Television Reviews : Hothouse of Intrigue in ‘Passion and Paradise’

The Duke of Windsor, our ears prick a bit to hear, is described as “a pompous little pimple.” His beloved Duchess (Wallis Simpson, who cost Britain its king) is portrayed as callow and greedy.

Meanwhile, mobsters Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky are working for U.S. Naval Intelligence in World War II while trying to cut deals to build casinos in the Bahamas.

And we’re only talking subplots!

They are almost more tantalizing than the plot of the two-part ABC movie “Passion and Paradise,” a slow-to-develop thicket of defiant love and murder in the Bahamas based on a sensational 1943 Nassau family scandal and trial that momentarily diverted headlines away from the war.

Airing 9-11 p.m. on Sunday and Tuesday (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42), “Passion and Paradise” ultimately develops into a hothouse of intrigue if you can endure the pedestrian opening scenes and hold on for the murder trial that consumes Part 2.

The figures are true-life characters: Central among them are gold magnate Sir Harry Oakes (Rod Steiger, in a surprisingly vulnerable performance), an overprotective father who is found bludgeoned and burned in his bed; his luminous, smitten 19-year old daughter (Catherine Mary Stewart), and her gigolo count of a husband (Armand Assante), who becomes the prime suspect in the millionaire’s death.

The production, shot in Jamaica with Harvey Hart directing, is wildly overplotted, occasionally hokey and structurally artless. What’s most interesting, without question, is the ridicule in the portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, superbly played by Andrew Ray and Linda Griffiths.

The view of the displaced, petty royal couple, not to mention the insidious marriage among the notorious Luciano, Lansky and Uncle Sam to keep wartime labor peace on New York docks (“We’re spy busters!” chortles Lansky), is ripe social history.

Meanwhile, there’s harassed Sir Harry Oakes and bloody fingerprints to stew over. Oh, yes, in another diversion, dissident Jamaicans are plotting a revolution. Actually, there are three movies here, plus passion and paradise.