his new relationship with a woman named Joanna.

Tags: murder

Review:
Based on a True Story. In 1979, in Toledo, Ohio, the naive Shannon Mohr (Sally Murphy) goes to a wedding party where she meets the charming Dave Davis (Dwight Schultz), who tells that is a former football player and Vietnam veteran that studied pharmacology, and seduces her. Two months later, they get married in a little chapel in Las Vegas and move to a farm in Michigan. Soon Shannon learns that Dave was married and he is a liar. When her parents Lucille (Bonnie Bartlett) and Bob Mohr (Andy Romano) visit them in their farm, Dave has an argument with Shannon and invites her to horseback riding. Then he goes to the farm of his neighbor and friend Dick Britton (Michael O'Neill) telling that Shannon felt from the horse and hit her head on a stone. Shannon dies and there is a poor investigation of the local police and no autopsy, and Dave tells that Shannon wanted to be cremated. However Lucille and Bob oppose and Shannon is buried. Soon they discover that Dave has six life insurance policies and will receive a large amount with the death of Shannon. Further, that Dave is a liar. They decide to reopen the investigation of the suspicious death of their daughter and call the attention of the media. The efficient Detective Don Brooks (Gregg Henry) is in charge of the infestation and finds evidences that Shannon was murdered by Dave. But the man has vanished and it is almost impossible to find him. "Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story" is a good unknown TV movie based on a true story of a compulsive liar that killed his wife to get the insurance. This film is rare and only released on VHS in Brazil. It would never be indicated to a Grammy but has a great screenplay that seems to be faithful to the events and cast, highlighting the performance of Dwight Schultz. The snoopy reporter Billy Bowles and the perseverance of Detective Don Brooks are very important to solve the case and find the criminal. The show Unsolved Mysteries was crucial to find Dave. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Paixão de um Crime" ("The Passion of a Crime"). As expected.. As with quite a few true life films, the title gives a lot away. Nonetheless I found this film quite watchable as Dwight Schultz is quite an underrated actor. What placed this killer slightly above average (if such a thing can be said) was his ability to lie and lie and lie and lie. Please do not watch this movie looking for the meaning of life to be revealed and do not expect car chases and gun fights. Just watch this movie that shows how unrequited love can meet its most tragic end and the satisfaction of at least seeing the killer being brought to justice. All in all a watchable film although it will probably have a remembrance factor of about 1 day. This is not a film that many will be searching the DVD stores for but you might watch it again if you spotted it in the TV listings.