Customer Reviews

The Slender Thread [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Was fortunate enough to come across The Slender Thread on a cable movie channel several years ago. This film is Anne Brancroft & Sidney Poitier are at their best - extrodinary performances! Poitier plays a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. One night when he's at the clinic alone, a woman (Bancroft) calls needing to talk saying she's taken pills. While Poitier tries to get help for her, he keeps her ton the line while he learns about her life, family, and why she wants to die. With a brillant script by legendary writer Stirling Silliphant, direction by Sydney Pollack, and original music by Quincy Jones; The Slender Thread engrosses the viewer from the start. We're drawn into the building suspense, caring about the people, concerned for the outcome. This dramatic character study is enhanced all the more by being in black & white. Plus, it features a fine supporting cast including Telly Savalas, Ed Asner, and Dabney Coleman. The Slender Thread is a great example of perfect film making. Why hasn't Paramount Pictures released this classic on DVD? Please, letterbox & release ASAP so it can be re-discovered by movie connoisseurs everywhere! A must own for Poitier/Bancroft fans.

A SLENDER THREAD is a super movie to watch alone. Not a lot of action - just intense drama. Have watched it many times.911 operators would like this movie. It shows a crisis line in action.

Stirling Silliphant wrote the script for this movie, being the primary writer for the "Route 66" TV series in the 60's it has a very similar feeling to one of those shows. All of the drama, the monologues, the glitz and glamour (when appropriate)is there. The movie even opens with Sidney Potier driving by the Space Needle, how cool and kitch is that? An excellent film that needs to come out on DVD very soon - as does the Route 66 TV series!
Stirling Silliphant was definitely one of the best TV writers of the 60's, he passed away in April of 2006. He will be missed. He also wrote the original Poseidon Adventure (1972) (screenplay), and the Towering Inferno! Two classic disaster movies of the 70's!

A good storyline and relationship between suicidal caller Bancroft and student volunteer Poitier. Views like a timeline of a crisis call. Crisis hotline worker has no idea how to help this woman, who due to a situation which unfolds in flashback, is compelled to kill herself with downers. The reason behind this is interesting but not explored enough. I could have done without the behind-the-scenes interludes at the police station, the phone company, etc. And there is one freaky dance sequence which is totally out of step with the drama going on, but is crazily reflective of the times. "Wait! Let's watusi right here in the middle of this couple's meltdown!"

Bancroft and Poitier give solid performances, but I felt the pairing of some far-out 60s cliches with the story of a couple's troubled marriage was awkward. It wanted to appeal to too many demographics at once.

Still, a snapshot of mid-60s filmmaking with the delectable Bancroft (before she became Mrs. Robinson) is always well worth seeing.