Trilby

November 2, 1992
Love blossoms in the desert in Palmer's uneven romance set in the Arizona territory in 1910. Trilby Lang left her heart in Louisiana with Richard Bates when her family came west to claim an inherited ranch. Malicious gossip dupes neighboring rancher Thornton Vance into thinking Trilby's morals are a mite loose; but when he makes an ungentlemanly move, the indignant miss promptly sets him straight. Now contrite, Thorn has a tough time convincing her that he no longer wants to insult her--just shove his hand in her bodice. The trajectory from there to Thorn and Trilby's marriage, unhindered by a visit from Richard, is so standard that even Palmer ( Lacy ) sounds bored narrating it. She does create a marvelous secondary romance between two misfits--Naki, a highly cultivated Apache, and Alexandra Bates, Richard's college-educated sister. But another minor romance, between an unhappy wife and a widowed army surgeon, is completely irrelevant to the main tale. Nor does marginal information on the Mexican revolution rumbling just across the Arizona border add dramatic interest here.