Reviews

Long before Harrison Ford, Richard Kiley was a great "everyman" actor. He played fathers, lawyers, teachers and an occasional outlaw. But he's at his best playing an average joe. In this made-for-TV movie is just a guy who tried to do the right thing and intervene when he saw a fellow citizen being mugged. Now he's accused of a crime, and neither the police nor witnesses will speak on his behalf. He's risked everything and it looks as if he's going down. Chris Connelly, another good character actor, is great as the tenacious reporter who wants to believe Kiley. Also good is Tracey Reed as the trying-to-climb-out-of-the-ghetto daughter of one of the witnesses. The pacing of the movie is good--you feel the frustration of a man who stepped up and now has no one backing him up. You also taste the emotional roller-coaster--exhilaration, fear and indifference--that many of us associate with living in a big city where crime in a matter of course.

For a made-for-TV movie, this one is great! Jack Klugman is funny, caring and clever as a big-city cop transferred to a sleepy suburb. When Daniel Corban reports that a woman has showed up impersonating his wife, it's up to Klugman to solve the mystery. Watch for a quirky priest, a charity woman and deli owner who help stir the pot. You don't know who to trust until the very, very end. James Franciscus, who can be a bit wooden in some roles, is great a man who who wonders if he himself is going crazy, or if it's just everyone else. I first saw this one when it was one of the ABC "Movies of the Week" in the 1970s, and didn't see it again until the 1990s. I taped it (got started five or 10 minutes late) but it is a VHS that I cherish--whip it out whenever I need a lift.

The characters in the oddly appealing drama are so deliciously flawed and the texture is so utterly British art. Leslie Caron is underrated as a dramatic actor--having made a name for herself in musicals--but she shines in this one. Her performance is reminiscent of the character she played in "The Subterraneans." She is perfect as the tortured free-spirit who stumbles. Another standout is Brock Peters. You feel the closeness of his room when he is lying in bed, talking to Jane through the wall. In fact, the whole boarding house feels real, seedy and full of dashed hopes. You ache for the pain and loneliness each person on the

house endures--I felt myself like a resident in this menagerie. The direction is taut, spare and real. I would have liked to have learned more about Toby's background, what drove him to this place. But I suppose a good film is supposed to leave a place for the viewers imagination.