Rattlesnake in a Cooler

I saw this one evening in about 1985 or 86. I was flipping the channels and stumbled on to the description of the show on A&E or Bravo (I'm not sure) I thought it sounded mildly interesting. I was mesmerized from the very start. I knew nothing of the story, the actor and just a little about Altman. I didn't see the ending coming at all. Brilliant writing by Frank South, Masterful acting by Leo Burmester, I have since seen three other productions that were good, but not even approaching Leo's work. And Altman's vision completed the picture. I just wish I could find this on VHS or DVD or even 2" Tape. I just want a copy, and if you ever see it, so will you.

I've been looking for this movie ever since I saw it on PBS back in the '80's. Mesmerizing. I watched it several times, and it has stayed with me as one of the best movies, plays, whatever, that I've ever seen. It's one of those that works its way into the back of your brain, and in the middle of the night, when sleep evades you, this play will pop into you mind, and you'll be wishing, as I do, that you could watch it again and again. I would buy it if I could find it. The acting by Leo Burmester was perfect, as was the direction and script. To this day, I cannot believe this one is not considered a classic, or "must-see." I especially hope to see it after living and maturing nearly 30 years from when I first saw it. Are things ever as good when you go back? I think this would be.

Best acting I have ever saw. Leo was great and I don't think anyone else could have gave a better performance. I watch this in the early 80's on PBS. I missed the first half but was lucky enough to see the whole film the next time it was aired. I recorded it on VCR and practically wore out the tape over the years. I watched it so many times the tape would not play without tracking lines and snow in the picture. My youngest Daughter ask to watch it a few years back and I told her it would not play very well. To my surprise on Christmas I open a gift from her and it was a DVD copy she had made of the VCR tape and it played almost perfect with only one spot at the beginning that had interference. I am lucky to be able to watch it again. I like the film so much that I use lines from the movie in conversation when the occasion presents itself. Thumbs up to this one.

While channel surfing, this piece caught my eye, because I remembered fellow student, Leo Bermeister, in a school production at Western Kentucky University in the late 1960's. Leo's performance in Rattlesnake, about a man on death row, gripped me as nothing before or since has done. Whenever I see him in a movie or TV program it takes me back to Rattlesnake, which I saw over 20 years ago. Even though I can't remember most of it, I can still feel it and will always be moved by it. It wasn't a performance, it was real. I hope it will be televised or put on DVD. I believe it would have a profound effect on anyone who is fortunate enough to view it.

Shot on videotape this 1982 production was first broadcast on television, and was made at a time in the early 1980s when it's director Robert Altman was starting to film more and more plays. This one is a one set, one act and essentially one handed play by Frank South, which has Leo Burmester delivering a monologue to camera as he recounts how he was a doctor in Lexington, Kentucky, who then gave it all up to become a travelling cowboy on the road, with disastrous consequences. Probably Altman's worst production (and possibly his rarest) with boring cowboy storytelling accompanied by hammy, theatrical histrionics from an unsympathetic character at times mouthing slightly nauseating dialogue, until the sting in the tail. A dud which seems much too long even at around an hour!