The Slender Thread [Blu-ray]

Director: Sydney Pollack Sydney Pollack

Overview

Sidney Pollack marked his feature film directing debut with this taut suspense drama, based upon an actual incident reported in Time Magazine. Sidney Poitier stars as Alan Nuell, a student volunteer at a medical clinic in Seattle who answers the phone to find Inge Dyson (Anne Bancroft) on the other end. Inge, depressed about her life, has just taken an overdose of sleeping pills. With Inge slowly dying, Alan tries to keep her talking on the phone while the police try to trace the call and save her life. Inge tells Alan that she has decided to end it all because her husband has discovered that he is not the father of her son.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/16/2012
UPC:	0887090042802
Original Release:	1965
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	20,840

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Sidney Poitier	Alan Newell
Anne Bancroft	Inga Dyson
Telly Savalas	Dr. Joe Coburn,Pool Player
Steven Hill	Mark Dyson,Liquor Salesman
Indus Arthur	Marion
Greg Jarvis	Chris Dyson
Robert Hoy	Patrolman Steve Peters
John Benson	Patrolman Bert Enyard
Paul 'Tiny' Newlan	Sgt. Harry Ward,Sgt. Harry Ward
Edward Asner	Det. Judd Ridley
Jason Wingreen	Medical Technician
Dabney Coleman	Charlie
Janet Dudley	Edna
Lane Bradford	Al McCardle
John Napier	Dr. Alden Van
Marjorie Nelson	Mrs. Thomas
H.M. Wynant	Doctor
Steven Marlo	Arthur Foss
Stephen Pellegrini	Police Cadet
Jerome R. Brand	Police Cadet
Kay Doubleday	Jinny
Jo Helton	Registration Nurse
Richard Doorish	Pete
Charlotte Stewart	Telephone Operator
Viola Harris	Telephone Supervisor,Night Watchman
O.L. Haavik	Pastor
Nicholas Prebezac	Child at Beach
Drew Eskenazi	Child at Beach
Erin Almond	Child at Beach
Pam Bagby	Child at Beach
William R. Rhodes	Police Station Dispatcher
Charles C. Andrews	Motel Manager
Melody Greer	Zipper Girl
Sons of Adam	Themselves
Walter Mazlow	TV Newsman #1
Allen Emerson	TV Newsman #2
Lou Clark	Night Watchman
Phillip Browne	Office Boy
Archie Smith	Janitor
Joseph R. Denini	Fire Station Dispatcher

Technical Credits

Stephen Alexander

Sterling Silliphant

David Rayfiel

Stephen Alexander	Producer,Screenwriter
Sydney Pollack	Director
Sterling Silliphant	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
David Rayfiel	Screenwriter
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects
John R. Carter	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

Sydney Pollack took his first of many bows behind the camera with this diverting yet somewhat thin thriller, released in late 1965. As Alan Newell, a psych student turned crisis line worker who must locate and rescue suicidal housewife Inga Dyson (Anne Bancroft) before her overdose kicks in, lead Sydney Poitier practically delivers a one-man show. Poitier must act and react entirely in response to the strained and disembodied voice looming on the other end of the telephone, while Bancroft is relegated to voiceovers in most of her present-day scenes. It must have looked fairly dispiriting on paper that the two Oscar winners (Poitier for Lilies of the Field, and Bancroft for The Miracle Worker) have no face-to-face exchanges, when it would be a real pleasure to observe these two legends playing off of one another in the same room. Mercifully, both leads bound over these structural handicaps and deliver full-blooded, lived-in performances - no surprise in hindsight given Pollack's chief strength as an actor's director. The fortitude of the dramatic work is what effectively pumps some life into this material, making it feel more complex and multidimensional than it would have in less adroit hands. As a result, The Slender Thread is watchable, in a late night, B-movie kind of way - not unlike the prior year's housewife-in-distress soaper Lady in a Cage .(This has a comparable aesthetic given its similar use of moody, high-contrast black and white cinematography). But as a study in suicide or suicidal impulses - ostensibly its real subject - Thread founders. It pales in comparison to Louis Malle's 1963 drama of self-destruction The Fire Within, lacking both that picture's periodic notes of graceful lyricism, its psycho-emotional subtleties and its willingness to go for the throat with a downbeat resolution. Still, fans of Poitier, Bancroft and/or Pollack will find much to appreciate in Thread, despite its various weaknesses. As a footnote: film buffs should watch carefully for a young Dabney Coleman (sans mustache) who turns up as one of the Dysons' friends at a nightclub; Pollack and Coleman reteamed for The Scalphunters in 1968 and Tootsie in 1982.

All Movie Guide - Nathan Southern