Villainous Beauties Wiki
Elsa Gentry

The villainous Elsa Gentry

Elsa Gentry (Bo Derek) is the villainess from the 2017 Hallmark film, Christmas in the Heartland (alternately titled The Christmas Trap; airdate November 14, 2017).

Backstory and Introduction[]

Elsa Gentry is the wife of Bob Gentry and she was introduced as the mother of Jeff Gentry; however, Jeff was actually the product of Bob's relationship with Judy Wilkins, who he had met prior to his marriage to Elsa. Following Jeff's birth, Judy gave her son up to Elsa, who raised him with Bob. As the film showed, Elsa had a haughty and elitist demeanor, and it was revealed to be the cause of Jeff's estrangement from his parents. Elsa disapproved of Jeff's relationship with Olivia, feeling that Olivia was beneath their family's standards, leading to Jeff leaving home and marrying Olivia, which resulted in the birth of their daughter, Kara Gentry (one of the film's main protagonists).

Events[]

In the film's events, Kara (who lost her mother years prior) was set to visit her grandparents; a visit she was dreading due to having never met them. On her flight, she meets Jessie Wilkins, who was visiting her grandmother, the aforementioned Judy Wilkins, whom she hadn't met, leading to the girls deciding to swap destinations. Jessie poses as Kara and meets Elsa and Bob, and quickly sees Elsa's nature, which Bob doesn't share. The film's progression sees Elsa grooming "Kara" and teaching her to act like a "proper lady," while also planning to enter her in the yearly Christmas pageant, making the decision after meeting with her friend, Ida Beth.

Bob finds out about Elsa's plan to enter Kara in the pageant and accuses her of controlling their granddaughter (among others, including Jeff and even Bob himself) and making Kara do what Elsa wants, in response, Elsa defended her actions by stating that she protected Bob and made him the man he was, and that she would continue to use her methods on Kara, which included setting her up with Wesley Cooper--mainly because he came from affluence. Later on, the evil Elsa antagonized Judy while she was out with her family, including "Jessie" (who was actually--unbeknownst to Elsa--Kara), and she later approached Jaret, a business owner and one of the judges, and blackmailed him into voting for Kara as the winner of the pageant, threatening to ruin his business if he didn't comply. The callous villainess even prevented "Kara" from speaking to "Jessie" over the phone, but despite her methods, "Jessie" ended up winning the pageant.

After Kara confessed to the Wilkins family that she wasn't Jessie, the film's climax saw Judy and the rest of her family at the Gentry household, having been invited by Bob, with Jeff and his fiancee Sherry at the home as well. Elsa expressed her shock and astonishment over seeing the Wilkins family, but was elated to see Jeff, though the happiness was short-lived due to Elsa's arrogant attitude. The villainess also laughed off the true claim that Kara and Jessie had switched places, while referring to the Wilkins family as "riff-raff" and calling Judy a "trollop." At that moment, an indignant Bob revealed the truth--in spite of Elsa's warnings:  that Judy was Jeff's actual mother. Despite witnessing their reunion and hearing that Jeff wanted a mother that loved him, Elsa coldly stated that she did love him and was trying to save him from a woman who was beneath him--referring to Olivia.

After Kara and Jeff expressed outrage at Elsa's cold statement, Bob scolded Elsa for her attitude, with the villainess stating that she saved Bob from life with Judy, who she claimed didn't fit in with their plans and their lifestyle. Bob responded by revealing his true feelings for Judy, and that he regretted leaving her to fulfill Elsa's vision, leaving a humiliated Elsa to phone Ida Beth and plan a trip to Florida, while sarcastically commenting that Bob and Judy--as well as the rest of the family--deserved each other.

Trivia[]

  • Bo Derek also played villainess Beverly Barish on Tommy Boy.