Roses are for the rich

Year of release : 1987

Run time : 1h31m, 2 episodes

Genre : Drama / Mini Series / Tv

Cast : Lisa Hartman, Joe Penny, Bruce Dern

The 2 part , made for television, drama is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Jonell Lawson.

The movie opens with the funeral of Douglas Osborne. The same night, they want to read the will, but the police shows up, to arrest Autumn, the "grieving" widow (I thought they had to still have the body before they arrest someone for murder, but the man was buried).

While waiting her trial, Autumn is given a rose by a police officer who tells her a man in a wheelchair asked her to give it to her. This makes Autumn think back at how everything started.

18 years earlier, Autumn was stealing roses from the Osborne garden, as roses are her favorite flowers. Her aunt Molly, who takes care of her (her parents both died, her father in the mine of Douglas Osborne) tells her to stay away from their garden, as they're not thieves, and roses are for the rich, as they need special soil to grow in the Appalachian mountains.

Autumn was always in love with Lonnie. After her aunt dies, she moves in with her aunt Ella, who runs a brothel. Aunt Ella promised aunt Molly to keep Autumn in school, so she could leave this place and make money.

6 years later, Autumn stays with her aunt Ella, in the brothel she runs. She is going to school, and seems to be smart (most people in the area don't know how to read and write, including the man she loves, Lonnie). She still loves Lonnie, and gives up school to be with him.

She marries him, and he is a miner in the Osborne mines. He seems to be smart although he doesn't know how to read and write, and fights for the miners' rights. Autumn wants to leave the Appalachians but Lonnie refuses, thinking he can't do anything else since he can't read or write.

A methane pocket in a shaft in the mine explodes and Lonnie dies, around Christmas time. Autumn, who was pregnant, wakes up on New Year's Eve in the hospital, a widow, hearing she miscarried.

This makes her take the decision to move out of the small town, study, and become somebody. She comes to the conclusion Douglas Osborne is responsible for the deaths of her husband, father, and unborn baby, wanting vengeance.

She steals 700 dollars from Brian Osborne's wallet, as he ends up in her room, thinking her a pr0stitute, and moves to San Francisco, where she looks up the man Ella told her about, Everett Corbett, a miner who left their small town.

2 years later, she finished business classes (her words,not mine), and works at Corbett's bar 3 nights a week, the rest working at a Department Store.

Everett courts her, and so does the owner of the department store. She starts an affair with the owner of the department store, Lloyd Murphy, and marries Everett. Looks like a woman who knows what she wants !

Seeing Osborne has financial problems and sells the company's stocks to stay afloat, Autumn starts buying, manipulating the stock market, as she wants the mines.

When her scorned lover, Lloyd, helps Douglas out, Autumn visits Douglas, and starts an affair with him (the man she hates!), and when he finds out who she is, she tells him she is pregnant with his child !

This was one of my favorite movies growing up, but last night, the last part of the movie bored me.

The characters, starting with the lead, are unlikeable. Autumn is driven by her obsession with Douglas Osborne, having to pay for her first husband dying (the only man she ever truly loved). She has an affair with a married man, man she agrees to leave if the wife gives her 1 million dollars (this was in the 80's!!).The woman gives her the money (the guy was not worth it, if you ask me, he was a cheater, who only married her for the money, who treated her awful!), and a while after, Autumn goes back to him, their affair spanning over 10 years or so!

Autumn turns from a lovable character into a woman scorned, a vengeful, manipulative b1tch!

The married man, Lloyd Murphy, was unlikeable, as he hits on her from the getgo, although married, and treats his wife, who's money he needs, as he's broke, awful! He also gets his payback on Autumn for leaving him for the money (although he told her he's going back to his wife for he's broke without her!).

Douglas Osborne , for not carrying for others except himself. All these years he had an affair with his brother's wife, but also called pr0stitutes to his rooms.

Because of such people, others, like Autumn's second husband are taken for fools.

Another thing that bothered me was the fact they say Douglas Osborne was 49 when she starts dating him, but he looks 60-70 years old to me, not to mention, he looked old 18 years prior, when he was just 31 years old!

And another one, everybody calls her beautiful (she is beautiful), and all men want to be with her, it's ridiculous!

Probably because of all this, the movie received negative reviews, with critics calling it silly, preposterous and disjointed (speaking of which, it's true, I think they might have put the scenes in the wrong order, because after Douglas tells her he knows who she is, and breaks up with her, he finds her in his bed, thing he's happy about, they do the nasty (while he tells her he knows she is a dead miner's wife, and she tells him she hated him!), but then he hates her again. Or maybe it feels like this because they took some scenes out?!).

I liked the first episode as it had heart, which completely lacks in the 2nd episode.

I liked the lead's outfits. As much as I loved her outfits, I hated Hariett's (the woman who loves Douglas, and has an affair with him, who's married to his brother!) outfits and hair!

The actors were good.

The soundtrack was fine.

I think the movie had some scenes deleted, as on Wikipedia it states the movie has 4 hours, while I watched a 3 hours version, and I found a shorter version on VK.

You can watch the full series here,with Romanian subtitles : https://vk.com/video629513355_456242562?to=L3ZpZGVvNjI5NTEzMzU1XzQ1NjI0MjU2Mj8-

Rating : Worth a watch !