The Screen Directors Playhouse series has been uniformly great, and my thanks go to Turner Classic Movies for periodically showing them. High Air is another one of their terrific shows -- with, sadly, a disappointing ending at almost literally the last minute.
Two great actors, William Bendix and Dennis Hopper, powerfully play a long lost father and son, working together in a dangerous underground tunnel. The script was well written, production and direction were excellent, and the tension mounted well. The show built to a point that was both tragic and inspiring, and then...
...well, my guess is that some idiot TV executives decided that the story line was too depressing, so they demanded an ending that drained the show of all the tension and emotion that it generated in the first 29 minutes.
And since I am a compulsive nitpicker, here are questions that haunted me after the show was over:
Doesn't the last-minute Sappy Ending strongly imply that William Bendix was unsuccessful in keeping the leak blocked up? If so, shouldn't everyone in the tunnel have died at the end?
My recommendation, if you haven't already seen this show: Watch the whole thing, but then pretend the Sappy Ending didn't happen. I rated this show a 7 with the Sappy Ending. Without it, I would have given it an 8 or possibly a 9.
Two great actors, William Bendix and Dennis Hopper, powerfully play a long lost father and son, working together in a dangerous underground tunnel. The script was well written, production and direction were excellent, and the tension mounted well. The show built to a point that was both tragic and inspiring, and then...
...well, my guess is that some idiot TV executives decided that the story line was too depressing, so they demanded an ending that drained the show of all the tension and emotion that it generated in the first 29 minutes.
And since I am a compulsive nitpicker, here are questions that haunted me after the show was over:
Doesn't the last-minute Sappy Ending strongly imply that William Bendix was unsuccessful in keeping the leak blocked up? If so, shouldn't everyone in the tunnel have died at the end?
My recommendation, if you haven't already seen this show: Watch the whole thing, but then pretend the Sappy Ending didn't happen. I rated this show a 7 with the Sappy Ending. Without it, I would have given it an 8 or possibly a 9.