TV Reviews : CBS’ ‘Heartbreaker’ Charms the Vulnerable

On the female Richter scale, CBS’ “Highway Heartbreaker” registers a few rumbles in yet another women-in-jeopardy tale (at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channels 2 and 8).

Three bright professional women, driven respectively by lust, greed and naivete, are charmed out of thousands of dollars by a handsome young con man who blithely knocks them off like pins in a sun-splashed seaside community. Their initial disbelief and humiliation is followed by anger and revenge.

Based on a true story that happened in Orange County, the script by Deborah A. Serra spins a variation on the old investment scam yarn and features an unctuous performance by John Schneider as the stylishly dressed, amoral highway Casanova. His pickup technique is so smooth that in one instance he snares his victim (Linda Gray) by following her on the highway and nailing her to a rendezvous over his car telephone in a scene that’s a classic Southern California fantasy.

This vulnerable fool of a woman, who’s physically handicapped, actually falls for the guy and marries him, unlike the other financial targets (stockbroker Heather Locklear and church charity maven Tracy Nelson), who get mad, team up and fight back.

One lesson they learn is that they’re vulnerable even in the courtroom. Despite the dumbfounding stupidity of the women, director Paul Schneider makes it all modestly believable, and the result is a kind of B-movie morality tale.