Case of Rape, A (1974) – Nostalgia Central

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One of the most successful of all American-made-for-TV movies (it was the eighth most popular telefeature between 1964 and 1990 37) was NBC’s A Case of Rape (1974), directed by Boris Sagal with Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery as the victim Ellen – “a middle-class housewife on the fringes of swimming-pool suburbia”.

Ellen Harrod (Montgomery) is a wife and mother, and it is the impact of rape on those around her – more so than on Ellen herself – that forms the crux of the film.

When she is raped in the family home by a friend from evening class who has asked to use the phone (Cliff Potts), the camera quickly moves away from the scene, settling instead on her young daughter’s bedroom door.

In contrast to the graphic rape scenes of films like A Clockwork Orange (1971), TV movies tended not to depict the act of rape itself in any detail, usually fading to black before presenting the viewer with the aftermath of the act.

Ellen’s independence – her attendance at evening classes and socialising with (male) classmates – perpetuates the myth that the victim has somehow encouraged the rape.

Ellen is dissuaded from immediately reporting the assault by the aggressive manner of the police officer on the phone. It is only when she is raped for a second time by the same man a few days later that she is moved to take action.

This heralds the beginning of a set of painful personal and legal battles. Ellen is interrogated by police who ask her if she wears a bra and whether she perhaps found the idea of force exciting.

Her husband David (Ronny Cox) becomes suspicious of her complicity in the act given that she didn’t report the first rape, blaming her for the impact on the couple’s sex life (“It was done to both of us”).

The most explicit articulation of Ellen’s personal and bodily suffering occurs in a medical examination scene in which the horror of rape is encoded in Ellen’s scratched and bruised body (one publicity shot for the film depicted an apparently naked, bruised and wide-eyed Montgomery, photographed from behind as though anticipating another attack).

Given its sustained focus on Ellen’s legal team’s efforts to get her rapist convicted, A Case of Rape offers an unexpected conclusion to the audience when the rapist is found not guilty.

The police admit that some of the laws they are working with are over 100 years old and “don’t make much sense anymore”, and Ellen’s lawyer bemoans poorly educated and prejudiced juries.

Although it was not presented as drawing on a single true-life case, A Case of Rape clearly positioned itself as an accurate rendering of contemporary legal experience, apparently based on various reports from a District Attorney’s office.

The opening credits of the film recited statistics on rape, and the epilogue added a similarly pseudo-factual air with its report that Ellen’s rapist was caught fleeing the scene of another assault shortly afterwards, and that Ellen and her husband later divorced.

A Case of Rape does not offer a red, white and blue message about things working out, but in its epilogue it suggests that bringing Ellen’s rapist to court has added to a stock of evidence that will be useful in the future, if not immediately. Ellen has come to embody – and to do a service for – good, law-abiding society, but only at a significant personal cost.

Ellen Harrod
Elizabeth Montgomery
Leonard Alexander
William Daniels
Larry Retzliff
Cliff Potts
Muriel Dyer
Rosemary Murphy
David Harrod
Ronny Cox
Marge Bracken
Patricia Smith
Det. Riley
Ken Swofford
Det. Parker
Jonathan Lippe
Mike Bracken
Sandy Kenyon
Mr Osterley
Gerald Hiken
Kim Harrod
Debbie Lytton
Alex
Alex Henteloff
Judge
Robert Karnes
Dr Marsden
Charles Macaulay
Photographer
Mario Gallo
Officer Kimbel
Lionel Johnston
Officer Carbone
Antony Carbone
Night School Instructor
Victor Izay
Officer Kane
Davis Roberts
1st Orderly
Dennis Robertson
2nd Orderly
J. Jay Saunders
Judy
Polly Middleton
Stan
Tom Selleck