MOVIE REVIEW
Screen: 'The Incident' on View at Two Theaters:Tale of Subway Terror Is Taken From TV
AN image of the New York cliff-dweller as a timid and cowed creature who hasn't the gumption or the audacity to defend himself against the depredations and annoyances of the petty criminals in our midst is inflated to appalling proportions in the melodrama "The Incident," which opened last night at the Victoria and continues there and at the Plaza today.
No fewer than 15 people riding in a Jerome Avenue subway car on a trip from Woodlawn Road to the Grand Central station late on a Sunday night allow themselves to be bullied and maltreated by two drunken hoodlums during the rattling and banging course of this film. And not one of them really rises up and lets these vermin have it until the train is just about passing 59th Street.
Then one of the carefully assorted and conspicuously identifiable social and ethnic types—the last one picked out for a personal going-over by the more obnoxious of the hoods—gets up all alone and clobbers the pair of annoyers. But he gets a mortal knife wound in the stomach for his manly deed.
Evidently Nicholas E. Baehr, who wrote the screenplay from a television play of his own that was done on the "Du Pont Hour" under the title of "Ride With Terror" back in 1963, and Larry Peerce, who directed, intended this film to be something more of a social parable or allegory than it was on TV. For they have added several characters and expanded their significance as types so that they range from a middle-aged Jewish couple to a Negro who aggressively hates whites. The implication is that some of the best people, if not all of them, are cowards.
Climbing aboard at the various stations as the noticeably untended and unpatrolled train makes its way south (Mr. Peerce has laboriously inserted shot after shot of it rumbling around what looks to be the same elevated curve up there in the Bronx) are the tired and quarreling Jewish couple, played by Thelma Ritter and Jack Gilford; a young married couple and their sleeping child (Ed McMahon, Diana Van Der Vlis and Kathleen Smith); a Bronx soldier and his corn-belt buddy (Robert Bannard and Beau Bridges); another married couple (Mike Kellin and Jan Sterling) and the Negro racist and his wife (Brock Peters and Ruby Dee).
There are also a homosexual (Robert Fields), an aging alcoholic on the mend (Gary Merrill) and a couple of others to be shockingly and painfully exposed to the hideous hectoring of as brash and histrionic a hoodlum as ever I've seen let loose on the screen and his little pal, who is no less obnoxious but just not quite as dramatic about it.
The former is played by Tony Musante, who had the same role on the television show, and the latter by Martin Sheen, who previously turned up in the Bronx in "The Subject Was Roses" on the stage.
Both make staggeringly disagreeable hoodlums—wicked wild men whose whipping and weaving about becomes, under Mr. Peerce's direction, like some crazy, macabre dance. Indeed, it comes close to overacting as do the pomposities and posturings of a couple of others, to the point where the performances appear as theatrical and arbitrary as does the structure of the play.
Too many times one is reminded by little clichés or big gaucheries that these are only actors, and that anyone could make a break and escape when the doors are opened, if only the writer would concede that riding in the subway is not as confining as the confines of a studiously structured play.
Mr. Peerce, who got a lot of us excited with his first independent film, "One Potato, Two Potato," is more conventional in story and style in this. He is following a pattern that narrows to a single track of menace, which soon becomes monotonous. The only question is who will be the hero. You guess which.
THE INCIDENT, screenplay by Nicholas E. Baehr, based on his television play, "Ride With Terror"; directed by Larry Peerce; produced by Monroe Sachson and Edward Meadow for Twentieth Century-Fox. At the Victoria, Broadway at 46th Street, and the Plaza, 58th Street at Madison Ave. Running time: 107 minutes.
