User Reviews

This film was made in 1970 when the average life expectancy of a white male in the U.S. was 68 so Emile Pulska has a right to be proud that he is celebrating his 70th birthday. When he claims that his friend was murdered and he was attacked during a visit to the decaying center of the city (unnamed in this film), his family suspects he getting senile. After all, didn't the police report state that a woman customer was in the friend's store when he had a heart attack and Emile fell down hitting his head? No matter how hard Emile tries to show his family the truth of his allegations, they don't want to believe him. They fled the city for the suburbs as so many other white Americans were doing at that time and anyway those things don't happen in our world. But there are people who know Emile is telling the truth, that he's causing trouble and has to be gotten rid of. People like the police and the city government. In the end, Emile proves to his son he was right with his dying word "See?" after being shot. This is a bleak film, typical of those in the early 70's, which shows the American city to be totally corrupt and rotten to the core. Excellent and worth a look if you are sick of the pablum that we are fed today.

"The Old Man who Cried Wolf" was a TV movie made in 1970. Starring Edward G. Robinson and Martin Balsam, as father and son, it's a story of fear, sorrow and courage.

Edward G. had proved himself as an actor long before this was made. He played mobsters, editors, doctors, cops, G-men, farmers, ranchers, Nazi-hunters and a Monk. Looking at his film resume I think he was a very busy actor. Having seen most of his movies I think he was a very talented actor.

Martin Balsam has been a stand-up character actor for many years. "12 Angry Men" (1957) was a favorite of mine. "Raid on Entebbe" (1977) was also good.

In this movie, Emile Pulska (Edward G.) was an elderly gentleman who went to visit his old friend, Abe Stillman (Sam Jaffe). During their visit the men are attacked by a "thug" and Emile is knocked out. When Emile awakens, in the hospital, he learns that his friend is dead. He tells his story to Stanley, his son, and the police. He was concerned about the beating, and Abe's death, but he wasn't believed. Abe died of "natural causes". Just ask the only surviving witness.

Once it was learned by the "thug" that Emile survived the attack the old gentleman's life was not worth a "plug nickel". Since he was not believed, by his family or the authorities, Emile had no choice but to help himself. He wasn't safe because he was being stalked. By whom? The creep? Someone who might want to protect the creep? Hummm, good question don't you think?

A very worthwhile "ABC Movie of the Week".

Both parts were played by Edward G. Robinson, the first at the start of his film career and rise to fame, the later nearing his September Song, and filled with heart and an undying spirit. Unfortunately, this TV movie is extremely depressing, even if its star performance is one you'll never forget. In the opening scene, Robinson, who is retired and living with son Martin Balsam in the suburbs, visits his old neighborhood and longtime close friend Sam Jaffe, witnessing a horrifying crime, and desperately trying to find somebody who believes him. Unwilling to give up or be told that he is slowly becoming forgetful (dementia or Alzheimer's are never mentioned), Robinson decides to investigate on his own, running several times in the man (Percy Rodriguez) he swears he saw beat Jaffe to death with a rubber hose. People in the old neighborhood swear he is confused, and when an obvious aging hooker (Ruth Roman) tries to pick him up, this leads him to further danger that might further endanger his life!

My first issue with this is trying to figure out the location. Certain aspects would indicate Los Angeles (palm trees in the background, footage that looks like part of downtown L.A.) and other aspects would indicate the lower east side of Manhattan (mentions of Avenue C, the apparent entrance to the Manhattan Bridge). The other is the very abrupt ending that leaves the viewer hanging, and even if the writer was trying to indicate that some issues are never resolved satisfactorily in life, the viewer did deserve some answers for some of those unanswered questions. Still, some of the details reveal much about the corruption going on within city politics, with councilman Martin E. Brooks somehow tied in with Rodriguez, citizens either corrupted or too much in fear of Rodriguez to reveal what they know, and a mental health nurse (Virginia Christine) who has a Nurse Ratched feel to her treatment plan for Robinson. I love the way, though, that Balsam cuts her off as he storms out to try to find his father, and when he expresses his heartache at seeing his father losing his wits, the look on both his and wife Diane Baker's face are extremely touching.

