When a Hollywood Nice Guy Played a Sicko
by Don Stradley
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| Richard Crenna as Prof. William Douglas in The High Price of Passion |
It didn't sound right. Richard Crenna, an actor known best for playing upstanding, intelligent characters, was cast in an NBC movie as a sex-addicted college professor who murdered a young woman.
Anyone who had followed the infamous William Douglas case in 1983 thought it was an odd casting choice. Douglas was a well-known professor from Tufts University who became embroiled with a 21-year-old sex worker named Robin Benedict. When she tried to end their ongoing "affair," he bashed her head in with a hammer and disposed of the body.
Those who had seen pictures of Douglas knew he was a grossly overweight clod who frequented Boston's red light district. He was a stalker, an embezzler, and an all-around creep. Crenna seemed too charismatic for such a role. Of course, if you weren't familiar with the case, you could just accept it as another cheesy, made-for-TV crime movie of the week. The networks were grinding them out in those days.
But even Crenna knew it was unusual to see him as a villain. He generally played good guys.
"This latest role gave me the opportunity to go 180 degrees in the other direction," he told the New York Daily News. "It was a pathetic sexual relationship."
"There were so many facets to this character. When he was teaching at college, he had tremendous command, lots of charm, and was in control of the people he taught. But in his relationship with the prostitute, she controlled him. She totally dominated him. He became childlike, a boy. That's how I played him."
The High Price of Passion (1986) was aired on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1986. It was given a high profile slot, with ads blaring in advance. The case was already a few years old, but it had received nationwide attention and was still hot. To his credit, Crenna promoted the hell out of the movie.
"These kinds of roles are terrific to play," he said. "It gives me a chance to find out what I can do."
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| The real William Douglas |
When I was writing my book, Boston Tabloid: The Killing of Robin Benedict, I had a chance to watch the movie again. My memories of it were vague, only that it came out in the heyday of made-for-television true crime movies. Frankly, I had more vivid memories of Mark Harmon playing Ted Bundy in The Deliberate Stranger, and Tommy Lee Jones as Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song. When I rewatched The High Price of Passion, I saw a standard TV drama that was filmed in Toronto, not Boston, and Crenna doing his best to look like a rumpled professor. The movie wasn't terrible, but from my research of the case I knew it was missing the target.
The main issue was Crenna. He was a 60-year-old man, while Douglas had been 41 at the time of the murder. Douglas weighed 300 pounds, while Crenna was probably less than 200. And Douglas was known for his his high-pitched voice, while Crenna had a strong, actor's voice.
For that matter, no one in the movie looked like the characters they were playing. The Benedict family was portrayed by mostly Irish, or Anglo actors, when the father was actually from South America, and dark-haired Robin Benedict looked much like her Latino dad. Fair-skinned and fair-haired Karen Young portrayed Benedict, and played her as a callow, not too bright young woman.
Benedict's Black pimp was written out of the story completely. Instead, she had a white boyfriend. There was even a scene where Robin showed up at her parent's house to announce that she was done with the street life, and ready to live happily ever after. None of this happened, but that's a TV movie for you. Facts were not important. It was just a way to spend a Sunday evening in front of the tube.
Furthermore, the TV-movie stripped away the edges of the story. Where was the cocaine? Much of the money Douglas embezzled was to help feed Benedict's drug habit. There's not a single line of the stuff to be seen in the movie. And while many Boston area prostitutes claimed Douglas as a client, the movie makes it seem as if Benedict was the first sex worker he ever met, and that he simply mewled around her like a puppy. Strangest of all, Douglas' wife and children go unseen in the movie. He doesn't even admit to having a family until the movie's end.
At the time of the movie's release, the Benedict's declared it was good to see their daughter portrayed in a nice way (the media of the time tended to depict her as hardhearted and greedy, while the movie made her more of a sweet girl who had made some bad choices). The family, however, thought Crenna was too nice as Douglas, and that the violent murder of their daughter was glossed over. They were correct about that - we see Douglas and Benedict scuffling in silhouette, but we don't see the bloodbath that must've taken place.
Sate trooper Paul Landry, who was one of the key investigators, thought the movie was laughable. He told me, "When they raided Douglas' house, they knocked on the door and said, 'Boston City Police.' There's no such thing."
It was also odd that Crenna sat by while the investigators went through his house. In real life, Douglas was a nervous wreck, acting strange the whole time the troopers were there.
Moreover, since it was a TV movie, the sordid milieu of Boston's red light district - the notorious "Combat Zone" - was downplayed. Then again, it was unlikely anyone could've recreated the boiling cauldron of sleaze that Boston was in that period. The High Price of Passion was an R-rated story squashed into a PG-rated script. "That movie was crap," said Landry. "Not even close."
Ultimately, the movie was a very basic version of the story. It seemed to be simplified for people with limited attention spans.
Yet The High Price of Passion was a success. It drew an 18.9 in the Nielson ratings, finishing an impressive 15th for the week, well ahead of such popular programs as Moonlighting, ALF, and a repeat of Miami Vice. In its own time slot, it whipped the other competing programs, including a showing of Clint Eastwood's Escape from Alcatraz on ABC. NBC had to be pleased. The network had gambled that the Douglas-Benedict story would pull in viewers, and that Crenna could play the professor.
Along with solid ratings, The High Price of Passion did well with critics. The Boston Globe called it "not a bad movie," and despite his not being right for the role, praised Crenna. He "manages to capture the nuances of the professor who could not control his obsession," reported the Globe's TV critic.
Most
of the reviews around the country were positive. Some reviewers noted the many holes in
the plot, but that's how the case was: full of holes and unanswered
questions.
Generally, Crenna was applauded. But by that time in his career, Crenna was a reliable journeyman actor. Even if he wasn't the perfect Douglas, Crenna was always a solid, watchable performer. People liked the guy. Douglas, a selfish nutjob, was too well-served.
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You can read more about this case in my book, Boston Tabloid: The Killing of Robin Benedict.
"an intriguing story of fatal obsession" - Kirkus Reviews
Pick it up from Amazon https://rb.gy/ofvem6
You can also purchase it from Hamilcar Publications. https://hamilcarpubs.com/books/boston-tabloid-the-killing-of-robin-benedict/
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