cult film freak: VAN HALEN'S EDDIE & VALERIE BETTING 'THE SEDUCTION OF GINA'

Valerie Bertinelli as GINA Year: 1984 Rating: ***1/2

It was love and marriage that prompted Eddie Van Halen to score this 1984 TV-movie THE SEDUCTION OF GINA for wife Valerie Bertinelli; only don't expect cool beachy grooves like the same years' THE WILD LIFE that he thoroughly composed: herein among three prerecorded instrumental tracks, a Jump-like synth-driven opener introduces Valerie's titular GINA as a flaky college student married to a serious med student, and after a beginner's luck bout of barroom horse race gambling, she winds up a desperate addict: Which is not only constrained by television standards, but someone as adorable as Valerie hitting rock bottom isn't very rocky, or bottomy...

The casino mogul she owes and ultimately "has to" sleep with is both better looking and more aptly suited than her downer husband; and then a streetwise bookie hardly puts pressure since she gets trust fund money so easily. But that doesn't mean this SEDUCTION doesn't have value. There's a good amount of suspense while she's actually gambling (mostly Black Jack) within the plush Tahoe casino, and one morning-after as she rushes to her apartment seconds before her husband arrives is a genuine nail-biter. Meanwhile, best pal Dinah Manoff has potential as a boy-crazy sidekick... if this were a series-pilot instead... But GINA is a basic tale about what happens when a gorgeous young lady has too much free-time that winds up costing. If only she stuck with the polite millionaire and dropped the whiny loser... But then she'd have no more problems and this is — while doing for gambling what PRETTY WOMAN does for prostitution — an addiction melodrama that's a decent bet for passing the time.