TV REVIEW : Uncompelling ‘Calendar Girl’

“I could forgive you for killing someone,” Lawrencia (Bambi) Bembenek’s husband says to her, “but I can’t forgive you for lying to me.”

With unforgivable dialogue like that, ABC’s “Calendar Girl, Cop, Killer? The Bambi Bembenek Story” goes nowhere--slowly and ponderously. The docudrama (at 9 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42) presents a sympathetic picture of Bembenek, who is serving a life term for the murder of her husband’s former wife in Milwaukee.

ABC’s version is the first of three Bembenek movies planned for TV. A former police officer, Bembenek (Lindsay Frost) is an interesting character who some people feel was falsely convicted. To them she is a folk heroine whose temporary escape from jail (she fled to Canada with the help of a lover, but is now back in prison) was something to celebrate. They continue to support her efforts to obtain a new trial.

Using a “composite” news reporter as a catalyst, the screenplay by Larry Barber and Paul Barber examines Bambenek’s life from various perspectives--none of them very compelling, unfortunately.

Frost makes for a seductive Bambenek, but Timothy Busfield (“thirtysomething”) is not very believable as her husband at the time of the murder, and producer-director Jerry London directs at a lethargic pace.

Calendar girl, cop or killer, ABC’s Bambi is just not very interesting.