Lace Mini Series Streaming

[Cherie Trojak]

Thestory opens circa 1980 at an abandoned chateau in the Swiss Alps, once a prestigious boarding school, L'Hirondelle. Internationally famous film siren, Lili, travels from there to a private meeting with the elderly Hortense Boutin, whom Lili knows was paying money on behalf of one of the school's students to a family which adopted the student's illegitimate child. Lili is the child, now grown up.

An attempt by the school's headmaster Monsieur Chardin to expel the girls is thwarted when they unearth photographs of him in a homosexual tryst with the school's chauffeur, Paul. They blackmail Chardin into allowing them to stay and graduating them with honors. The child is placed with a foster family. On their behalf, Maxine's aunt, Hortense Boutin, agrees to pay money to Felix and Angelina Dassin, a French couple who consent to raise the child until her real mother establishes herself and can come back for her someday.

The three girls, on the verge of success in their respective careers, receive a report that the child has been killed in an auto accident. Consumed with guilt and shame, the three friends have a falling out and go their separate ways. In fact, Lili survived. Felix and Angelina were gunned down by Hungarian Soldiers after the accident. She was placed in a detention camp on the Eastern Bloc, where she spent the next ten years before finally escaping and eventually transforms herself into a film sex symbol.

Employing a private investigator, Lili tracks the payments to her adopted parents to Hortense, and through her, finds out about the three school friends and their pact. She knows one of them is her mother. Pagan Trelawney is now Lady Swann, a British aristocrat and the wife of a cancer researcher; Judy Hale has become a journalist, war correspondent, and publisher of Lace magazine; while Maxine Pascal is now the Countess de Chazalle, a French socialite. Hortense insists to Lili that the child is dead. But Lili defiantly proclaims "They'll wish I was. They made their schoolgirl pact and sent me to Hell--I'll teach them what I learned there!" As she leaves, the revelation proves to be too much for Hortense to bear and she suffers a fatal heart attack and dies.

After Hortense's funeral, which Maxine, Pagan and Judy all attend and where she witnesses the extent of their estrangement from one another, Lili inveigles herself in the lives of the three women, promising each of them something of value: for Judy, an exclusive interview for her magazine; to Pagan, a very sizable donation to her cancer society charity and for Maxine, to stop dating her son. But she also intends to ruin them if they do not reveal which of them is her mother. She assembles the three and challenges them with the mini-series' most famous line: "Incidentally...which one of you bitches is my mother?" The second part of the mini-series is driven largely by flashbacks to the three women's young adulthood, charting their career successes and returning occasionally to the present where all three are in the company of the woman who claims to be the abandoned daughter. Lili, at the end of the flashbacks, again tries to force a confession from them, but they still remain silent. Infuriated, Lili orders them to leave, but says she intends to keep the promises she made them regardless. As she ascends to her bedroom, she shocks the women by revealing the full details of her birth to the trio.

Later in the hotel bar, Judy, Pagan and Maxine all confirm that Lili was telling the truth and they all humorously agree that she is better than all of them put together. Maxine comments that "Well, at least she brought us all back together. I missed you - I really did." That last declaration finally repairs their damaged relationship. They agree Lili must be told the truth with Judy stating that this time, Lili's real mother is on her own in doing so.

Lili receives a phone call from the hotel manager, telling her that her mother wants to see her. A pair of high heels can be seen walking up the stairs. Finally, Judy Hale comes into the room and beckons Lili to come closer. Lili slowly rises and walks toward Judy, and the two embrace.

Lace was produced by Gary Adelson, Preston Fischer, Lynn Guthrie and David Jacobs. The original music, including the title theme, was composed by Nick Bicat. It was directed by William Hale, from a script by Elliott Baker.

The novel on which Lace is based, also titled Lace, was written by Shirley Conran. It was first published in the United States by Simon & Schuster on July 1, 1982. The hardcover edition ran to 604 pages. In the book there is a fourth "mother", a journalist named Kate, but this character does not appear in the adaptation, in which Judy is the journalist.

There was something special in the era of monoculture when a miniseries would debut during sweeps. Even as a kid, you had to watch them because it interrupted the regular schedule. And since we've touched on the various productions in other threads, I thought it deserved its own topic.

