Before prolific tele-scripter Rod Serling discovered he could sidestep network self-censorship by sneaking (mildly) provocative ideas into his work under the guise of fantasy/Sci-Fi in THE TWILIGHT ZONE, he wrote for various prestige anthology shows. So-called Golden Age TV like this hour-long drama for STUDIO ONE. (Under Westinghouse sponsorship at the time, most editions retain the awkwardly ‘live’ original commercials; mini tele-plays for new appliances and actress Betty Furness.) This one, a political drama about a senatorial feud played out on the Senate floor, a fair representation of the Serling model & method. Just appointed Senator Wendell Corey holds a grudge against his state’s senior U.S. senator (director John Cromwell in a rare actor gig) who had denounced Corey’s corrupt senator father. Corey’s newly hired advisor, Chester Morris, superb as a wise/wily D.C. operator, knows to play the long game, but on a drunk, blurts out an old damning secret. Will Corey use the bomb or take the high road. The same moral dilemma supplies the narrative motor in Gore Vidal’s THE BEST MAN/’64. (It also shares ARENA director Franklin J. Schaffner.) Main reason to watch is to check on one-time Hollywood A-lister Morris in a return to form with far better material than Hollywood offered after he’d slipped to programmers. But the unfortunate main takeaway is seeing how commonplace Serling looks without genre camouflage and metaphoric trimmings.* Censorship did him a favor.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Past THE TWILIGHT ZONE (try ‘To Serve Man’), Serling’s subcutaneous message technique (including his beloved O’Henry twist endings) is best seen in PLANET OF THE APES/’66 (again with director Schaffner). But his best without obfuscating genre elements is SEVEN DAYS IN MAY/’64 under John Frankenheimer, another Golden Age tv director. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/02/seven-days-in-may-1964.html
No comments:
Post a Comment