A Bottle of Wine

I thought about Jo Mankiewicz's last feature whilst I watched this episode, a two men in a room tale, one the old husband, a judge, whose wife is about to part him from, and her Young lover...For the rest, you can prefer Anthony Shaffer's satge play brought to screen.

An older man, a judge, confronts his young wife's lover on the day they intend to run away together. The strength of this episode is the power of Herbert Marshall's effortless domination of his interaction with handsome young Robert Horton. Sterling Silliphant went above and beyond in the creation of this superb and truly literary script. Marshall gives us the full force of his stage experience in his performance, which includes spellbinding readings from first Aristotle and then Socrates. The direction of the story is clear from the title, still leaving room for a twist. The wine or sherry is identified as Amontillado, reminding us of a similar tale of revenge from the master Edgar Allan Poe.

I enjoyed this episode, knowing I wanted to catch it, primarily when I learned the dignified British-actor Herbert Marshall was in it. The episode IS rather talky, not helped by the fact it's set in a single-room until the last-few moments but when it's Mr. Marshall talking I'm all-ears! I thoroughly-enjoyed his polished conversation with Robert Horton, who clearly isn't in the man's league, character-wise. Also loved seeing & hearing Marshall, as a court-judge, opening & reading from volumes of Aristotle & Socrates. He appears to have an enormous collection of classical-works in his bookcase, replete with a classical-bust on a pedestal in front of it. Unfortunately, this MeTV print had a muffled soundtrack, making it quite a struggle to understand Mr. Marshall's wonderful-diction clearly, though I managed. The only unrealistic-aspect to the show, perhaps, is that it's a broiling-hot August-day and yet Mr. Marshall's house isn't air-conditioned, only a single-fan in one room. Of course, this episode was filmed in the late-50's, back when a/c wasn't yet so dominant in society. Then, too, the episode's set somewhere in Wisconsin, so abnormally-hot summer-days may not have necessitated a/c as a general-rule. The only-other point about this aspect is that both main-characters are dressed-to-the-nines in suitcoats & ties throughout. Although both comment on the scorching-day, as well as how the sherry's affecting their body-temps, neither looses a tie or removes a suitcoat. Seems unlikely. As for the wife who's divorcing Marshall to run-off & marry Horton, she does nothing-for-me. She's off-camera most of the time anyway, engaged upstairs in what seems an eternity of suitcase-packing. As the actress, unknown to me, plays her role as an icy-cold fish, totally bereft of sentiment toward the man she's leaving, I have no empathy for her. Finally, for my money, Robert Horton, though certainly a capable & competent actor, is just TOO handsome for me to ever-really accept him in a role. It's always hard for me to relate to an actor whose facial-features, as well as thick, immaculately-styled hair, are virtually-perfect. My envy tends to obscure the believability of such actors. This, of course, isn't Horton's, or any other handsome leading-man's fault, it just, for me, makes them unrelatable. So, in short, a good episode with a suspenseful-premise & clever, though disturbing-ending. Herbert Marshall's superb as always, though he was tough-to-understand at times due to the muffled soundtrack. The British film-veteran, along with Socrates & Aristotle, make for quite a trio!

Heavily talky episode that takes place in a single parlor room. Virile young Wallace (Horton) has come to the aging Judge's (Marshall) domain to escort the Judge's lovely young wife away from him and into Wallace's arms. Oddly the older man welcomes the young Lothario, and thus begins a long and uncomfortable conversation as Wallace cannot help feel ill at ease. Yet, the Judge seems completely self-assured. So where is this leading and what accounts for the Judge's odd attitude toward a man stealing his wife.

No wonder the producers hired expert gentleman Herbert Marshall for the key role. Watching him subtly put down the handsome interloper using his rather snobbish ways amounts to an exercise in civilized mayhem. Still, Horton responds ably with the kind of facial ticks that speak volumes. The ending seems more confusing than clarifying, so take the 30-minutes more as a theatrical exercise than a compelling drama.

When the story begins, Judge Connors (Herbert Marshall) is in for a shock...his young wife is leaving him for another man. And here is where it gets odd....as she packs, her boyfriend comes into the home to wait for her...and he and the Judge talk..and talk...and talk...and talk some more. During part of this, you wonder if maybe the Judge will end up shooting the boyfriend...but mostly you are surprised how civilized it all is and how talky it is. Sure, there is a nice twist at the end, but it seemed to take a long time and overall it's not a great episode...but would have been had it been 15 minutes instead of 30.





By the way, near the beginning, you'll probably notice Marshall limping as he goes to the front door. This is because he lost his leg in WWI and in most films, they probably re-shoot scenes where he limps noticeably. Here, oddly, they didn't.