This made for TV film and the studio TV play that proceeded I assume, have gotten a certain cult status. This productions boasts some fine performances and if you are truly one of the paranoid at heart, The Brotherhood Of The Bell is your kind of movie.
Based on Yale's Skull and Bones society which isn't all that secret, The Brotherhood Of The Bell is a secret society founded by a couple of Massachusetts Bay Puritans. Professor Glenn Ford is a member in good standing of the Brotherhood and when we meet him he's initiating young Philip Pine into the Brotherhood along with Dean Jagger one of the higher ups that initiated Ford back in his salad days.
Like Don Corleone the Brotherhood once you're initiated they may call on you for a favor and Ford gets the call. He's to get his colleague Eduard Franz to decline an appointment offered at another school. And he's to use whatever means necessary and that includes a secret dossier. He uses it and Franz kills himself.
In his remorse Ford decides he'll expose the Brotherhood, but to say his efforts come to naught is an understatement. He's ridiculed for being a crackpot and loses all, wife Rosemary Forsyth, father Will Geer, and his position and home. What will he do?
The Brotherhood Of The Bell is a good made for TV movie with an impressive cast suited for their roles. I liked William Conrad as the Jerry Springer type talk show host and Virginia Gilmore as an anti-Semitic whacko from his audience. Ford's appearance on his show to plead his cause is the highlight of the film.
If you are conspiratorial by nature this film should be one you treasure.
Based on Yale's Skull and Bones society which isn't all that secret, The Brotherhood Of The Bell is a secret society founded by a couple of Massachusetts Bay Puritans. Professor Glenn Ford is a member in good standing of the Brotherhood and when we meet him he's initiating young Philip Pine into the Brotherhood along with Dean Jagger one of the higher ups that initiated Ford back in his salad days.
Like Don Corleone the Brotherhood once you're initiated they may call on you for a favor and Ford gets the call. He's to get his colleague Eduard Franz to decline an appointment offered at another school. And he's to use whatever means necessary and that includes a secret dossier. He uses it and Franz kills himself.
In his remorse Ford decides he'll expose the Brotherhood, but to say his efforts come to naught is an understatement. He's ridiculed for being a crackpot and loses all, wife Rosemary Forsyth, father Will Geer, and his position and home. What will he do?
The Brotherhood Of The Bell is a good made for TV movie with an impressive cast suited for their roles. I liked William Conrad as the Jerry Springer type talk show host and Virginia Gilmore as an anti-Semitic whacko from his audience. Ford's appearance on his show to plead his cause is the highlight of the film.
If you are conspiratorial by nature this film should be one you treasure.