Joe Ferrone . . . . . Tony Musante
Artie Connors . . . . . Martin Sheen
Pfc. Felix Teflinger . . . . . Beau Bridges
Pfc. Philip Carmatti . . . . . Robert Bannard
Sam Beckerman . . . . . Jack Gilford
Bertha Beckerman . . . . . Thelma Ritter
Bill Wilks . . . . . Ed McMahon
Helen Wilks . . . . . Diana Van Der Vlis
The Wilkses' daughter . . . . . Kathleen Smith
Harry Purvis . . . . . Mike Kellin
Muriel Purvis . . . . . Jan Sterling
Douglas McCann . . . . . Gary Merrill
Kenneth Otis . . . . . Robert Fields
Arnold Robinson . . . . . Brock Peters
Joan Robinson . . . . . Ruby Dee
Tony Goya . . . . . Victor Arnold
Alice Keenan . . . . . Donna Mills
Change Booth Attendant . . . . . Neal Hynes
THE INCIDENT, screenplay by Nicholas E. Baehr, based on his television play, "Ride With Terror"; directed by Larry Peerce; produced by Monroe Sachson and Edward Meadow for Twentieth Century-Fox. At the Victoria, Broadway at 46th Street, and the Plaza, 58th Street at Madison Ave. Running time: 107 minutes.
Joe Ferrone . . . . . Tony Musante
Artie Connors . . . . . Martin Sheen
Pfc. Felix Teflinger . . . . . Beau Bridges
Pfc. Philip Carmatti . . . . . Robert Bannard
Sam Beckerman . . . . . Jack Gilford
Bertha Beckerman . . . . . Thelma Ritter
Bill Wilks . . . . . Ed McMahon
Helen Wilks . . . . . Diana Van Der Vlis
The Wilkses' daughter . . . . . Kathleen Smith
Harry Purvis . . . . . Mike Kellin
Muriel Purvis . . . . . Jan Sterling
Douglas McCann . . . . . Gary Merrill
Kenneth Otis . . . . . Robert Fields
Arnold Robinson . . . . . Brock Peters
Joan Robinson . . . . . Ruby Dee
Tony Goya . . . . . Victor Arnold
Alice Keenan . . . . . Donna Mills
Change Booth Attendant . . . . . Neal Hynes
.
Plot[edit]
On a late Sunday evening in the Bronx, two deadbeat punks - Joe Ferrone (Tony Musante) and Artie Connors (Martin Sheen) - are looking for trouble. After giving a hard time to a pool hall owner for closing early interrupting their game, they briefly harass a passing couple on the street, then finally mug an old man for his eight dollars and beat him into unconsciousness.
Meanwhile on the downtown side of the Bronx toward Manhattan, Bill Wilks (Ed McMahon), his wife, Helen (Diana Van der Vlis), and their sleeping 5-year old daughter board the train at Mosholu Parkway at approximately 2:15 AM after Bill refuses to take a cab to their home in Flushing, Queens, suggesting his wife is a spendthrift. When they enter the last car of the train – which only has one working door – its only other passenger at the time is a sleeping/unconscious derelict (Henry Proach).
At Bedford Park Boulevard teenage virgin Alice Keenan (Donna Mills) and her sexually aggressive date Tony Goya (Victor Arnold) get on board; at Kingsbridge Road an elderly Jewish couple, Bertha and Sam Beckerman (Thelma Ritter and Jack Gilford) – who have been arguing about the responsibilities of the younger generation – get on board; at the Fordam Road station, two soldiers, Pfc. Phillip Carmatti (Robert Bannard) and his Oklahoman friend Pfc. Felix Teflinger (Beau Bridges) (who has a broken arm) board after having dinner with Phillip’s Italian-American parents; at the Burnside Avenue station, after leaving a cocktail party, middle-aged Muriel Purvis (Jan Sterling), boards with her mousey husband Harry (Mike Kellin) whom she resents because he earns less than many of their friends and has no ambition to do better; at the 176th St. station, desperate out-of-work recovering alcoholic Douglas McCann (Gary Merrill) boards, as well Kenneth Otis (Robert Fields), a homosexual man who earlier made an unsuccessful attempt at befriending McCann; and finally, an African-American couple board at the Mt. Eden Avenue stop: frustrated bigot Arnold Robinson (Brock Peters) and his long-suffering wife Joan Ruby Dee), who were both out attending a charitable event for inner-city youth.
