CineSavant Column
Hello!
Correspondent Michael McQuarrie gives us two strong online links today. The first up is a 1970 short subject adapted from a stage play by Arthur Miller, and starring Eli Wallach and Robert Ryan. It’s almost unknown and is rather indifferently directed, but it’ll be something that fans of the stars will want to see.
It’s The Reason Why, directed by Paul Leaf. He directed other short subjects showcasing noted actors — Alan Arkin, Dustin Hoffman, Elaine May. Leaf produced some offbeat short subjects and a string of successful TV movies, including Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys from 1976.
A year after The Wild Bunch, Robert Ryan wears a mustache for a show that could have been filmed in a day. The business on hand is the hunting of wild woodchucks on Eli Wallach’s country property, but the real subject would seem to be killing in general, and maybe the Vietnam War. It was reportedly filmed on Arthur Miller’s home in Roxbury, Connecticut. We wonder if a woodchuck problem inspired playwright Miller to write this one-act piece. It comes off as a bit preachy and insubstantial, but it makes its point. It would go well with a clip of Marilyn Monroe from The Misfits, wailing about the killing of wild horses.
Second-up is a long-form Swiss documentary in the German language about Italo westerns, filmed in 1972. The subject is the decline of the genre, but we see plenty of BTS footage from the set of a western by Sergio Corbucci, plus lots of contemporary footage of movie districts with marquees, etc.
After the opening I couldn’t get the English subtitles to function, but I think that’s just me … Michael apparently didn’t have that trouble. Google translates the title Leichen pflastern seinen Ruhm as the English ‘Corpses Pave His Fame.’
The last item was forwarded by Joe Dante. We of course know the fine Patty Duke / Anne Bancroft version of The Miracle Worker, but we were much less aware of the original Live TV version from 1957. It later became a Broadway play, which is where Bancroft and Duke got involved.
The original TV teleplay was written by William Gibson, of today’s reviewed movie, The Cobweb. The director is the great Arthur Penn. Annie Sullivan is played by Teresa Wright, looking very severe. Helen Keller is played by Patty McCormack, a performance that will erase memories of her infamous Rhoda Penmark.
Also on hand are Burl Ives, John Drew Barrymore, Akim Tamiroff and Katharine Bard. The music is by Russell Garcia. It’s a top title of the Golden Age of Live TV — remarkable in every respect. No problems with drapes, here.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson