B2 z THE NEW YORK TIMES THE LIVING

Review/Television New Round of Shows on J. E K.s Life

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR Fatal Deception Frontline Mrs. Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? The 30th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination on Nov. 22 is NBC, tonight at 9; 8 central time PBS, tomorrow night at 9 bringing forth yet further replays of Written and co-produced by Steve Bello and (check local listings) images seared in the national con- directed by Robert Dornhelm. Music by Har- sciousness: the shocking scene at Written, produced and directed by William ald Kinser. Director of photography, Yuri Cran and Ben Loeterman. Photography by Dealey Plaza In Dallas; the bizarre Neyman; production designer, Brian Mark Mulesworth and Bob Perrin. Cu-pro• gunning down of the accused assas- Falwell. producer, Paul Pompian. A David L ducer, Stephanie Tepper; production assist- sin; the small boy saluting his fa- Wolper Production in association with Ber- ants, Ntiri Navasky and Kay Stanley; prnduc- ther's funeral cortege. The reverber- nard Sofronskl and Warner Brothers Televi- lion manager, Kate Leonard-Morgan; associ- sion Distribution. Executive producers, Mr. ate producer, Christopher Buchanan; senior ations remain powerful. And, of Sot ronski and Mr. Wolper. course, television is ready with a new producers, Michael Sullivan and Mr. Cran; reporters, Scott Malone and Gus Russo. bitch of documentaries and dramas Marina Oswald...... Helena Bonham Carter Lee Harvey Oswald.. Frank Whaley to ride the emotional coattails. David Lilian Robert Picardo Among the John F. Kennedy biog- George de Murenschildt Bill Bolender raphies on tap are "Jack," a CBS Kenneth Porter Brandon Smith Carter ("Howards End"), is only 22 documentary on Wednesday and, be- Lisa Renee Wilson . Rachel Porter Deborah Dawn Staboda June Porter when Oswald (Frank Whaley) bursts ginning Sunday on ABC, "J. F. K: onto world headlines. Living in this Restless Youth," a mini-series dra- Lubya Artgeborga Dapkunaite Uncle Vladimir Ilyn country only on a visa, she has two matization of the Nigel Hamilton Aunt Polskih children and can barely speak Eng- book that angered the Kennedy fam- Ruth Bakke lish. A Dallas policeman, looking for ily when it was published last year. Robert Oswald • Robert Reed Oswald's motive, suggests to her that More to the immediate point here: maybe he wanted "to leave his mark two productions dealing with the ac- on history." She uses the same cused assassin, An indirect approach Marina Oswald Porter to, NBC says, phrase before the Warren Commis- is taken, tonight on NBC, in "Fatal "tell her story for the first time." sion investigating the assassination. Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Os- Actually, she has described her court- Asked during the hearings if she has wald.' Tomorrow on many PBS sta- ship in Minsk and the increasingly concluded that her husband did it, she tions, a three-hour "Frontline" docu- stormy relationship with the abusive says, "From the evidence, from what mentary, produced in association Oswald in some detail through vari- you told me, unfortunately yes." with the BBC, attempts to answer the ous articles and interviews over the But by the late MO's, remarried still-lingering question, "Who Was years. This movie, with a bow to and coping with questions from her Lee Harvey Oswald?" 's "J. F. K.." reveals haw daughters, she begins listening to • she gradually came to join the ranks those who argue that Oswald was not Filmed on location in Dallas and of conspiracy theorists. acting alone. David Lifton (Robert Russia, "Fatal Deception" allows Marina, played by Helena Bonham Picardo), author of a book raising questions about the Kennedy autopsy, becomes Marina's mentor, assuring her that "you were bamboozled by experts, like the rest of us." By film's end, Marina is telling her daughters: "f learned the truth had been hidden. Your father was caught between pow- erful forces we still don't under- stand." And caught, it might be add- ed, between speculations that can nei- ARTS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1993

and Death

!her be proved nor disproved, even though Miss Bonham Carter and Mr. Whaley give chillingly persuasive performances. • In the exhaustive and fascinating "Frontline" portrait of Oswald, con- spiracy theories are neither entirely dismissed nor eagerly embraced. A television team of investigators spent more than a year visiting several countries and finding, said a senior producer, Michael Sullivan, "hun- dreds of photographs, documents and other evidence." He adds, The fall of the Soviet Union has allowed unprec- edented access to former K.G.B. offi- cers and other witnesses and docu- ments," What emerges overall is a case history of a nonentity with a talent for conniving and for popping up in the most unlikely places. Born in New Orleans in 1939, Oswald spent part of his. youth in the Bronx, where he ended tip in a youth detention center. A social worker remembers him viv- idly as being "emotionally frozen." Joining the Marines in 1957, he was assigned to a base housing the C.I.A.'s Mice S. Hall/NBC U-2 spy plane. He was court-mar- tialed twice. Defecting to the Soviet Frank Whaley and Helena Bonham Carter in the television movie Union and initially denied admit- "Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald," tonight on NBC. tance, he appeared to attempt suicide in Moscow. Returning to the United States in 1962 with a wife and child, he was sorely disappointed when the and mistreated his family and lost gathered, this documentary concedes press paid no attention. three jobs in one year. On a furtive that the question remains: Did he Living in a world of aliases and trip to Mexico City in 1963, he was have help? As to why he chose as his frustrated ambitions, Oswald man- turned down by both Cuba and Russia target John F. Kennedy, whom he aged to establish contradictory con- in applications for entry. often professed to admire, viewers nections, with Castro's Cuba and anti- Interviewed for the documentary, are told, "That question can only be Castro Cubans, with the K.G.B. and Robert Oswald, one of Lee's two older answered by one young man, and his United States intelligence agencies, brothers, who does believe he acted answer will always be silence." The with the F.B.I. and organized crime, alone, says simply, "He toyed with rest, apparently, is endless specula- all of which provided fuel for later people." Despite all the material tion. conspiracy theories. In his drab and sour private life, Oswald neglected