A Face to Die for

A Face to Die For (Mon. (11), 9-11 p.m., NBC) Filmed in Los Angeles by the Konigsberg Co. Executive producers, Frank Konigsberg, Bob Levinson; producer, Jayne Bieber; co-producers, Marvin Werlin, Mark Werlin, Duane Poole; director, Jack Bender; script, Poole, based on the book by Werlin and Werlin.

Cast: Yasmine Bleeth, James Wilder, Richard Beymer, Ricky Paull Goldin, Chandra West, Mitchell Ryan, Mary Ellen Trainor, Ian Abercrombie, Jo De Winter, Robin Givens, Rosaline Ayers, Bette Ford, Elisabeth Ryall, Kelly Jo Minter, Michael Clark Elias, Pat Musick, Phillip Sloan, Toni Sawyer. Disfigured in an automobile accident, Emily Gorden (Yasmine Bleeth) triumphs over low self-esteem to celebrity, riches and cold revenge. Played with sincerity and (relatively speaking) class, "A Face to Die For" cries to have been filmed in b&w; it's a film noir in rainbow hues.

Emily lives with her reclusive mother and self-centered younger sister in a Silver Lake apartment. Mom (Mary Ellen Trainor) spends the day watching old Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck movies on TV; sis Sheila (Chandra West) disdains Emily, asking, "Why should I feel guilty that I'm pretty and you're not?"

The handsome Alec Dalton (James Wilder) shows sexual interest in Emily, but he turns out to be a creep and she winds up in prison with Robin Givens. (Note to women-in-jail fans: no shower scenes or butch guards here, but there is a rowdy cat-fight). A plastic surgeon (Richard Beymer) who donates his services to prisoners offers Emily free reconstructive surgery, resulting in aglamorous new woman who (after classifying the surgeon as a creep, too) reinvents herself as clothing designer Adrian Corday.

She brings financial whiz Claudia (Givens) into the business as the only person outside the plastic surgeon's clinic who knows her full story. And that's just the fast-moving first hour or so, before Emily is reacquainted with an old friend, now successful, who finds something familiar about her (when the Beymer character did and acted on it, he's a bad guy; when Ricky Paull Goldin does, he's a good guy).

Duane Poole's script, based on a story by co-producers Marvin and Mark Werlin , has a nice circular quality to it, and pic certainly moves quickly under Jack Bender's direction; there's more material here than in in many miniseries.

Bleeth does a very good job, Wilder is truly loathsome, and Trainor and West are especially notable among the supporting cast.

Camera, Eagle Egilsson; editor, Mark Melnick; production design, Richard Sherman; sound, Dennis Kirk, Elmo Ponsdomenech, Rocky Moriana; music, Christopher Franke.

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