engprof Reviews

Death of a Salesman (1951)

Frederick March is not Willy Loman

[1 January 2007]

Those of us who have read, studied, and taught Miller's play for a number of years understand that Frederick March is not now nor was he ever Willy Loman.

First of all, Miller goes to great pains to describe Willy as a large man, a physical presence on the scene, overwhelming not only Linda, but Biff and Happy as well. His tirades demand the thrust not of a Napoleon but of a Goliath. Thus, in terms of sheer physical presence, Cobb, Scott, and Dennehy are much more in keeping with Miller's original intention.

Secondly, Hoffman, though physically incorrect, gives one of the great performances of his career. Linda's comment about Willy to her sons that "a terrible thing is happening to him," that "he must not be allowed to fall into his grave like a dog...so attention must finally be paid to such a person" is the heart and soul of Hoffman's performance.

Miller's play is a modern take on Greek tragedy--and March just doesn't get it. That fact that Hoffman's performance doesn't work for some says more about them than it does about Hoffman's brilliant work and his intelligent understanding of the terrible things that are happening to Willy.

It is too bad that the Dennehy version of the play is not available. Having seen the New York stage production, I am even more a Dennehy fan than I was after I had seen him in Brecht's "Galileo" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

The Twilight Zone: The Grave (1961) Season 3, Episode 7

Moby Dick???--What Nonsense!!!!

[1 January 2007]

To relate this episode of "The Twilight Zone" to Melville's classic tale of obsession and compulsion is absurd! Stop making so much of Pittman's story. It is neither than good nor as complex. Melville's characters are far more developed, the story line far more complicated, the narrator (Ishmael) more subtle, and Ahab much larger than life, than any of the characters in "The Grave." While it is nice to catch real references in television fiction to great literature, "The Twilight Zone" is rarely the place to get it. Not that Serling and other writers in the series were not fine writers--of course they were. But borrowing from Melville??? Making the Pequod a "prarie schooner"? Get real!

A House of Secrets and Lies (1992 TV Movie)

Who Wouldn't Cheat On Connie Selleca?

[1/10 · 19 March 2005]

Connie Selleca, whose acting rivals that of Ali McGraw as the worst actress ever to hit Hollywood or Made-for TV-Movies, has little redeeming value in this film. So much so that Kevin Dobson's infidelity is totally understandable. If Buck Rogers divorced her in real life, that should tell you something. As much as Kate Hepburn's quivering chin and teary eyes are an annoyance to devotees of serious acting in film, Connie Selleca's wooden gestures and her inability to deliver a line with any meaningful emotion are enough to invoke the "throw-up" doctrine for evaluating films: If an actor's inability to act creates such nausea that vomiting in unavoidable, then the film itself should be consigned to the nearest trash-bin. Ms. Selleca should do us all a favor and retire at once from the film biz.

Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date (1985)

At last! A real film about poetry and readers.

[10/10 · 25 April 2004]

Wolpaw has given us a gem of a film, a real film about poetry and readers. After more than 20 years of teaching both high school and college students, and having to suffer with films about poets so sugary that they were destined to insure an on-going supply of diabetics, a friend of mine sent me a copy of Wolpaw's film. College students in my Intro to Lit course cheered when the people interviewed in the film said they didn't like reading poetry, had difficulty with it, asserted it made no sense to them, and then demonstrated their inability to deal with Keats' Nightingale Ode in terms of both mere reading aloud and understanding. Wolpaw reveals a delightful sense of humor, moving swiftly from hockey teams to the Poetry Olympics to satirizing the traditional film about poets and their poetry, and the various cinematic techniques which he uses (cross-cutting, sound editing, cinema verite interviewing, etc.) underscore not only how much he is enjoying himself, but also how much he appreciates the complexity of Keats' magnificent Ode. For teachers of literature, this film is definitely worth owning. Poetry lovers may have to purchase this film since I have yet to find either a library that circulates it or a commercial outlet that rents it. Whatever it takes to get a copy, do it!