Autumn Born (1979)

Autumn Born would have been long forgotten had it not been for its star. Playboy model Dorothy Stratten plays a young innocent who withstands the cruelties and sexual assaults of her nasty guardian. In one scene, she is handcuffed to a bed, and the camera stays fixed on her for what seems like forever as she struggles to break free. It's that kind of film. Prior to her ill-fated attempt to escape from her own real-life nasty guardian, Paul Snider, Stratten realized that this was the sort of fare she would have spent her life making if she stayed married to him. Anyone who has seen Bob Fosse's Star 80 (in which Autumn Born is alluded to under the title Wednesday's Child) will be all too familiar with the tragic outcome of the Stratten-Snider relationship. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi