Panamint

This is an excellent example of what can be done with television drama and is a superior 1950's effort. Highly trained, dedicated actress Marcia Henderson gives a skilled and nuanced performance that demonstrates her solid talent. What she accomplishes here is difficult to do given the parameters of the story that initially present her character as a potential suicide.

Charles Boyer got better as years passed and his portrait of a compassionate, mature man is terrific but he makes it look so effortless it is a pleasure to view. Some of his performances are strong and skilled by this point in his career.

All of the cast is good and this short TV program from the Four Star Playhouse is a recommend for me.

The acting in this film is very good by all the cast. Vivien Leigh gives a weary and memorable performance, you might say Oscar-worthy. She was a great actress. Oskar Werner is also terrific. We may never see this caliber of acting in films again.

However, the script writing is very 1960's pretentious in the style believed to be modern in the 60s. In no way does it seem circa 1933 and this is the major flaw in this film. Strictly written for the 60's audience by 1960's writers. I am referring to the dialogue (which is sometimes dialog just for dialogue's sake) and not necessarily the ideas it purports to convey. For example James Dunn, a really good actor, is given dialogue that so blatantly "relevant 1960s America" that his character is totally out of sync with any 1930's culture.

The film is thoughtful, sometimes poignant. Ironic and occasionally even humorous. At times the vignettes are not edited seamlessly or maybe things were chopped up at some point, even in the restored version that I saw. The black and white photography is very good and even seems necessary for the 1930's setting.

Good movie but sometimes the heavy elephant footprint of Stanley Kramer rather stomps all over the great efforts of the cast. Said footprint is very evident in the somewhat cutesy, smart-alecky ending.

Despite the flaws I would recommend this film for the remarkable performances.

Just want to note the outstanding performance by Milton Selzer in this "Perry Mason" episode. This is an example of absolutely perfect casting (often a hallmark of this series). Selzer is a poised and confident actor and his performance is flawless. The episode as a whole has a very dramatic tone throughout, and fortunately produces excellent heavy drama, very watchable.