Hoods Joe and Artie finally they board at the elevated station No. 4 IRT Jerome Avenue Line 170th Street station and proceed to psychologically terrorize, humiliate and degrade every single adult passenger all the way to Grand Central Station, starting with the derelict whom they attempt to give a hot foot, then moving to Douglas, then to Kenneth – whom they physically prevent from leaving the train – and so on.
The Robinson’s stop – 125th Street station – comes up first, but Arnold, being of a militant bent, and enjoying the spectacle of white people tormenting each other, makes Joan stay with him to watch the drama.
At one point Joe blocks the entrance to prevent two women from entering the car, at the 86th street stop he prevents the elderly Beckermans from exiting; then later shoves one of the derelict man’s shoes into the door preventing it from opening at any further stops.
Throughout the entire train ride, no one has managed to get the upper hand on the two hoods. Joe is finally challenged when he turns his attention to the Wilks’ sleeping daughter and gets on his knees and tries to convince the child’s parents to allow him to look at her. Bill and Helen are frantic and appalled that Joe is trying to touch the child. Bill holds her to his chest in a protective grip while trying to hide her from Joe’s sight. Joe is persistent, causing the desperate parents to keep slapping Joe’s hands away as he tries to touch her.
Only then does Felix stand up and directly challenge Joe with "Stop! Or I’ll put you down!" Joe pulls out his switchblade knife. Felix engages Joe in hand-to-hand combat. Despite his broken arm and a stab wound from Joe's knife, Felix manages to overpower Joe, mostly using his cast to beat Joe senseless and into unconsciousness; subsequently, Artie drops his tough-guy facade and cowers when Joe is disarmed and overpowered, trying to unjam the one working door and flee. The wounded Felix nevertheless dispatches Artie with a knee to his groin, leaving Artie helpless on the floor moaning in agony .
At the 42nd street Grand Central station the train has stopped and when Phillip finally goes over to his injured friend, Felix weakly but disgustedly asks "Where were you buddy?" Phillip shouts into the station for the police, who enter the train and, without asking any questions, start to arrest the only black man in the car, Arnold. Passengers cry out, “Not him!” so the cops instead help the still-moaning Artie off the floor and out, while a train conductor picks up and takes the bloodied Joe off the train.
The passengers, still frozen in their seats, are stunned. Only when the sleeping drunk sprawled over the seats rolls over and falls to the floor, do the passengers finally awake and slowly exit the train, stepping over the drunk’s unconscious body.
Cast[edit]
[edit]
Filmography[edit]
Awards and nominations[edit]
See also[edit]References[edit]
References[edit]
|
|
The Incident (1967 film)
| The Incident | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
| |
| Directed by | Larry Peerce |
| Produced by | Edward Meadow Monroe Sachson |
| Screenplay by | Nicholas E. Baehr |
| Starring | Victor Arnold Robert Bannard Beau Bridges Ruby Dee Robert Fields Jack Gilford Mike Kellin Ed McMahon Gary Merrill Donna Mills Tony Musante Brock Peters Thelma Ritter Martin Sheen Jan Sterling Diana Van der Vlis |
| Music by | Charles Fox Terry Knight |
| Cinematography | Gerald Hirschfeld |
| Edited by | Armond Lebowitz |
Production
company |
Moned Associated
|
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date
| November 5, 1967 |
Running time
| 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,050,000[1] |
The Incident is a 1967 American neo noir film written by Nicholas E. Baehr (based on his teleplay Ride with Terror, which had been previously adapted as a 1963 television film),[2] directed by Larry Peerce. The film stars Tony Musanteand Martin Sheen (in his first film role) as two street hoods who terrorize 14 passengers sharing a New York City subway car, played by an ensemble castthat includes Beau Bridges, Ruby Dee, Jack Gilford, Ed McMahon, Gary Merrill, Donna Mills, Brock Peters, Thelma Ritter, and Jan Sterling.[2].
The film was made for a budget of $1,050,000.[1]
Muhammmad Iqbal
ReplyDeleteThankyou for nice information
Visit our website :
https://journal.uhamka.ac.id/index.php/rektek/index