Peter Boyle plays a social worker who deals with “special needs” children. Most of Boyle’s energies are devoted to communicating with an emotionally disturbed teen (Scott Jacoby). The difficulty of the job is doubled by the fact that the boy is alienated from his anguished parents, who may unknowingly be part of the problem. Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, The Man Who Could Talk to Kids transcends its “disease of the week” earmarks to become a TV movie of lasting value. The film also helped Peter Boyle shake his bullheaded Joe screen image.
Tag: 1970s
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island that they have virtually developed their own language (“Conrack” is their way of saying his name, Conroy) and, in fact, don’t have much interest in learning about anything outside the island. He has to find a way to get through to these kids and teach them what they need to know and also to keep on the good side of the school superintendent, who doesn’t want him there.
A thoughtful discussion between German film director Marcel Ophuls and CBS News producer Perry Wolff about political and historical documentaries with special emphasis on Ophuls’ masterful four-and-a-half-hour film about the fall of France in World War II, “The Sorrow and the Pity,”. Clips from the award-winning documentary are shown.
Film director Alfred Hitchcock discusses his life and career in long talks with Pia Lindstrom (newscaster and daughter of Hitchcock star Ingrid Berman) and with film historian William Everson. Excerpts from several films illustrate these interviews. Discussion topics include: what is fear?, method acting vs. film acting, the difference between the usual “Who Done It” mystery and what he considers to be real suspense. His choice of leading ladies and why (Bergman, Baxter, Kelly, Marie Saint, Leigh, etc.).
An illustration of beings in a world where countless plant and animal species rapidly become extinct, and resources run dry due to greed. However, it is possible to avoid disaster by conserving and sharing what we have.
This animated short film adapted from a short story by Quebec writer Roch Carrier takes us to the beach, in the middle of summer, when the existence of various characters mysteriously intertwine for a moment. What elusive links unwittingly unite the three men on the bank and the drowning woman in the distance? A poetic tale bathed in the sea, the sun and a drifting sailboat.
The Andersonville Trial was a television adaptation of a 1959 hit Broadway play by Saul Levitt. The play was based on the actual 1865 trial of Henry Wirz, played by Richard Basehart, commander of the infamous Confederate Andersonville prison, where thousands of Union prisoners died of exposure, malnutrition, and disease.
This animated story of the thrilling adventures of a toy mouse and his child is based on the modern classic of children’s fiction written by Russell Hoban. From their home in the toy shop window, the mouse and his child find themselves cast into a rubbish tip where they become prisoners of the slimy rat, Manny (voiced by Peter Ustinov). Helped by their friends, a fortune-telling rat, an actress parrot, a performing seal and a pink elephant, the mouse and his child plot to escape Manny’s evil clutches and discover how they can become self-winding.