For those of us who were not familiar with the harrowing attack on Marla Hanson in New York in 1986, John Gray’s TV movie The Marla Hanson Story is a great introduction to the case.
The movie opens with the scene of the brutal attack on Marla Hanson (Cheryl Pollak), a budding model in New York City, who moved to the Big Apple to fulfill her modeling dream and became the object of desire of make-up artist and her landlord Steve Roth (Kirk Baltz). As she rejected Roth’s romantic advances, his obsession with Marla became aggressive and led to the aggravating attack.
Notably, the story highlights the fact that the attack, instigated by Roth, specifically targeted Marla’s face. In his words reeking of jealous revenge, Roth told his criminal friends, “I can give beauty and I can take it away.” Hurt by rejection, Roth decides to take away Marla’s pride leading to his plan to disfigure her.
Cheryl Pollak and Kirk Baltz, as the protagonist and antagonist respectively, have delivered outstanding performances and Dale Midkiff appears a good fit in his supporting role as fashion photographer Eric Warner who has a fling with Marla.
The movie’s seemingly original title “Face Value” is better reflective of the theme – the skin-deep nature, literally, of the modeling industry that turns you into a star for the world but can come with consequences on a deeper level. Gray successfully captures and presents to the viewers the value of one’s self-esteem regardless of their ambitions founded on looks alone. Also significant is the representation of social reality for young women moving to big cities with big dreams and their vulnerability to predators.
The Marla Hanson Story is a must-watch for all in our digital age of finger-tip tech whereby anyone can be a model on the countless sites and apps. For teenagers and young women, this should be a recommended screening in classrooms.
