Charleston is a brazen rip-off of Gone with the Wind which premiered over NBC on January 15, 1979--one month before CBS' planned telecast of Wind. Delta Burke, who was an unknown in 1979, very nearly remained that way in the role of post-Civil War Southern belle Stella. As Stella fiddle-dee-dees around in an effort to raise the tax money to maintain her mansion, her faithful ex-slave Minerva (Lynne Moody) runs the household with an iron hand (that must hurt). Also lurking about is Stella's cousin Valerie (Patricia Pearcy), who squanders her own savings in an effort to find her missing husband. This is the sort of film in which the aggressively urbanized actor Mandy Pantinkin plays a corn-fed character named Beaudine Croft. Martha Scott, the only "name" actor in Charleston, is wasted in a peripheral role as Stella's mom.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
- South
- Slave
- Mansion
