User Reviews

Wendell Corey, the son of a forcibly retired politician, is appointed as a caretaker Senator. Is he fit to do battle in THE ARENA that is the US Senate, with the help of veteran aide Chester Morris?

Chester Morris is one of those actors whose reputation might be helped if there weren't a Turner Classic Movies. This is because, in the 40s, Mr. Morris often starred as the obnoxious Boston Blackie, who, when not solving his crimes in black-face (yes, really), smirked his way through a lot of stupid comic mysteries. And those are the movies TCM keeps playing.

To this role, Morris brings what is often visible in his 30s movies, an always present surface cockiness, tempered by experience. Here, he has to attempt to play the worldly counselor to a daddy's boy senator, who might be a good man, if he can just escape his father's influence. He nails the part (which is written beautifully) and helps turn a somewhat preachy script into something more interesting. Wendell Corey gives an average performance, and others are just fine too.

Of course, the show ends with a moral crisis, solved happily. In the politics of 2016, rest assured the morally pleasing answer Mr. Serling gives us would not have been considered by any politician actually thinking of his future. For that reason, the ending may seem too pat to modern audiences. Not sure that is a judgment a 1956 viewer would have made.

I am not a big fan of Wendell Corey; I have panned most of his other film appearances. However, in this film, he does a very good job as a Freshman Senator with an axe to grind (a severe critic of his father, a retired Senator). The play is a bit too black and white for me; there seems to be gray areas for both the "Good" senator and the "Bad" senator. By completely trashing one, we minimize the character of the other. Worth viewing.

This live teleplay has an excellent pedigree. First, it's written by Rod Serling--a man who had an amazing ability to write dialog and fascinating characters. Second, it stars two wonderful character actors who are pretty much forgotten today but who are more than capable of anchoring a production--Wendell Corey and Chester Morris. Considering all these factors, it's natural that I would enjoy "The Arena".

The film stars Corey as a brand-new Senator who was just appointed to complete a term. It seems that Corey's father was also a Senator. However, to some he was a great man, but to the fellow Senator from his home state, the old man was a fraud. Corey naturally takes great umbrage at this and spends almost all his time and energy attacking his colleague--demanding he retract the accusations that his father was a crook.

As for Morris, he stars as a behind the scenes guru who the politicians consult to make their careers blossom. His newest pet project is Corey--and where this relationship goes is for you to see for yourself---I certainly don't want to spoil the film by giving away spoilers.

Overall, it's a very well-written and tight live TV film that was fortunately saved for rebroadcast using the Kinescope process. The only negative is something my wife noticed--some of the music (the drumbeat) was too intense and too heavy-handed. Still, it's a very well-crafted show and it's amazing they did this live!

American political stories frequently revolve around the threat of blackmail -- ADVISE AND CONSENT, THE BEST MAN and PRIMARY COLORS come to mind. This show predates most of these, but is nowhere as interesting. Serling tells of a young senator named Norton newly appointed to fill out the term of one who has just died. Norton comes with a chip on his shoulder -- his father had been a senator from the same state until he was forced out of politics by the same man Norton now has to deal with because he's a colleague. Norton acquires the ammo to avenge his father but wrestles with whether or not he should use it.

Part of the problem is that Serling draws his characters in such big crayon strokes that there is little moral complexity here. The father is such a snarling, vicious pit-bull that we wonder how the son could possibly have been blind to the old man's nature for so long. The son seems like a fool from day one. It doesn't help that Wendell Corey is supposed to be young and callow but he seems to be in his late forties at least. (I don't now what his real age was then.)

Serling wrote a lot of good stuff, but this isn't one of his better efforts. It's preachy and clunky. This show is most interesting for the slightly over-the-top performance by Chester Morris as a political operative with a convenient weakness for liquor and a view of the young Frances Sternhagen who would go on to do a lot of wonderful work in better parts.

This is in the STUDIO ONE box set and is the first program I've sampled. I'm hoping that the others are stronger.