TV/Movies About Plural Marriage

[Doc]

I need your help.

I am wanting to create a directory for our Resources page for television series/episodes or movies that deal with the subject of plural marriage. If you could include a review of the show, that would be helpful as well. Links to the show for viewing would be a plus as well.

The two obvious ones are 'Sister Wives' and 'Big Love'. Are there any others that you have run across that might portray plural marriage?

Blessings

Doc

 

[Doc]

LAW & ORDER SVU (TV)

Season 9 Episode 10 "SNITCH" Aired Dec 4, 2007

Detectives Benson and Stabler investigate when the wife of an informant (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) is found dead. The man is revealed to be a Nigerian polygamist with several wives still living, one of whom (Tracy Middendorf) is not Nigerian. Benson and Stabler suspect that the man's cultural tradition may have been the cause of his wife's murder when they find a website that exposes potential witnesses to the crime for which he was testifying. A new Homicide Bureau Chief ADA (Gloria Reuben) has to try to keep her case from falling apart after the husband refuses to testify against the killer (Method Man) of a young boy.

 

[Doc]

THE SUBSTITUTE WIFE (TV MOVIE)

Farrah Fawcett, Lea Thompson, Peter Weller

Original airdate: 1994

A dying wife and mother makes plans for her family in this made-for-television drama. Lea Thompson stars as Amy Hightower, a frontier wife and mother of four who is ill and expected to die. In an unusual move to make sure her family is cared for, she finds a prostitute named Pearl (Farrah Fawcett) and teaches her how to be a wife and mother. The movie shows how Pearl slowly transforms, Amy's health fluctuates, and how husband Martin (Peter Weller) deals with the unusual circumstances. Filmed in Texas, this film is at times humorous and emotional, and not typical movie-of-the week fare

 

[Doc]

JACOB (TV MOVIE)

Original airdate: 1994

The story of Jacob in the Old Testament. The movie begins at the birth of Jacob and his twin brother Esau. The movie travels through Jacob meeting Rachel but ending up married to Leah and Rachel and then with handmaids Zilpah and Bilhah bear a total of 12 sons, and the daughter Dinah. The movie shows Jacob's name being changed to Israel and ends with the reconciliation with Esau.

Matthew Modine....Jacob
Lara Flynn Boyle....Rachel
Sean Bean....Esau
Joss Ackland....Isaac
Juliet Aubrey....Leah
Irene Papas....Rebekah
Giancarlo Giannini...Laban

 

[Doc]

Columbo: Murder, A Self Portrait (TV Episode)

Original airdate: Nov 25, 1989

Max Barsini is an artist who has a most unusual living arrangement with three women. He is married to Vanessa, and Julie is his live in model. Louise is his first wife who lives next door. Max takes delight in the way they fight for his attention, but also likes to control them. So when Louise starts seeing a psychologist, Max not only fears that she will break away but also that she will reveal a secret that Max will kill to keep hidden and he does. He makes it appear that she drowned but Columbo knows something is wrong.

Columbo.....Peter Falk
Patrick Bauchau...Max Barsini
Fionnula Flanagan...Louise
Shera Danese... Vanessa Barsini
Isabel García Lorca... Julie

 

[Doc]

THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE (MOVIE)

Original airdate: 1953

Henry St. James, captain of a large ferry that shuttles between the British colony in Gibraltar and the Spanish-ruled peninsula of Ceuta in northern Morocco, is a man who covertly maintains a wife at one port, and a second wife at another. For security reasons, access to Gibraltar is restricted and the only member of the Golden Fleece's crew eligible for shore leave is St. James, so the likelihood of St. James' women meeting is remote despite their relatively close proximity. Each woman represents a different aspect of womanhood that the captain finds attractive. Maud in Gibraltar is a dutiful wife and housekeeper, a good cook, and a faithful homebody, while Nita in Morocco is a voluptuously sexy siren who appeals to his more hedonistic nature which loves dancing and drinking until dawn. Trouble in Paradise begins when Maud begins to crave a more carefree existence and Nita longs to develop her domestic skills.

Sir Alec Guinness....Captain Henry St James
Yvonne de Carlo...Nita St James
Celia Johnson...Maud St James

 

[Doc]

ENEMIES: A LOVE STORY (MOVIE)

Original airdate: 1989

Based on an Isaac Bashevis Singer book of the same title, a man who is a Holocaust survivor ends up married to 3 women at the same time—a non-Jewish Polish peasant who saved his life during the Holocaust and who he marries out of gratitude because she loves him, though he does not love her; a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust and who he loves despite the fact that she’s mentally unstable. She knows he has married the Catholic woman, and she insists he marry her, but only under Jewish marriage law, asserting that his other marriage isn’t valid under Jewish law so it’s OK that he marries another (she doesn’t know that the other wife is converting to Judaism). And then his there’s his pre-Holocaust wife who he thought had been killed in the Holocaust. But she turns up alive unexpectedly. She knows about the other two wives.

Starring Ron Silver and Angelica Huston

 

[Doc]

RAISE THE RED LANTERN (MOVIE)

Original airdate: 1991

China in the 1920's. After her father's death, nineteen year old Songlian is forced to marry Chen Zuoqian, the lord of a powerful family. Fifty year old Chen has already three wives, each of them living in separate houses within the great castle. The competition between the wives is tough, as their master's attention carries power, status and privilege. Each night Chen must decide with which wife to spend the night and a red lantern is lit in front of the house of his choice. And each wife schemes and plots to make sure it's hers. However, things get out of hand.....

 

[lutherangirl]

The Last Emperor is a 1987 biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose autobiography was the basis for the screenplay written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. Independently produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was directed by Bertolucci and released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures.[3] Puyi's life is depicted from his ascent to the throne as a small boy to his imprisonment and political rehabilitation by the Chinese Communist authorities. It recalls the time when Puyi had two wives at the same time.

 

[CecilW]

My Five Wives

Rodney Dangerfield, circa 2000

It's a dream come true when real estate developer Rodney Dangerfield inherits 5 wives when a valuable Utah land deal gets out of control. Rodney's got much more than he bargained for with a host of young brides and a crew of gangsters on his back.

Lightly thought provoking and very funny!