Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story

Name: Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1972-02-21
Duration: 25 min
Rating: 6.4
Cast: Woody Allen, David Ackroyd, Wil Albert

TV Movie
1972
25m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

648

YOUR RATING

Woody Allen in Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1972)

Satire Comedy

This mockumentary follows the fictional career of Harvey Wallinger, ostensible chief aide and adviser to Richard Nixon, from Nixon's time as Eisenhower's vice-president through his loss in t... Read allThis mockumentary follows the fictional career of Harvey Wallinger, ostensible chief aide and adviser to Richard Nixon, from Nixon's time as Eisenhower's vice-president through his loss in the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy to his own eventual election as U.S. president in 1968... Read allThis mockumentary follows the fictional career of Harvey Wallinger, ostensible chief aide and adviser to Richard Nixon, from Nixon's time as Eisenhower's vice-president through his loss in the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy to his own eventual election as U.S. president in 1968. Wallinger gives Nixon advice over the course of his career and, in numerous interviews, ... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

648

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
By 1971, Woody Allen had sworn off doing television work but decided to do this special as a contribution to PBS. When this special was yanked before airing because of pressure from the Richard Nixon White House - it was a satire of then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger - Allen cited the incident as an example of why he "sticks to movies." However, he later returned to television on three occasions: Don't Drink the Water (1994), Sounds from a Town I Love (2001) and Crisis in Six Scenes (2016).

Connections
References Gilligan's Island (1964)

User reviews5

Review

Featured review

7/10

"Maybe if we cover the entire face with a flag..."

1) This is a joyful collection of jokes strung together by a rough mockumentary style that Woody tried just before with Take the Money and Run and would perfect with Zelig.

2) It's ambitious in some respects, in that im not sure if this was done to this length before (even if just for television) - not to mention it's politically sharp even as Allen in his memoir tried to say he didn't get political in his work, which is nonsense, and this is primarily engineered to get laughs over making a grander point about Nixon up to that time, though I think even he could tell what a bunch of crooks Agnew and Mitchell were, but I digress - and in other ways it's like something he mightve dashed off (scriptwise) in a weekend.

Louise Lasser also has a fun role being interviewed about her time being drafted into Korea, and Diane Keaton plays a cross-eyed Republican ex-wife of Harvey's who divorced him after finding out he cheated wirh a Democrat.

3) As silly as this was, it doesn't surprise me to learn that PBS yanked it before it aired. It's pretty scathing, and under PBS I get it wouldn't fly. Shame it took till YouTube for it to really see the light of day.

4) I wonder what Harvey Wallinger would make of the Trump administration?