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(1996 TV Movie)

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5/10
How to juggle three wives
DennisLittrell28 October 1999
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

Nick Rawlings, airline pilot, played with a clean-shaven smile and mindless amorality by Jack Wagner, has his bigamous lifestyle crash just as he weds wife number three, the youngest and blondest of the trio (Nicole Eggert). Somehow he was able to fool wife number one (Shelly Hack) for sixteen years, and wife number two (Joan Severance) for three years before they got wise. Neither wife seemed quite that dumb, but this is Hollywood. In reality these women wanted to be fooled of course, or didn't give a damn; but it makes a diverting story this way with wife number one only catching on after she finds a receipt in the trunk of his car for a nine thousand dollar ring that he does NOT give to her for their anniversary. When she discovers that it's an engagement ring for someone else, she hires a PI, cancels all his credit cars, sells his car, etc.

It's kind of fun to watch it all play out even if the characters are pure surface. The real problem (aside from Jack Wagner who has all the charm of a snake; but perhaps that's intentional) is the ending. How to sew it up and make the audience feel they've experienced the travails of bigamy? Turns out that real engagement with the subject was not even considered. Perhaps to the credit of director Alan Metzger it can be said he didn't even try. How horrible it would have been had he manufactured some phony catharsis and half baked it with some sort of deep philosophy. Instead Metzger had the cast walk through the production like it was a high school play: say your lines, look pretty, wear your costume and take a bow. For the audience it was kind of like cotton candy when what you really want is a steak.

Still this movie did demonstrate beyond any shadow of a doubt that one man is not enough for three women. However, that's a "duh."
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5/10
very mediocre
onzehans17 January 2001
Even an airline-pilot gets his normal days off and vacations. And it's a very old story and not very original retold. Bigamy is bad and in the end you wind up with empty hands. Well well. Watch this only when you have nothing better to do with your time.
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Made me laugh
Monika-511 October 2000
This teleflick about a man who juggles three wives may sound serious, but it really plays out like a comedy/drama. There is peppy music playing in the background at almost all times, and Jack Wagner's character is, as the previous reviewer commented, a big snake. But that's what makes the movie so much fun to watch, as are Shelley Hack, Nicole Eggert and Joan Severance as the three wronged women in his life.
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8/10
Good Movie - $1 in Wal-Mart Bin
demayp15 February 2008
I saw this movie in the Wal-Mart $1 bin in the checkout line. I figured if it stunk its only a buck, but it was actually a good movie.

The sound is very scratchy in parts, but the movie itself is good. It seems like something you'd see on lifetime or something like that seeing as how the man is the villain. We just can't win can we?

The plot is a good one, and of course you can't expect stunning visuals or audio, it's a great movie for a rainy day.

I give this a firm 8/10 just for the good plot and pretty decent acting for such a flick.

I have a feeling they won't have this featured as an in-flight movie.
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8/10
Real Life Bigamist
baregunner2 April 2007
I am not sure of the case you state with the doctor, but this movie is loosely based on my wife's father. He was featured on Unsolved Mysteries (with Robert Stack). He was an airline pilot and did indeed have wives spread around the country. He abandoned my wife's mother (and his four daughters) so she brought up the children on her own. Two of the four children had barely even saw him and two never knew him.

The bigamy came to light with my wive's oldest sister was coincidently watching Unsolved Mysteries and to her disbelief, there he was. In the segment, one wive of his began investigating and discovered two more wives as things unfolded. What was/is ironic, is that my wife's mother was not even included in this show, thus adding an additional wife to the count.

