Fans of Gregory Harrison need not worry about a change in character when he switches from playing Gonzo Gates in the ”Trapper John” series to playing Mike Riordan in ”Seduced,” Tuesday`s movie at 8 p.m. on CBS-Ch. 2.
”Seduced” is a B-grade whodunnit with Harrison playing an up-and-coming young state`s attorney torn between the possibilities of politics and the money and power of very big business. Riordan could have been a cop or a private eye for this one, but the producers obviously decided the script needed a touch of class, creating Keane & Bridges, a giant corporation with a president freshly indicted for stock manipulation.
Its image tainted, K&B must come up with a strong new leader, and with the exception of one heir-apparent who slavers over the job, its board of directors clamors for Riordan, whose political reputation is as solid as a merit badge.
Before Riordan can decide, however, his chief backer on the board, the wealthy Arthur Orloff (played by Mel Ferrer) is found murdered in his palatial home, the apparent victim of a burglar surprised in the act of making off with a satchel full of jewelry. To complicate matters, Riordan has just discovered that Orloff`s wife, Vicki (Cybill Shepherd), is the lover he lost years ago, and even as he investigates the murder of her husband, they waste no time resurrecting their affair.
It soon becomes evident, however, that Orloff`s new will, not merely jewelry, was the burglar`s real booty, and that someone is out to kill Riordan and Vicki before they can unravel the mystery and bring the murderer to justice.
All of this does not put Riordan at the top of the corporate world. After Riordan has had his face rearranged by one of the bad guys whom Vicki subsequently shoots five or six times in self-defense, and, after pictures of Riordan and Vicki frolicking in the Caribbean surf start turning up in corporate mailboxes, the board of directors decides Riordan really isn`t the image they were looking for after all.
