Film Snail

The Great Man
The Great Man

5.2

The Great Man

NR·1956·92m

Summary

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

Crew

Director, Screenplay

José Ferrer

Dialogue

Leon Charles

Novel, Screenplay

Al Morgan

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

January 7, 2025

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?

Media

No Videos to show.

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

based on novel or book
behind the scenes
reporter
whitewashing