A Killer in the Family

Richard T. Heffron – 1983 – USA

This is a very solid TV crime-drama telling the true story of Gary Tison’s breakout from an Arizona prison in 1978 with the aid of this three teenage sons.  It benefits greatly from the restraint put on the usual hysterics of TV movies, and more importantly from a powerful lead performance by Robert Mitchum as Tison; aside from his commanding voice and physicality, he brings with him a legacy of hard-boiled outlaw roles.  Perhaps most notably, the film also features very young James Spader and Eric Stoltz in early roles as two of Tison’s sons.