Miniseries tended to fall into two categories, prestige and trashy. I can still hear ABC's bombastic voice of prime-time announce that 'and now, a 6-hour adaptation of a classic novel for television' over three nights. As well as the scintillating CBS ads for epic romance novels now made for television.

On the trashy side (I hate the term guilty pleasure), I recall getting completely sucked into a re-run of Lace the Miniseries (aka Which one of you bi-a-tches is my mother?) It was New Year's Eve, and we had plans to go to a party, but as we got dressed we started watching. Then, we looked at the clock, four hours had passed, I was missing a sock, and it was almost midnight! I also enjoyed Mistral's Daughter and Scruples, although there was a lot of sexual assault in both. I was never a fan of Lucky or Hollywood Wives (although I still rock out to the theme song). And I would watch any of the Dominick Dunne adaptations again, including The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (Ann Margret was brilliant)_, People Like Us (Connie Sellecca's best work), An Inconvenient Woman (best death by bee ever), and A Season in Purgatory.

On the classy side, I was a big fan of a little seen miniseries called Family Pictures with Anjelica Huston and Sam Neil because I adored that book. I also really liked I Claudius. But, I never got into Winds of War or War and Remembrance. And I while I'm glad that I watched them, I was never a fan of Shōgun or The Thornbirds.

One that made a big impression on me as a child, though, was "Judith Krantz's I'll Take Manhattan," starring Valerie Bertinelli. I watched it again years ago, and it struck me how the first part, written by Sherman Yellen, was almost like a period drama; while the second, written by Diana Gould, was just straight-up '80's trash.

I loved those big 1980s miniseries based on best-selling novels. It's too bad the broadcast networks don't make miniseries anymore. Lifetime movie adaptations of best-selling novels don't have that same feeling as the network ones BITD.

In the classy domain, I forgot to mention the seminal miniseries Roots. I was transfixed, and we talked about the episodes every day in school. In fact, as part of the marketing, ABC sent discussion guides to schools. Looking back, it really walked a fine line between historical drama and soap. And, given the later controversy about how much of the original book was fictionalized, there were many elements that seemed overly melodramatic, when the actual events would probably have been just as powerful.

I also really enjoy the Jane Seymore version of East of Eden. Unlike the James Dean film, TV allowed them the time to tell most of the saga. And that book reads like a soap in some ways due to the multigenerational aspects and cliffhangers throughout. Although, one assumes John Steinbeck scholars wouldn't want to be associated with James Stenbeck fans. Please register in order to view this content

Amongst the trashy, I would be remiss if I didn't mention V the miniseries,. As well as the trifecta of Love in a Cold Climate, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story and Little Gloria... Happy at Last. Because who doesn't love a story about the trials and tribulations of the upper crust?

Flash forward to Spring 2022, when a smear campaign was launched in my community by a bunch of bored, unhappy, miserable fraus because I'd been showing the first part of the 2016 edition of Roots to facilitate discussion for my unit on the Atlantic slave trade. Thankfully, the entire community of people who actually know me showed up and showed out in my support, but SHEESH.

It never bothered me that there were fictionalized parts. Maybe it's because I grew up 20 years after it originally aired, but I always considered it historical fiction - the characters and their stories weren't real, but they just as well could have been because the circumstances were painfully real.

My big three when it comes to the trashy/fun mini-series are Hollywood Wives, Bare Essence, and Scruples. I became entranced with them when the WE network would regularly air "Monday Minis" in the early 2000s. IIRC, they'd show a part each Monday with a repeat on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Truly divine!!

I also enjoyed Sins and Deceptions but haven't watched them in years. Never was TOO big on Lace, but you can't not love the "btches" line, especially with Phoebe Cates's hideous French accent. There are some others I vaguely remember watching on one of the various Encore channels. Celebrity, Rage of Angels, etc.

I hadn't considered the entire subcategory of historical drama. I assume the vast sagas made for multiple episodes. However, there were trashy ones as well. Does anyone remember John Jakes's The Bastard and The Rebels when Andrew Stevens ran around in contemporary hair but period costume?

I feel like you could always tell the trashy history from the classy by the lighting. The classy ones were always dark and gray, and the trashy ones were brighter with candle lamps that could somehow light up an entire room.

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