TV REVIEWS : GOOD VIEWING IN ‘TWO WOMEN,’ TRACY

“Between Two Women” is the title of the movie on ABC tonight. The choice for viewers, however, is among three women--the two in that TV film and Katharine Hepburn, who pays tribute to her former co-star and lover in a new documentary on KCET, “The Spencer Tracy Legacy.”

“Between Two Women,” an unusual love story starring Farrah Fawcett and Colleen Dewhurst, airs at 9 p.m. on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42. The Tracy program will play at 9:10 p.m. on Channel 28.

ABC’s movie features riveting performances by its two stars in an uncommonly layered story of the close relationship that develops between a wife (Fawcett) and her meddlesome mother-in-law (Dewhurst) over a period of about 15 years.

Mothers-in-law are a long standing source of TV humor, but there’s nothing funny about this one. As expertly delineated by Dewhurst, Barbara Petherton is insensitive, stubborn and willfully provocative, compensating for a deep seated insecurity and fear that if she doesn’t forcibly position herself in the middle of it, life’s parade will pass her by.

“You’re marrying me, not her,” Barbara’s son (Michael Nouri) keeps telling his fiance, Val (Fawcett), when the two women meet. He seems to be trying to convince himself as much as Val. Wishful thinking.

Fourteen years and two children later, Val and Harry are in the midst of a trial separation when Barbara suffers a stroke. Val becomes obsessed with nursing her back to health, and it is then that their heretofore sour relationship begins to sweeten.

If that sounds abrupt, it is. Through a series of flashbacks, however, we learn of glimpses Val had over the years of the needy, frightened person that resided beneath Barbara’s tough veneer.

Adapted by Larry Grusin and director Jon Avnet from the novel “Living Arrows,” by Gillian Martin, it’s a fascinating character study that delves deeper into the nuances of relationships than most TV movies.

There are problems with it, to be sure. Barbara’s transformation seems unrealistically complete, and you never believe that Val, who considered the older woman one of the causes of her marital problems, could suddenly displace 14 years of resentment to dedicate herself to Barbara’s recovery.

Yet, the flaws in the story’s credibility give way while you’re watching to the rhythm and evolution of the relationship, detailed in a succession of nicely textured, well-acted scenes.

So too with “The Spencer Tracy Legacy,” which sustains momentum largely on the strength of its host, Katharine Hepburn, who infuses the program with a warmth and passion borne out of her conviction that “Spencer was in a class by himself.”

As an actor, that may be true, although some would argue that Henry Fonda was at least his equal. The bulk of the documentary, highlights from some of the 74 films he made from 1930 until his death in 1967, certainly testify to Tracy’s enormous talent, and interviews with friends and colleagues verify the great influence he had on other performers. But what sort of person he was off-screen is not clear.

“He was a difficult man to know,” Hepburn says near the end of the program. She then proceeds to read a letter she has written to him, suggesting that acting for him was an escape from the difficulties he had living in the everyday world, though why it troubled him so she doesn’t know.

For Hepburn, who over the years has doggedly refused to talk much about their relationship, it’s a remarkably personal and eloquent statement, but it underscores how little the rest of the program has told us about Tracy.

The film was produced by David Heeley and Joan Kramer, directed by Heeley and written by John L. Miller.