His whereabouts were never determined. He was never located. I imagine that he has probably passed away now. Living on the run since the early sixties must have taken its toll.
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Another wacko screen husband for Shelly Hack.
yenlo12 May 2003
Once again Shelly Hack is in a film as a woman married to a wacko. In the original `Stepfather' which ended up spawning two sequels she played an airhead bimbo who marries a serial killer then assumes her place as dumb stay at home cookie baking wifey before hubby snaps his cap. In this turkey she plays a woman married to a `Here I am girls I'm an airline pilot and just so darned good looking ya can't resist me can ya? Didn't think so' schnook. The viewer is led to believe that the Hack character has been married to Capt. Bigamy for sixteen years and has never suspected anything until she finds a receipt for an expensive piece of jewelry that she thinks is intended for her but then never gets it. Capt. Bigamy meanwhile is shown carousing with his 2nd wife (Joan Severance) and cheating on her with another girl friend who he intends to marry as well. One interesting character is the soon to be 3rd wife's father who looks like when he was Capt. Bigamy's age he was running the same type of scam i.e. multiple wives. He can't stand to see some young buck come along and put the moves on his babe daughter (Nicole Eggert) in the same manner that he used to operate. There is a subplot involving a teen-age son with main wife (Shelly Hack) who is trying to get into a preppy type school and that part just sort of falls flat. The ending is the best part because it essentially sends two messages. For women it's ` Ladies watch out who you marry' and for men it's `Don't worry guys there are plenty more where those three bimbos came from'
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8/10
Typical 90s trash, watched my dad has the car
samstew-4664228 July 2021
Paused on all the clips with the 57 t bird convertable. Sure enough, passenger door lock shaft that tips forward towards the front of the car. Door panels that have chrome trim that is suposed to tuck umder the black upper part but doesnt. Missing sun visors. Slightly non factory shade of red, and a silver and black Interior that isnt factory at all. And to top it off a massive body line improfection close on the driver side but big on passenger side. Everything else speced the same exept it didnt come with a soft top qhen my dad bought it. He put one in so now its black and has hardtop or soft top. My dad bought it in the early 2000s from a guy in new hamster who bought it from a guy from texas. Suposedly the texas guy had driven the car thru a flood and floated it on its almost empty gastank, which i beleive cause we found tons of dirt in the frame!
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9/10
another fantastic Jack Wagner role
groswick9 November 2004
Very believable role for the devilishly handsome Jack Wagner. Can you blame these women for falling in love with him? Heck I would have married him too. Wagner, an airline pilot, lives the lifestyle so many of us men yearn for with a wife at home and the lovely Joan Severance and Nicole Eggert on the side in different cities... until they decide they want to move to Texas to be closer to him. Wagner's only mistake is that he decides to marry all off them. Predictably, with all three women in the same town, all three wives end up crossing paths as Wagner ends up losing his semi-attractive wife and son, and most importantly, his car, money and side dishes. However, a sad ending becomes a happy one when Wagner crosses paths with another beauty in the airport as the movie closes.
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Unlikable Pilot 3 Wives ONE Good Actor(Eric) Kalen Mills
sherriesvintiques11 January 2004
No real reason for all these ladies to for him. (plot is based on true story of a cargo pilot). Perhaps if it were a zanny 1960's comody style it might have worked. The son, ERIC, palyed by brilliant dramatist, KALEN MILLS, was so fierce,it caused the producers to fear an unsympathetic audience reaction to the character of JACK RAWLINGS, so sceans had to be refilmed, further muddying up what might have been a clear cut drama. All in all, a typically bad made for TV movie.
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What happened to the three wives in the real life?
zzmale27 April 2004
This movie is loosely based on the true story of a cargo pilot whose name I could not remember, and therefore could not do any follow ups as I wished.

This movie is similar to The Man with Three Wives made three years earlier in 1993, which was also based on the true story, with exception that the man was played by Beau Bridges. In real life, the man in that movie was a doctor, and don't know the effect of Mr. Jack Wagner playing the role, since he played a doctor in Melrose Place. For the doctor's story, the three wives of his in the real life ending up suing each other for the money the guy had.

This movie painted a much nicer ending for the pilot, because he was simply dumped by the three wives. Is this what happened in the real life for the pilot?

Can anyone provide the name of the cargo pilot in real life, and what really happened to his three wives (or more precisely, three ex-wives)?
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