Loved it very much.
First of all, the script. It makes such an impossible challenge, and yet runs it tightly, for nearly the exact time of its drama; the movie's runtime is 73 minutes, and so the movie's events' time as well.
It chose carefully 2 main characters; the 40 something radio host and the 18 year old suicidal girl, for one clever purpose. The 2 are lonely souls, having deep personal problems. However, one avenges his bad life in the face of everyone, and the other for being weaker, nicer, or more innocent, goes to leave her bad life to death willfully. Well, they're both kind of connected, or at least need to be (the wonderfully written last scene). There was a line, well-done also, about the energy of goodness in everybody, which - in one moment - could gather to save somebody's life.
So, while being a thriller, it is a movie about love; lost love that pushes us to be poisoned, ugly or just lonely, and found love that, despite being unheard clearly, equals eventually life itself. To know better, watch the different characters that the movie presents; characters that don't give a hoot unless about money, sex, or pure materialistic goals (the sponsor, the flirty mechanic..), and characters that have a heart, concerning about other fellow humans (most of the radio callers, the landlord's son..).
Still the best of this script, in my viewpoint, is the way it designed the character of the radio show host. He's bitter, harsh and loud. But what could be his motives to save that little girl? At first, you feel that he's regretted, then you discover that he wants nothing but the attention, the high rating, the fame. Through Culp's top performance, it's clear that he feels sorry, needing some purgation, because of what he has done with that poor girl and what he always does with everything around, to save anything instead of spending the time on watching cynically--with or without the sheer pragmatic ambition, the try of reviving his career.
But it's more than clear, at the last scene / the phone call with the girl's doctor, that it's about saving himself through that girl. He felt human again by doing this "show", which happened to be honest and antiseptic. And by saving someone from a suicide that he practices daily, he lived his lost salvation.
In fact, the climax of this movie remains there; where that man's, not that girl's, cry for help is finally heard. That - hopefully - is the secret of his smile at the very end, while he's enjoying the sunshine of his day; which contradicts completely with the first scene, when he wakes up early with a look that expresses hate and desperation. It gives the message of: You can share brining warmth and lightness to the world, only if you want.
That connection between the 2 characters in a desperate moment is expressed in one genius shot; when the camera fades out while shooting the rising sun, during the moment of the girl dying on the beach, to dissolve smoothly and wilily to a fading in on a little lamp in the radio host's studio. This is one in a million cut, I'm dying myself to know was it the writer's or the director's idea?!
Robert Culp did an Oscar worthy performance. The way he advances his tone is fabulous. He, just like the movie, kept it away from any exaggeration (so you wouldn't see him tearful for example), preserving nicely the vagueness of his motive, until the final moment. In brief, his work was too truthful. The girl, (Elayne Heilveil), did great. I believed her pains all along, especially at her phone call scene. The direction led the matters without a desire of showing-off. You have to feel the deep sad spirit of it; with the long shots, and the way the dawn or the beach scenery was shot.
As a pure thriller, I thought it could have had more thrill in its third act. But maybe it's a thriller in its own terms, refusing to be a flashy one with tricks of action and suspense. Nevertheless, as a character driven thriller, it missed going into the girl's character, relying on the radio host only, which made the movie somehow uneven. So, to a certain extent, it could have contained more heat in terms of thrill and characterization, and maybe missing that could be the reason why this movie isn't powerfully satisfying for some.
Anyway, it holds up as it is, being a memorable classic in my book. It needs to be remade immediately, not only for utilizing the plot, squeezing out all of its capacities, and filling it with that "more" which I was talking about, but also for reminding the viewers with this TV gem, to honor it appropriately. Btw, speaking about the necessity of reminding and honoring, this movie has no page on Wikipedia, and just 2 comments on IMDb to date. How offensive!
PS: The Egyptian cinema has a movie with nearly the same plot, named (Hayat ou maut) or (Life or Death), yet produced in 1955. Reminding and honoring stuff!
