One of America’s most infamous
unsolved murders will unfold in Lizzie
Borden Took an Ax, premiering on Lifetime, January 25 (8 p.m., ET). Golden
Globe® and Emmy® Award nominee Christina
Ricci takes on the title role, while Stephen McHattie and Sara Botsford portray
her father and stepmother. Screen Actors Guild Award® winner Clea
DuVall plays older sister Emma. The 2014 movie, however, is not a remake of The Legend of Lizzie Borden, the 1975
made-for-TV movie starring Bewitched
actress Elizabeth Montgomery.
On a hot August day in 1892,
wealthy Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, were the victims of a
hatching-swinging killer in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden’s
daughter Lizzie, an unmarried Sunday school teacher, was charged with
committing the double homicide, but at the sensational trial that followed, the
accused murderess was found not guilty. The gruesome story, a crime writer’s
dream come true, has spawned countless books, many with different perspectives
and theories which set out to prove or disprove Lizzie’s guilt.
Lizzie
Borden Took an Ax captures
the tension and resentment in the Borden household, but viewers can expect the
movie will take creative license with the facts. Five-foot-three Abby Borden was
“very well nourished and very fleshy,” at least according to the autopsy. That
hardly describes Sara Botsford, the outstanding yet oft-overlooked Canadian
actress who portrays Lizzie’s stepmother.
Christina Ricci had already
turned 33 when it was announced she would play Lizzie Borden, making her closer
in age to her character than Elizabeth Montgomery, who was 41 when she depicted
the 32-year-old accused murderess. Although it’s hard to imagine the 2014
movie—or any other incarnation—eclipsing The
Legend of Lizzie Borden, Lifetime’s Lizzie
Borden Took an Ax sports a fine cast and a script from Mod Squad screenwriter Stephen Kay.
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| Christina Ricci stars in Lifetime's fact-based movie, Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (Photo Courtesy of Lifetime. Copyright 2014) |
