The Great Man

1/1/19571h 32m

Premiere Release (US)

~ Everybody loved the Great Man except those who hated his guts! ~

Overview:

Joe Harris, preparing a eulogy for popular radio commentator Herb Fuller, finds that nobody has a good word to say about him.

Director:

José Ferrer

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

based on novel or book
behind the scenes
reporter
whitewashing

Cast

José Ferrer

~ as ~

Joe Harris

Dean Jagger

~ as ~

Philip Carleton

Keenan Wynn

~ as ~

Sid Moore

Julie London

~ as ~

Carol Larson

Joanne Gilbert

~ as ~

Ginny

Ed Wynn

~ as ~

Paul Beaseley

Jim Backus

~ as ~

Nick Cellantano

Russ Morgan

~ as ~

Eddie Brand

Edward Platt

~ as ~

Dr. O'Conner (as Edward C. Platt)

Robert Foulk

~ as ~

Mike Jackson

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 11 month(s) ago
7
When national treasure "Fuller" dies, it falls to his erstwhile radio colleague "Joe"(José Ferrer) to put together the traditionally adulatory obituary programme, and so he routinely sets about gathering information and comments from the man's contemporaries. Quite quickly, though, he begins to discover that maybe this man wasn't as pure as the driven snow after all. Indeed, though people don't wish to speak ill of the dead to a microphone, there are soon no shortage of detractors assessing his character and posing quite a quandary for "Joe". Meantime, there's some internal politicking going at the station as his boss (Dean Jagger) sort of promises him the man's shoes if he delivers a positive, glowing, hour of tribute so "Joe" has to choose. Does he go with the flow or does he expose the man? Ferrer delivers competently enough here and the story is one that resonates quite potently across a society that never really feels comfortable being unkind to the dead - however fake their façade they'd presented. It all comes to an head using a conversation between "Joe" and "Beaseley" (Ed Wynn) who delivers us the best, most insightful, ten minutes of the film and poses some interesting questions about where we might draw our own lines. When it comes to the broadcast, what will "Joe" do?