A remarkable lead performance by Peter Boyle as the late
Senator Joseph McCarthy elevates this otherwise pathetically heavy-handed and
self-righteous TV biopic. Lecturing like schoolteachers about how important it
is to never let McCarthyism happen again, the lazy writer, Lane Slate, who had
no faith in the intelligence of his audience, couldn’t even bother to think of
a more original way to narrate the story than by having a journalist in modern
times researching the McCarthy years, interviewing various people who were
wronged by the senator, and reporting everything back to her editor, who in
turn explains to her what it all means. At the center of all this hectoring and
melodrama is Boyle, who – amidst a large and impressive cast – miraculously
keeps things anchored in spite of the filmmakers. On his own initiative,
apparently, he chose to portray the historical figure as a layered human being,
not just a mustache-twirling villain. He even delivers an impressive
impersonation of McCarthy without it becoming a caricature. The only other
standout is Burgess Meredith, who is wonderful as Army counsel Joseph Welch.
The film might have been exceptional if it had somehow revolved around the
confrontation between these two instead of going the route of the formulaic TV
biopic spanning decades. Notable in the cast are Patricia Neal, Jean Stapleton,
Ned Beatty, John Carradine. It won two Emmys; deservedly for Meredith,
undeservedly for Slate.
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