and was just as gripping when re-released in 1988. The local P.B.S. station showed it a week ago, I think to thumb their noses at the "re-make" if that thing on steroids can be dignified with the name.
The cinematography was stunning, and the black-and-white gave the film a balefulness from which colour might have distracted. There are some small items which even my uneducated eye caught, however:
-Raymond was so wooden that he was at times unbelievable (note the fine head of hair rarely mussed), again no doubt to set off his dynamic mother. Almost by way of contradiction, Mr Harvey was a good choice. I recall in BUTTERFIELD 8 that when he tried to show emotion, Harvey always looked like he was going to split a gut, so this unpleasant version of a STAR TREK Vulcan was a role made for him.
Returning to Iselin. The novel was published in 1957, the same year Joseph P. "Tail-gunner Joe" McCarthy died. This story is a satire on McCarthyism! "Tail-gunner" was nothing like Iselin, rather as nasty as the Missus. The thesis turns right-wing paranoia -- a salient feature of American political culture -- on its head, to-wit: how to use American political culture against itself. A jab from the "right" is really a haymaker from the "left." The science fiction angle of post brain-washing manipulation is just the vehicle to make larger social commentary. Note how Americans bend over to make themselves vulnerable to a cynical element "within," a story especially for our times.
The cinematography was stunning, and the black-and-white gave the film a balefulness from which colour might have distracted. There are some small items which even my uneducated eye caught, however:
- Senator Iselin is rather too much the hapless buffoon, why in a moment. I found the depiction of the character so central to the "plot" hard to swallow. True, the director/ writers wanted to make Mrs Iselin a powerhouse, but it was not necessary to create a flaccid man to make her the puissant woman.
-Raymond was so wooden that he was at times unbelievable (note the fine head of hair rarely mussed), again no doubt to set off his dynamic mother. Almost by way of contradiction, Mr Harvey was a good choice. I recall in BUTTERFIELD 8 that when he tried to show emotion, Harvey always looked like he was going to split a gut, so this unpleasant version of a STAR TREK Vulcan was a role made for him.
- Does anyone REALLY think a woman who meets a border-line mental case in a train is going to give him her address and telephone number? (That said, it is one of the most charming scenes in CANDIDATE.)
Returning to Iselin. The novel was published in 1957, the same year Joseph P. "Tail-gunner Joe" McCarthy died. This story is a satire on McCarthyism! "Tail-gunner" was nothing like Iselin, rather as nasty as the Missus. The thesis turns right-wing paranoia -- a salient feature of American political culture -- on its head, to-wit: how to use American political culture against itself. A jab from the "right" is really a haymaker from the "left." The science fiction angle of post brain-washing manipulation is just the vehicle to make larger social commentary. Note how Americans bend over to make themselves vulnerable to a cynical element "within," a story especially for our times.