BAD INTENT
by Wendy Hornsby
High-voltage independent filmmaker Maggie MacGowen (Midnight Baby, 1993, etc.) has left her San Francisco home base and, along with teenaged daughter Casey, joined forces with her policeman lover, Mike Flint, in Los Angeles. She arrives just as District Attorney Baron Marovich is reviving a 15-year-old murder case in an attempt to capture the black vote in his reelection campaign—run by sleazy veteran politico Roddy O'Leary. Charles Conklin, a black career criminal, was arrested in 1979 for the murder of a policeman. The case was investigated by Flint and his then partner Jerry Kelsey. The eyewitness testimony of two children convicted Conklin. Now Marovich claims the trial was tainted with coerced evidence and wants Conklin released. MacGowen, already at work with devoted cameraman Guido Patrini on a documentary about project housing in LA, gathers evidence about the old killing even as new ones erupt and she herself is driven to violence. Attention-grabbing, fast-paced entertainment: a story bristling with energy, striking characters, plot twists, filmmaking lore, sexy interludes, and a happy, if inconclusive, finale. With her pushy ways and foul mouth, MacGowen is a heroine for the '90s. (Author tour)