TV Reviews : ‘Cromwell’s’ Lady Lawyer Joins ‘Saturday Mystery’

Legal problems of the rich and famous occupy the title character of “Christine Cromwell,” the newest revolving component of “The ABC Saturday Mystery” premiering at 9 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

With Jaclyn Smith playing silk-stocking San Francisco attorney Cromwell, this is one of those hum-drum series that are watchable, but nothing to build an evening around. Keep a good book nearby as you watch it.

Cromwell tonight is retained to defend an old friend who appears to have fatally shot her wealthy, abusive husband in self-defense. Cromwell prepares her case mostly by looking great. Meanwhile, the dead man’s three cousins plot to rob the widow of her inheritance.

“Christine Cromwell” has some appeal if only because it’s stylishly staged. However, the story meanders and often doesn’t make much sense, and Smith plays Cromwell by the numbers, squandering the premiere’s best bit, an amusing running gag involving the husbands (Richard Bradford, Mel Ferrer and Theodore Bickel) of her oft-married wealthy mother (Celeste Holm).