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.

Well written, 60 minute, one act play, with a flat out terrific performance by Leo Burmester. A man tells the story of how he ended up where he is but exactly where that is isn't clear until the twist ending. Works like a good, satisfying short story. Cool use of music.

Altman filmed it for TV shortly after it ran off-Broadway in New York in 1981 (I believe) , where I first saw it. It stuck with me. I recently managed to track down a (very rough) video copy, and found I enjoyed it again almost 30 years later, although it didn't have quite the kick the live show had. Not sure if that's my aging, or knowing where the play was going, or something in the way Altman filmed it, or just losing the immediacy of an hour long monologue, originally performed right to the audience. I suspect it was the last.

Hard to believe this has never been released on DVD, since there's enough Altman fans out there to jump on it.

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.

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!