Connie Stewart aka Nedy Crowner (Loretta Swit) is the main antagonist of the 1991 film Hell Hath No Fury.
Backstory[]
At one point in the film, Connie's parents revealed her to already be mentally unhinged as she had previously attempted to kill them and had crippled her mother in the process for unknown reasons.
During her time at college, Connie met and fell in love with Stanley Ferguson and they engaged in a one night affair. Stanley then left to seek his career where he became a successful real estate developer and during this time met and married Terri, who had been Connie's rival at the same college which made Connie bitter and jealous and she blamed Terri for stealing him from her.
She eventually got married herself to Jack Corndeck, but her own husband was abusive to her. She still loved Stanley and was determined to have him by force if necessary. One evening after seeing one of Stanley's commercials on television, she decided to set off to find him. When her husband tried to stop her, she shot him three times and left the house for good.
Events[]
Connie managed to find Stanley with Terri dining in a restaurant and followed them to their house to find out their location. She later followed Terri and her best friend Marlene to her tennis club and began plotting ways to get rid of her.
At some point, when both Stanley and Terri were out, Connie broke into their house, wearing a blonde wig and stylish dress, decorated the kitchen and set the table for a romantic dinner, waiting for Stanley to come home.
When Stanley arrived, he was shocked to see Connie there and at first had no idea who she was. The deranged woman said that she had always loved him and was now where she rightfully belonged. When he tried to phone the police, she held him at gunpoint and made him sit at the table.
As they sit at the table, Stanley tried to tell her gently that what happened with them was only a one-off and she would never have him. In a rage, Connie took Terri's picture off the bookshelf, dropped it on the floor and stepped on it, venting out her jealousy and claiming it should have been her that Stanley married. She then made him write a note to Terri and told him to leave it on the table. After Stanley asked her to leave, Connie shot him, declaring that it was all Terri's fault that Stanley didn't love her and left the house.
She then went back back to her hotel room and began to go through manic depression by smashing a mirror and blaming Terri for pushing her to kill the only man she ever loved. Connie then attended Stanley's funeral and set her sights on Terri and her teenage daughter Michelle, waiting for the perfect time to strike.
Connie later met Terri when she was moving into a new flat taking on the alias of Nedy Crowner and wearing a brown curly wig. She helped Terri move the boxes into the flat and the two engaged in some tea and conversation becoming friends. Connie then met Terri again when she was working in her antique shop. She was wearing another wig. Marlene walked in and Terri introduced her to her. Connie saw Marlene as a hindrance in her plans, so later that night she went to Marlene's house and shot her in cold blood. She then had Terri framed for both the murders, but she was released due to lack of evidence.
Connie continued her plan in hurting Terri and during another visit, she asked about Stanley. As Terri described how much of a loving husband and father he was despite his faults, Connie's jealousy continued to boil over. Just then, Michelle called on the telephone and Terri decided to take it privately to the bedroom and asked Connie to hang up the other phone. However, Connie slyly kept the line going so she could listen into Terri and Michelle's conversation herself.
She quickly hung up as Terri entered the lounge again and asked what was the matter. Terri told her that Michelle was having a hard time coping with everything including college and Stanley's death and wanted to come home, but she didn't want her to come back home with a deranged woman named Connie on the loose (not knowing of course that she was speaking directly to the same woman). She then asked Connie to leave.
Knowing that the police were now onto her for the murder of her husband, Connie set her sights on kidnapping Michelle and left a taunting message in Terri's car that said "GUESS WHO'S NEXT". She then rang Michelle and told her that Terri had been in a massive car accident and had to come home. Connie then asked her to meet at the airport and set off to the chosen location, plotting to kill both her and Terri.
She then rang Terri to taunt her, saying that there was still time to save her daughter at the airport for the time being. Terri then raced with the police to the airport, but got there too late. Connie had already taken Michelle away in her car and was holding her at gunpoint. They then set off to another phone booth and made Michelle ask Terri to meet then at the old sanitarium with no police, just the three of them. Terri warned Connie that she would kill her if she harmed Michelle, but Connie shook off the threat, hung up and pulled Michelle away.
Connie held Michelle in the car, applied make-up and put on the same blonde wig she wore when she killed Stanley. Terri reached the location and spotted her in the car, now putting two and two together of Nedy and Connie being one and the same. She rushed to the car and demanded to know where Michelle was, but the deranged woman held her at gunpoint. A horrified Terri asked Connie what she ever did to her, but Connie told her not to pretend like she didn't know. She then dragged Michelle out and forced Terri to enter an abandoned torn down house.
As they entered, Terri asked her to let Michelle go, but she refused and began taunting Michelle with her blonde wig. Terri asked her why she was doing this. The deranged woman replied that Stanley was her first love and that Terri had stolen her from her and even though she had killed him, he would always be with her in her heart.
Terri humored Connie to let her guard down, but Connie wasn't fooled and declared her intention to kill them both. Terri called out to the police, but it turned out to be another ploy and Connie was sprayed in the face with some spray Terri was carrying on her person. Connie and Terri fought and the evil woman was hurled against a wall. Terri and Michelle fled to the woods, but Connie was in hot pursuit. She fired a bullet which missed and hit a tree, but the impact made Michelle tumble down a hill.
Connie then watched Terri leaving Michelle next to the tree and set off to find her again. As she wandered through the trees, Terri hid and then attacked her from behind with an old metal bumper. Connie fell to the ground, losing her gun in the process, and Terri then hit a now-powerless Connie over and over again, saying how much she hated her for all the misery she caused her, knocking off another one of her wigs and leaving the evil woman bruised, battered and frightened. The police, who had secretly followed and had realized Connie's evil nature and crimes, then arrived and arrested Connie while Terri attended to Michelle.
Tied up in a straightjacket by the police, Connie broke down into a gibbering wreck as she realized that her plan to destroy Terri's life had failed forever, and that she is now forced to ultimately deal with the cold, hard truth that Stanley loved Terri and not her. Connie was then placed in the back of a police van and taken away, while Terri watched her go, certain that she would face a long imprisonment for her crimes.