- Cruel Doubt
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Cruel Doubt Directed by Yves Simoneau Produced by Susan Baerwald Written by Joe McGinniss (Book)
John Gay (teleplay)Starring Blythe Danner
Matt McGrath
Denis Arndt
Adam Baldwin
Gwyneth PaltrowMusic by George S. Clinton Cinematography Elliot Davis Editing by Rick Fields
Michael OrnsteinDistributed by NBC Release date(s) May 17, 1992 Running time 187 min. Country 
Language English Cruel Doubt is a 1992 television movie starring Blythe Danner and Matt McGrath. The film was first broadcast as a two-part miniseries on NBC in the United States and CTV in Canada on May 17 and May 19, 1992.
The movie is based on the true crime book Cruel Doubt by Joe McGinniss, which documents the 1988 murder of Lieth Von Stein by his stepson, Chris Pritchard and two friends, James Upchurch and Gerald Neal Henderson.[1]
Although the film brought much attention to the murder of Von Stein, devotees of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons have criticized it for unfairly placing blame of the murders upon the game.[2] The three perpetrating friends were supposedly fanatics[citation needed]. The film featured the actual Dungeons & Dragons 1st-edition rulebook but with a piece of artwork visibly pasted into the pages of the book (depicting an orc with a dagger and backpack similar to the ones in the murder depicted), implying that it had caused the murders. Since the rulebook was already a million bestseller, it was unclear why the producers of the miniseries felt they could lie about such a well-known book on screen. [3]
References
- ^ McGinniss misspells the name "Neil," but it is spelled correctly in Jerry Bledsoe's book Blood Games.
- ^ The Attacks on Role-Playing Games, by Paul Cardwell, Jr., originally published in Skeptical Inquirer, 18:2, 1994 (157-165).
- ^ Cruel Doubt on The Escapist's FAQ
External links
- Cruel Doubt at the Internet Movie Database
- Cruel Doubt at AllRovi
Categories:- 1992 television films
- American television films
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