Mystery Woman:

Mystery Weekend

DOWNLOAD (pdf)

CLARENCE WILLIAMS III WANTS VIEWERS

INVOLVED IN ‘MYSTERY WOMAN’

By David Martindale

Clarence Williams III is quick to point out that “there’s nothing kind or gentle” about the act of murder.  Yet he does find it refreshing that “Mystery Woman,” one of three new Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie franchises, is a bit of a throwback to a kinder, gentler brand of whodunit.

“Nowadays a lot of the things on television and in motion pictures are very graphic and very brutal,” says Williams, who plays Philby, Kellie Martin’s man-of-mystery sidekick.  “You see the person murdered, sometimes in the most visually arresting way possible.  You see the autopsy.  You see everything.  It’s edgier filmmaking and sometimes I enjoy it, but it appeals to a certain prurient interest.”

Whereas “Mystery Woman,” in which Martin plays book-loving amateur sleuth Samantha Kinsey, owes its existence more to Agatha Christie and “Columbo” – puzzles to challenge the brain – than it does to “C.S.I.,” the much-copied, forensics-driven feast for the eyes.

“Here’s why I find this interesting,” says Williams, the former “Mod Squad” star.  “This type of mystery allows the audience to work with us in a way, to look for clues as we do and to try to interpret the meaning of those clues.  Rather than [as happens with many forensics dramas] just sitting back and watching everything unfold.”

It should come as no surprise that Williams, who speaks fondly of his early acting days on the New York stage, would respond so enthusiastically to the notion of viewer participation.

Williams is best known to a generation of viewers as Linc Hayes, one of the three undercover hippie cops who made up “The Mod Squad .”  More recently, he has thrived as a character actor, costarring in such movies as “The Immortals,” “The General’s Daughter” and “Reindeer Games.”  Coming next is “Constellation,” a film that chronicles the lives and loves of an African-American family in the Deep South.

Philby, Samantha’s bookstore assistant, is a man with a mysterious past.  Samantha suspects he might have been a spy at one time; he certainly has those kinds of connections.  And Martin suggests that quiet-on-the-set Williams seems to have a little bit of Philby in him.

Williams begs to differ.  “I’m not that quiet,” he says. “It’s more a case of these scripts having a tremendous amount of dialog and we’re working very fast.  We’re doing seven to eight pages of script a day.  In the movies, you do a page, maybe two, a day.  So you do it as efficiently as you can make that happen.  You’re concentrating all day.

“As the general public perhaps doesn’t know, the hardest-working people in this business are the crew and the cinematographers.  They’re involved in every single shot.  There are scenes that Kellie’s not in, scenes that I’m not in.  So we have an opportunity to go somewhere and sit down.  But they’re involved in every shot.  So you want to work as efficiently as you possibly can to try to make the load not as heavy for them.  If that makes me quiet, well, then I’m quiet.”

When Williams reflects on his “Mod Squad” days, he speaks in glowing terms of how fortunate he was that his costars (Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton and Tige Andrews) became dear friends.  “You hear negative stories sometimes about people working in a series: this one doesn’t like that one or whatever,” Williams says.  “But that never happened to us.”

And even though the “Mystery Woman” cast is still just getting to know one another, Williams says everyone is getting along great.

“Everything is absolutely fantastic,” he says.  “I love Kellie and Nina Siemaszko (who plays Samantha’s friend Cassie).  I haven’t really worked with Casey Sander (who plays Chief Connors), but he’s a very nice man.  And we have wonderful producers.  So things are going quite well and I hope it continues that way.”

- HALLMARK CHANNEL -