Number One

Mr. Heston and director Tom Gries teamed up in the late 60s and early 70s to make three woefully under-appreciated movies. One of those is Number One.

This one happens to be the lowest rated of the three here on IMDb. I'm shocked that its rating is a lowly 5.6. I believe this gem deserves greater recognition.

The movie is about a once great quarterback who's a few years past his prime. The movie itself isn't really about football. As in Will Penny with the Western setting, football is the backdrop for a character study which goes much deeper.

I believe this movie is especially potent today in the aftermath of the recession which saw a lot of older people in this country lose their jobs through no fault of their own. They have to ask themselves, what was it all for? And... what do I do now? Mr. Heston plays Ron "Cat" Catlan, the aforementioned quarterback. His status with the New Orleans Saints seems to be in question. His wife is too busy for him. An exotic new woman isn't the answer but at least she listens to him.

This movie explores the questions we'll all ask ourselves one day if we haven't already, and does so admirably.

During the life of Charlton Heston, he often selected to personify men who lived larger than life. Yet, for all of his superior talent, he often said he liked to portray ordinary men in ordinary lives. One exceptional film was 'Will Penny.' Here is another. The movie is called " Number One. " In this role he plays NFL football Quarterback, Ron Catlan. For several years he has been the mainstay player for the New Orleans Saints and has proved to be an exceptional individual. Years ago, he was selected to be the Quarterback and has taken the team to a number of play offs and a Superbowl. During the up-ward climb, men have come to respect and admire him, in addition he has garnered the praise and accolades of both his fans and his team mates. Indeed, everywhere he is seen, both professional men and adoring women seek him out. But that was then, now-a-days, he is being reminded by his coach (John Randolph) that time is catching up to him. Former team players like Richie Fowler (Bruce Dern) who are successful businessmen, advise him to quit football soon and market his name to an advantage. Yet, 'Cat' feels his present career can last several more years and doesn't want forced retirement. Hoping for the best, he plays as if his skill will last beyond his present ability. Roy Jenson makes a brief appearance. ****

Charlton Heston is the star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints..... and he's forty and thinking about retiring. The people around him are all younger than he, admiring and envious, management, who don't really care, and wife Jessica Harper, who has been listening to him talking about retiring for half a decade.

It's a well done rather melancholy portrait of a man who doesn't want to give up what makes him special. Bruce Dern, unlikable as always, gave up the game a decade earlier and now is the biggest car dealer in the state. He doesn't know why Heston won't quit and come make money with him. Only one, old, non-star player, now working in the oil fields, seems to have any idea of what Heston is going through.

Heston gives one of his mostly-stoic-then-cursing roles, and he's very good.

This movie didn't do well at the box office; they never distributed it overseas, figuring that no one cares about American football except Americans. I think A.E. Housman would have liked this movie.

If you can get past not seeing Charlton Heston in his usual stereotypical, larger than life epic roles you may enjoy seeing him take a turn at a modern drama as a normal human.

This movie is "very late 60's style" which is fun to watch now with it's flashback scenes and sixties lingo.

Great supporting cast and good chemistry all around. It's also neat seeing Heston in his sexier than usual love scenes.

Heston's performance is solid. You can feel his pain and bitterness. I highly recommend this film for Heston fans, sports fans and sixties film buffs.

The faded star-quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, over-the-hill at 40 and nursing a bad knee, considers retirement after an anonymous source disparages his season performances in print. Character rumination stacks the deck against our embittered hero: he's offered a management position with a computer firm and another job leasing cars (both offers are seen as dead-ends), while his unhappy wife is ready to walk out and a former teammate comes to him begging for a loan ($200!). Screenplay by David Moessinger is full of cynical one-liners substituting for insight into these unfulfilled people, while the football milieu is used mainly as a backdrop to the melodramatic action off the field. Charlton Heston is all wrong as an athlete--just because the man is tall and lean doesn't mean he's an ideal candidate for a football uniform. Heston is also unusually harsh with spouse Jessica Walter, who tired quickly of the Football Wives circle and now runs her own successful fashion business (Heston insults her creativity, equating it with an apparent inability to conceive a child; she slaps at him, he grabs her, and they end up making love). Director Tom Gries offers us only a flicker of insight into the world of professional football. He tries avoiding gridiron clichés, and his narrative timeline is interestingly woozy (mixing staccato flashbacks with bits of reality and, maybe, delusion), but the overall mood of the piece is unbelievably morose. Moessinger really does appear to believe that 40 means you're finished, washed-up. Heston may have felt there was something in the script he could play, something substantial and (atypical for the actor) not-heroic, but the picture isn't convincing. The foundation of the story--an aging man's fear that he's no longer useful after outgrowing his profession--is a good dramatic starting point for a character portrait (and still feels relatively fresh today), yet the writing is pretentious and dishonest. As to the downbeat finale, it underlines the pervading message that we're all "whores", like it or not. ** from ****