First of all, the script. It makes such an impossible challenge, and yet runs it tightly, for nearly the exact time of its drama; the movie's runtime is 73 minutes, and so the movie's events' time as well.
It chose carefully 2 main characters; the 40 something radio host and the 18 year old suicidal girl, for one clever purpose. The 2 are lonely souls, having deep personal problems. However, one avenges his bad life in the face of everyone, and the other for being weaker, nicer, or more innocent, goes to leave her bad life to death willfully. Well, they're both kind of connected, or at least need to be (the wonderfully written last scene). There was a line, well-done also, about the energy of goodness in everybody, which - in one moment - could gather to save somebody's life.
So, while being a thriller, it is a movie about love; lost love that pushes us to be poisoned, ugly or just lonely, and found love that, despite being unheard clearly, equals eventually life itself. To know better, watch the different characters that the movie presents; characters that don't give a hoot unless about money, sex, or pure materialistic goals (the sponsor, the flirty mechanic..), and characters that have a heart, concerning about other fellow humans (most of the radio callers, the landlord's son..).
Still the best of this script, in my viewpoint, is the way it designed the character of the radio show host. He's bitter, harsh and loud. But what could be his motives to save that little girl? At first, you feel that he's regretted, then you discover that he wants nothing but the attention, the high rating, the fame. Through Culp's top performance, it's clear that he feels sorry, needing some purgation, because of what he has done with that poor girl and what he always does with everything around, to save anything instead of spending the time on watching cynically--with or without the sheer pragmatic ambition, the try of reviving his career.
But it's more than clear, at the last scene / the phone call with the girl's doctor, that it's about saving himself through that girl. He felt human again by doing this "show", which happened to be honest and antiseptic. And by saving someone from a suicide that he practices daily, he lived his lost salvation.
In fact, the climax of this movie remains there; where that man's, not that girl's, cry for help is finally heard. That - hopefully - is the secret of his smile at the very end, while he's enjoying the sunshine of his day; which contradicts completely with the first scene, when he wakes up early with a look that expresses hate and desperation. It gives the message of: You can share brining warmth and lightness to the world, only if you want.
That connection between the 2 characters in a desperate moment is expressed in one genius shot; when the camera fades out while shooting the rising sun, during the moment of the girl dying on the beach, to dissolve smoothly and wilily to a fading in on a little lamp in the radio host's studio. This is one in a million cut, I'm dying myself to know was it the writer's or the director's idea?!
Robert Culp did an Oscar worthy performance. The way he advances his tone is fabulous. He, just like the movie, kept it away from any exaggeration (so you wouldn't see him tearful for example), preserving nicely the vagueness of his motive, until the final moment. In brief, his work was too truthful. The girl, (Elayne Heilveil), did great. I believed her pains all along, especially at her phone call scene. The direction led the matters without a desire of showing-off. You have to feel the deep sad spirit of it; with the long shots, and the way the dawn or the beach scenery was shot.
As a pure thriller, I thought it could have had more thrill in its third act. But maybe it's a thriller in its own terms, refusing to be a flashy one with tricks of action and suspense. Nevertheless, as a character driven thriller, it missed going into the girl's character, relying on the radio host only, which made the movie somehow uneven. So, to a certain extent, it could have contained more heat in terms of thrill and characterization, and maybe missing that could be the reason why this movie isn't powerfully satisfying for some.
Anyway, it holds up as it is, being a memorable classic in my book. It needs to be remade immediately, not only for utilizing the plot, squeezing out all of its capacities, and filling it with that "more" which I was talking about, but also for reminding the viewers with this TV gem, to honor it appropriately. Btw, speaking about the necessity of reminding and honoring, this movie has no page on Wikipedia, and just 2 comments on IMDb to date. How offensive!
PS: The Egyptian cinema has a movie with nearly the same plot, named (Hayat ou maut) or (Life or Death), yet produced in 1955. Reminding and honoring stuff!