It is those moments and a few other elements (especially the two young black men who go out of their way to try to help Robinson when they realize what kind of danger he is in) make this worth watching in spite of the serious failings of the script and movie as a whole. Robinson, just a few years before his moving performance in "Soylent Green", is truly touching, yet in spite of his frail appearance, it is obvious that he is not going out of his life without a fight. Ed Asner, as a psychiatrist assigned to try to find out the truth about what Robinson did or did not see, gives a gentle performance, although his methods aren't necessarily in his patient's best interest, and evidence of how fortunate the public is that mental health treatment and dealings with the elderly have changed over the past 50 years. The imposing Rodriguez doesn't get to say much, but he's a frightening villain. Roman makes the most of her cameo as the aging floozy, and her scene with Robinson in both the dive bar (where some very corrupt cops kick bathroom doors in for no apparent reason) and her apartment where her true nature is revealed. This is a flawed TV movie with good intentions that works on some levels but unfortunately needed more development and a real conclusion to be truly satisfying.

Interesting little film more about old age than anything else. The intrigue is not that exciting, just unusual, I admit, but I was careful about Robinson 's performance, sometimes foreseeing what he will do four years later in Richard Fleischer's SOYLENT GREEN. This stuff was made bt Walter Grauman, a vet TV director, a very prolific one. This is not a comedy, nor a thriller, but a kind of Hitchcock like scheme about an old man witness of his best friend murder and who is not believed by anyone about what he saw. It is predictable and for this reason a bit boring. The good thing is that this TV movie is gloomy, very downbeat, as many early seventies features.; my favourite period. That's precisely for this reason that I say only Edward G Robinson is worth in this poignant role. Painful ending.

Someone uploaded this classic old TV movie on YouTube yesterday. Within hours it had thousands of views, so that might suggest people were bored and had nothing better to do than watch Eddie Robinson in something from 1970, or else this was something people had been eager to see for a long time.

You can tell it was close to the end of his life because of his advanced age on camera. He plays a man turning 70, but in real life he was 76 almost 77 when he filmed his part. He has scenes where he goes up and down stairs (once all the way down a fire escape) and stretches where he is wandering streets in a bad part of town. So obviously the actor was fit enough for the role, but it sounds like he has emphysema because there are a lot of weird deep breaths in his line deliveries (he would die of cancer just over two years later).

I felt the performances were very good, from both Robinson and Martin Balsam who plays his son. That's why I'm giving it a score of 8. Also, Sam Jaffe has a memorable turn as a murder victim, and so does Ruth Roman as a barfly who helps crooks. In fact Roman comes the closest to upstaging Robinson, and she's hardly trying-- she's simply that good. But of course the script is focused on Robinson's character, an old man who tries to convince others he did actually see a murder and his life is in danger. Since a lot is said to establish him as a man who always told the truth, it's rather ridiculous they all think he's lying in this instance. The dialogue is downright terrible where they're all coming up with excuses why they shouldn't believe him.

Also, it was entirely unbelievable that Robinson could get away from the killer so easily during a scene where a hotel room catches fire. I am sure a real killer would have let the drapes burn and prevented our hero from escaping. Meanwhile, Ed Asner appears as a well-meaning shrink who strangely starts to play detective and goes with Balsam out into the streets to find out whether Robinson did in fact witness a murder. Since they've gone out of their way to say Robinson is suffering from paranoia, why would they all of a sudden think there is any merit in his story? Also, why would a psychiatrist think he can do a better job than the police, and when would he find the time to leave his other patients to investigate? Not very realistic at all.

Overall the story has some interesting characters and performances. And I would say the far-fetched plot does manage to build to a memorable ending. But there is something lacking, something still not fully satisfying. Either Robinson's character should have been presented as someone with a real history of paranoid schizophrenia or he should have been known as a compulsive liar, a man who usually never told the truth about business or family matters. If he had these character defects in the past, it would make his true story that much more difficult to swallow. Another possibility was they could have had the killer threatening to harm his family and forcing him to live in fear in a more realistic way.

Luther Davis wrote Across 110th Street and this nihilistic TV movie, originally airing October 13, 1970. It's directed by Walter Grauman, who was behind more than fifty episodes of Murder, She Wrote.

What a cast - from Jay C. Flippen (a former blackface vaudevillian known as "The Ham What Am"), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Welles from The Six Million Dollar Man, the role originated by Martin Balsam, who is also in this), Ed Asner and Sam Jaffe to Percy Rodriguez (Genesis II, as well as the voiceover artist on the trailers for The Exorcist, Chopping Mall, House, The Great Outdoors and many more), Ruth Roman (The Baby), Diane Baker (Lorraine Warren in The Haunted), Balsam and Edward G. Robinson.

Robinson is an old man who watches his friend die and no one believes him. When he keeps telling anyone who will listen that they were attacked, his relatives try to get him psychiatric help. He decides to try to find the killers himself, but someone is watching his every step and the story grows darker and darker.