TV Reviews : ‘Dangerous Passions’ Is Routine Melodrama

Billy Dee Williams, in the tour-de-force persona of a crime lord, casts a malevolent gleam over an otherwise utterly routine melodrama, “Dangerous Passion,” Sunday at 9 p.m. on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

Williams and his riverboat-gambler looks alternately light up this tawdry story of lust and stupidity, co-starring Lonette McKee and Carl Weathers (who was co-executive produce)r. The production reminds you a little bit of the old blaxploitation movies, except it’s not as much fun.

The hero is Weathers, a technical wizard who helps save Williams’ life with a home security system and is then sucked into the silky gangster’s murderous world. The hook, in Brian Taggert’s teleplay, is that Weathers is seduced by the crime lord’s flaky wife, the sinuous McKee, and they both have to run for their lives.

McKee, whose screechy and reckless behavior would be enough to scare off even the most lowly handyman let alone the earnest Weathers, has a thankless role, and director Michael Miller unaccountably lets her play it over the top. Weathers is stony, his heroism a cliche. But the cuckolded Williams and his love affair with his 1931 Bugatti steals the bits of the show worth savoring.