Here's the Original Television presentation with Henry Mancini's great score. In the end credits it is noted that the Music Editor for the production was Richard Carruth. Richard was the husband of Jerry Goldsmith's long time assistant Lois Carruth.
Steve Lawrence was great and probably had the best monologues.
And boy was he up to them, too. He knocked my socks off. I knew he could do comedy and even light drama, but I didn't know he could this, hold such a firmly credible presence, weathering Sterling Hayden like a light breeze at golden hour.
Oh man am I latecomer (yeah, very late) to this production and just watched it off TCM On Demand and cannot get over the whole thing. Incredible cast (esp. Pat Hingle and Robert Shaw) in something of a Playhouse 90-type production filmed in a NY studio a year after JFK assassination. The dialogue is deadly serious and evocative of the era. And to think Mr. Mankiewicz was fresh off of the whole Cleopatra thing and Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers of the Strangelove thing and Mr. Serling of the You-Know-What thing. Throw in Mancini and this is one helluva one-time thing.
I enjoyed those parts as well. I did not much enjoy the over-extended section with Steve Lawrence. I have no idea why they thought he could convincingly carry that much material, but I was distracted in a major way after about 15 minutes. Hingle and Shaw got less than half the time Lawrence did.
Steve Lawrence was great and probably had the best monologues.
And boy was he up to them, too. He knocked my socks off. I knew he could do comedy and even light drama, but I didn't know he could this, hold such a firmly credible presence, weathering Sterling Hayden like a light breeze at golden hour.
You better believe it. The singer really did hold his own with Hayden whose dialogue right from the start was as crisp as this morning's bacon. Couldn't help but wonder, though, if they had tried to get Ol' Blue Eyes because the role as played by Steverino had Maggio all over it.
Oh man am I latecomer (yeah, very late) to this production and just watched it off TCM On Demand and cannot get over the whole thing. Incredible cast (esp. Pat Hingle and Robert Shaw) in something of a Playhouse 90-type production filmed in a NY studio a year after JFK assassination. The dialogue is deadly serious and evocative of the era. And to think Mr. Mankiewicz was fresh off of the whole Cleopatra thing and Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers of the Strangelove thing and Mr. Serling of the You-Know-What thing. Throw in Mancini and this is one helluva one-time thing.
Thank you so much. I found it on demand and I am intending to watch it. I love Rod Serling. It’s great to find a lost treasure of his.
I saw this about a year and a half ago streaming on (I think) Amazon Prime, though as I look now it's not there. A very odd, heavy handed story apparently meant to drum up support for the United Nations. All the characters sound like Rod Serling, so it's pretty surreal, but I think Peter Sellers is the most interesting as he really created a vivid characterization for his too-short part. What a cast list, though. The photography is quite good too -- lots of deep shadows and moody sets. I can't really recommend it to anyone who isn't a Serling fan, but I'm glad I saw it.
Here's the Original Television presentation with Henry Mancini's great score. In the end credits it is noted that the Music Editor for the production was Richard Carruth. Richard was the husband of Jerry Goldsmith's long time assistant Lois Carruth.
Len Carruth was the main music editor at Fox, another Carruth was Evelyn who worked in the wardrobe department on "Perry Mason". Quite a family.
