Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1991’s Murder In New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story!  It  can be viewed on YouTube!

When Pamela Wojas (Helen Hunt) first became engaged to Gregg Smart (Hank Stratton), she thought that they would never get older or settle down to a conventional life.  She thought that Gregg would always have long hair and that they would spend the rest of their lives following Van Halen around the country.  But then Gregg got a job with a New Hampshire insurance company and he cut his hair.  And then Pam failed in her attempts to get hired by the local news station and instead, she ended up accepting a job as the part-time media director at a local high school.

Pam spearheaded the school’s anti-drug campaign and ended up working closely with two students in particular, Billy Flynn (Chad Allen) and Cecelia Pierce (Riff Reagan).  Billy and Pam bonded over their shared love of Van Halen and soon, they were having an affair.  Was Pam just trying to relive her youth or was she already setting up Billy to murder her husband?

Based on the true story that also inspired Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, Murder In New Hampshire jumps back and forth through time.  The film opens with Gregg being shot and killed by Billy and one of his friends.  It then cuts to a courtroom, where a prosecutor (Howard Hesseman) tells the jury that Gregg was murdered on the orders of his own wife.  A very conservatively and modestly-dressed Pam sits in the courtroom and provides quite a contrast to the far more wild and hedonistic Pam who we see in the film’s frequent flashbacks.  While Gregg settles comfortably into life as a suburban insurance agent, Pam continually tries to hold onto her past.  While Gregg wins awards for selling the most insurance, Pam tells Billy that Gregg beats her and that he’s dangerous.

It’s difficult to watch Murder In New Hampshire without comparing it To Die For.  They both tell the same story and they even use the same flashback structure.  But if To Die For presented Nicole Kidman as being a soulless killer who was driven by her obsession with being a star, Murder In New Hampshire suggests that Pam’s main motivation was that she just couldn’t handle the idea of settling down and living a conventional, suburban life.  As well, To Die For presented Joaquin Phoenix’s gunman as being someone who was essentially incapable of thinking for himself.  In Murder In New Hampshire, Billy is far more active character.  Though he is undoubtedly manipulated by Pam, Billy is still portrayed as someone who made his own decision to get involved in Pam’s schemes.  If To Die For is a stylized satire of the true crime genre, Murder In New Hampshire is the epitome of what was being satirized.

That said, Murder In New Hampshire is a good example of the true crime genre, largely due to Helen Hunt’s wonderful performance as Pam Smart.  Hunt plays Pam as someone who has never grown up and who is so scared of being required to that she’ll even resort to murder to pull it off.  While Murder In New Hampshire never quite escapes the shadow of To Die For, it’s still an effective film when taken on its own terms.