Combo of Richard Chamberlain, Hal Holbrook, Karen Allen and director Lamont Johnson should indicate that this CBS Sunday Movie will be a powerhouse, but they're all pretty much done in by co-producer Vivienne Radkoff's sudsy script based on a novel by Evan Maxwell. Contrived, mechanical and trite, "All the Winters That Have Been," even with all that firepower, plays like an overwrought silent pic. Chamberlain's self-centered Dane revisits the Northwest's Raven's Island for the first time in 20 years to see his Uncle Ren (Holbrook, who does a lovely job with what he's been handed), now cancer-stricken in the house they were building together. Seems a romantic tiff with a local girl has kept Dane away all these years.

Combo of Richard Chamberlain, Hal Holbrook, Karen Allen and director Lamont Johnson should indicate that this CBS Sunday Movie will be a powerhouse, but they’re all pretty much done in by co-producer Vivienne Radkoff’s sudsy script based on a novel by Evan Maxwell. Contrived, mechanical and trite, “All the Winters That Have Been,” even with all that firepower, plays like an overwrought silent pic.

Chamberlain’s self-centered Dane revisits the Northwest’s Raven’s Island for the first time in 20 years to see his Uncle Ren (Holbrook, who does a lovely job with what he’s been handed), now cancer-stricken in the house they were building together. Seems a romantic tiff with a local girl has kept Dane away all these years.

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When he was here before, Dane, without identifying himself as a lawman, had an affair with part-Indian Hannah Raven (Karen Allen), whose brother Waldo (Ben Cardinal) made a living poaching. Telling Hannah how much he cares for her, Dane, setting brother Waldo up for fishing illegally, slaps the cuffs on him.

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Dane, certain he’d done the right thing, was surprised that Hannah was sore at him. After failing to convince her how proper he’d been to send her brother up for five years, he vamoosed to Seattle to take up animal protection work.

Now, two decades later, returning to see ailing Uncle Ren, he bumps into Hannah, who’s still angry over his duplicity in using her while readying to nail her brother. Now widowed, she has a college-age son, and it isn’t much of a leap to conclude what that means.

The soft-as-tissue storyline and characters have been resting all these years in dusty 1930s-40s women mags’ novellas, and even as fine a director as Johnson can’t get around the soapy dialogue, the overly ripe situations, Dane’s denseness.

Chamberlain, who deserves better, determinedly works his part to make the often-intense lines ring true, the pudding-headed character sympathetic, but Dane remains dramatically out in the woods somewhere. Allen’s Hannah is indeed a charmer, both as a youthful woman and 20 years later, and Cardinal shows force as the duped step-brother. Chris Martin as Gabe, Hannah’s eager son, projects a likable, natural quality.

Telefilm shot by experienced hand Laszlo George looks fresh and lovely, and Ronald Sanders’ editing is a plus. Peter Manning Robinson has furnished a sympathetic score, and designers Linda Del Rosario and Richard Paris lean toward lots of pine in making the handsome if disappointing telepic woodsy.

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All the Winters That Have Been

Sun. (21), 9-11 p.m., CBS

  • Production: Filmed in Vancouver by Jaffe-Braunstein Prods. and Maili Point Prods. Executive producers, Michael Jaffe, Howard Braunstein, Martin Rabbett; producer, Christine Sacani; co-producer-writer, Vivienne Radkoff; based on the novel by Evan Maxwell; director, Lamont Johnson.
  • Crew: Camera, Laszlo George; editor, Ronald Sanders; production designers, Linda Del Rosario, Richard Paris; sound, Gord Anderson; music, Peter Manning Robinson; casting, Steven Jacobs.
  • Cast: Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Karen Allen, Ben Cardinal, Sheila M. Tousey, Ken Pogue, Chris Martin, Hal Holbrook, Rick Burgess, Mark Holden, Al Humphreys, Sumaya Jardey, Lelainia Lindbjerg, Shelah Megill, Tim Michel, Ray G. Thunderchild.

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