MOVIE REVIEW : ‘LIES’ OPENS WITH A TRULY HORRIFIC PLIGHT

“Lies” (citywide) may be one of those “early films in the careers of . . . “ that, seen in retrospect, indicated that some nice film-making sensibilities were at work, even in a small-scale melodrama.

Those talents would be that of the brothers Jim and Ken Wheat, who produced and jointly directed (and wrote) this intricately plotted story about a young actress (the very good Ann Dusenberry), struggling to make both a decent living and a living decently in Hollywood, who is unexpectedly hired by film-maker Gail Strickland.

The actress is to play the life story of a young woman whose plight opens the film; a girl traumatized by witnessing the brutal killing of her mother and father. Her brother (Bruce Davison) burst onto the scene, killing the attackers and saving his sister, but not her sanity. Since this horrifying incident, (which earns the film its “R” rating), the young woman had been in a mental institution and had only recently committed suicide.

The biggest pain about stories like these is illogical behavior--and “Lies” is refreshingly free of that ( most of the time). Dusenberry in particular behaves like a bright, canny, hardworking professional, questioning her situation at every turn. It would be unfair to hint at more of the plot than the title suggests. But the cast also includes such veterans as Clu Gulager, as an associate of Strickland’s and Burt Remsen as Dusenberry’s agent; as well as Terence Knox as her screenwriter boyfriend.

Logic takes a back road two-thirds of the way through and is in full flight by the close, but the movie’s pluses include exceptionally beautiful lighting camera work by Robert Ebinger and fine production design, both of which give the film a look of real quality.