USA TODAY

RECOUNTING JFK'S ASSASSIN The real Oswald, and a pale

By this time next week, even the most ardent Kennedy-dei- fier will probably have said "enough" to the TV feeding • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1993 • 3D frenzy marking the 30th anni- versary of JFK's assacsination. Two two-hour CBS specials in prime time, a four-hour ABC miniseries, a TNT Larry King Where Were You? special and countless news features — all harking back to a shattering Imitation national tragedy brought home by TV, which has flogged it re- lentlessly ever since. But first, the bad guy. a dangerous and delusional po- This week of remembrance wait a night and get absorbed litical dilettante who left a per- begins with two looks at as.z4s- in the exhaustive three-hour report Who Was Lee plexing and often contradic- sin , and as Frontline Harvey Oswald? (***1/2, tory trail of allegiances and PBS, 9 p.m. ET/PT, times may connections that have fueled a TV PREVIEWS vary). Marina didn't partici- legion of conspiracy scenarios. MATT ROUSH pate, but her biographer is on This account leaves little hand, among other journalists doubt, however, that he pulled the trigger in the Texas Book is so often the case, there's and experts, to shed light on Depository that fateful Nov. 22. nothing like the real thing. this most nagging of mysteries. But was he a patsy, as he Much the lesser of the two is Frontline plans a news con- claimed after his arrest? Or NBC's lurid docudrama with ference today in Washington, was this the last desperate act the preposterous title Fatal D.C.. to trumpet new evidence it has unearthed in this investi- of a frustrated man aching to Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey be noticed? His motives re- Oswald (**, tonight, 9 gative biography of "a man main unclear, but in its bal- ET/PT). (An earlier, and bet- who chose his own politics, in- vented his own secret life and anced and thorough approach, ter, name was Marina's Story, Frontline again gives us much but NBC always likes to put "fa- made himself into an accassin." provocative food for thought. tal" or "deadly" in its titles.) The Oswald that emerges is It you're not paying attention — always the best way to watch NBC movies — you could mistake this for any one of the network's ubiquitous do- mestic-tragedy movies of the week. Once it lapses into flash- back mode, Fatal Deception reduces itself to the tale of a foreign bride whose secretive husband lashes out whenever she dares to ask what gives. Of course, the stakes are higher this time around. This husband isn't just up to no good, he's about to achieve lasting in- famy. The good news is that as Russian-born Marina, who must raise their daughters in the shadow of his awful act, Helena Bonham Carter gives AP an eloquently brooding perfor- NO DOUBT: PBS' Frontline' portrays Lee Harvey Oswald as mance of repressed guilt. complex and delusional, capable of killing President Kennedy. Bland Frank Whaley is no- where near as effective as the enigmatic Lee Harvey, but that could be a function of the murky script, which poses vague conspiracy theories but is so limited to Marina's mournful perspective, you hardly know what to think, Anyone interested in the Os- wald mystique is advised to Bonham Carter, in sync with Marina By Tracey Wong Briggs — I thought that would be too USA TODAY rude and crude," Nonetheless, she picked up Helena Bonham Carter on what she calls Marina Os- wasn't even born when John wald Porter's strength and F. Kennedy was a.ssassinated, zest for life. The actress fo- and much of what she knew cused on letting her portrayal about the shooting and Lee flow from the accent. "It's Harvey Oswald came from like a mask, really, or a new the movie JFK. pair of shoes. If you get the "I certainly didn't know of accent right, the other char- the existence of Marina, nor acteristics come." of her children," says the Bonham Carter and Frank British actress, 27. Whaley portray the Oswalds Best known for the lush as a couple whose marriage Merchant-Ivory period mov- is eroding from cultural dif- ies A Room With a View and ferences, economic stress flowards End, Bonham Car- and her lack of trust in his se• ter put away dime corsets cret activities. and took a crash course on "They obviously had a tem- the Dallas shooting before pestuous relationship," she starring in NBC's Fatal De- says. "They might have con- ception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Os- nected in such a way that wald, airing tonight. they set each other off." Told in flashbacks and Filming took place over flash forwards, the story three weeks in Moscow and opens with his widow as a Texas. Though she's used to Russian immigrant, adrift the more leisurely pace of and ostracized in Dallas with films, "I loved it I was exhila- two young daughters and lim- rated at the speed. You didn't ited English skills. By Atice S. Hat, NBC have time to think; that's of- "I think she's been given a HISTORY MAKERS: Frank Whaley and Helena Bonham ten a good thing for acting." pretty hard time. She was an Carter are the troubled Oswalds in NBC's 'Fatal Deception.' In the movie, Marina innocent sort of bystander," dreads November, and this Bonham Carter says. A pari- which she testified" before he didn't do it on his own. He year will probably be worse ah to those who thought her the Warren Commission, wasn't equipped to do it on his with the 30th anniversary of hushand acted alone, and a when she said she thought own and the basic motivation the shooting "I think It's a bit disappointment to conspiracy her husband had acted alone. wasn't there." macabre they're showing it in theorists, Marina took it from But the actress doesn't Bonham Carter watched November," Bonham Carter all sides, the actress says. have any answers, "1 could hours of interviews before says. "She must he so tired of "Hopefully this shows how only perceive it from Mari- meeting Marina two days be- it. I would be sick of it by now, much pressure she was un- na's point of view," she says. fore filming started. "But I to have your whole life deter- der, the bewildered state in "No one knows, but I suspect didn't want to ask questions mined by this one event."