Retro Television Review: The American Short Story #3 “The Jolly Corner”

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, we have an adaptation of a Henry James short story.

Episode #3 “The Jolly Corner”

(Dir by Arthur Barron, originally aired in 1975)

In 1906, Spencer Brydon (Fritz Weaver) returns to America from Europe, where he’s spent the majority of his adult life. Brydon has specifically returned to oversee some properties that he has inherited, including his childhood home and an adjacent building that’s going to be turned into an apartment complex. The middle-aged Brydon reconnects with his old friend, Alice Shaverton (Salome Jens), and finds himself wondering what type of man he would have come if he had stayed and worked in America as opposed to living a life of leisure in Europe.

Soon, Spencer comes to feel that his alternate “American” self is actually haunting his childhood home, his so-called “Jolly Corner.” His American self haunts him like a ghost, a menacing shadow that continually forces him to ask “what if?” He becomes obsessed with both his former home and his shadowy alter ego. But is this American version of Spencer Brydon real? And if it is real, what does it want from the Spencer Brydon who went to Europe?

This was a really well-done adaptation of a Henry James short story, one that was full of gothic atmosphere and which featured a compelling lead performance from Fritz Weaver. As directed by Arthur Barron, this episode did a good job of portraying the story’s horror elements while also reminding us that James’s story, for all of its talk of ghosts and alternate realities, is ultimately a portrait of a really bad midlife crisis. Spencer did what a lot of rich Americans do. He went to Europe to escape the responsibilities of his home country. And now, in middle-age, he’s asking himself, “Is this all there is?”

If nothing else, watching this episode might inspire the viewer to read more Henry James. That’s a good thing.

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story 1.2 “Parker Adderson, Philosopher”

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we have an adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story.

Episode 1.2 “Parker Adderson, Philosopher”

(Dir by Arthur Barron, originally aired on January 8th, 1974)

This adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story takes place during the Civil War. Parker Adderson (Harris Yulin) is a Union spy who is captured behind Confederate lines. Brought into the ramshackle Confederate camp, he’s put into a small cabin. He knows that, as a spy, he’s going to be executed in the morning and he seems to be at peace with that. For the most part, his captors treat him humanely. Though they may be at war, there doesn’t seem to be any real animosity between Adderson and the Confederate general (Douglass Watson) who is in charge of the camp. They are two men who have a job to do and they both seem to respect each other. At night, the General and Adderson have a conversation, talking about the war and mortality. Adderson gets a last meal. Everything seems to be strangely peaceful …. until Adderson discovers that he’s not going to be executed the way that he wants to be executed. By the time the morning sun rises, three men are dead. The formerly philosophical Adderson dies in a rage against his captors while the General dies with the peace and grace that Adderson originally envisioned for himself.

This was an effective and melancholy adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s short story, one that captured both Bierce’s anti-war sentiments and his cynical view of the human condition. For all of his efforts to put himself above the realities of war, Adderson falls apart once the reality of his impending death becomes obvious. Meanwhile, the previously boorish general finds a certain redemption in his death, perhaps because the General, unlike Adderson, never tried to rationalize the violence of war or the cruelty of fate.

It’s a nicely-done episode, featuring good performances from both Watson and Yulin. I’ve gotten so used to seeing Yulin cast as corporate and government villains that it was really eye-opening to see him playing a complicated character for once. Clocking in at a little over 30 minutes, Parker Adderson, Philosopher is a thought-provoking look at war and the men who fight it.

Film Review: Brothers (dir by Arthur Barron)

Posted on October 6, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1977 and based on the real-life story of prison activist George Jackson, Brothers opens with David Thomas (Bernie Casey) being charged with robbing a gas station.

Thomas explains that, while he was in the car with the people who robbed the station, he personally had nothing to do with the robbery and did not know that it was going to happen. Thomas’s attorney tells Thomas that the smart thing to do would just be to plead guilty. That way, Thomas will probably just spend a few months in jail as an accessory and then he’ll be a free man. Instead, the judge sentences Thomas to a sentence of one year to life in prison. Essentially, Thomas will be in prison until the State decides to let him out.

Thomas serves his sentence at Mendocino Prison, where he has to deal with threats from both the white prisoners and the guards. Thomas’s cellmate is Walter Nance (Ron O’Neal), a political activist who tells David that he’s “letting your time do you.” Nance educates David, teaching him about both chess and radical politics. Soon, David is publishing an underground newsletter that is discreetly passed around amongst the black prisoners.

Meanwhile, on the outside, David’s younger brother, Josh (Owen Pace), is trying to free David from prison. Josh approaches a radical professor named Paula Jones (Vonetta McGee) and asks for her help in publicizing David’s case. Paula is at first skeptical but, after she reads David’s writings, she starts to correspond with him. Soon, David and Paula have fallen in love. However, when Walter is murdered by the racist guards and David starts to organize within the prison, both David and Paula find themselves being targeted by the government.

As I said at the start of this review, Brothers is based on a true story. David Thomas is based on George Jackson, who was sentenced to a year to life for robbery and who, while serving time in Soledad Penitentiary, wrote two books that made him a cause celebre amongst political radicals in the early 70s. Paula Jones is based on Angela Davis, who was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after a gun registered in her name was used by Jackson’s younger brother during a shoot-out at a courthouse. (The shoot-out, which is depicted in the film, led to the murder of Judge Harold Haley and the deaths of Jonathan Jackson and two prisoners.) George Jackson was later shot and killed while attempting to escape San Quentin. In the film, the fate of David Thomas is just as violent but slightly more poetic.

There’s still a considerable amount of controversy as to whether or not George Jackson was a hardened criminal or an innocent man who was targeted for his activism. Brothers is firmly on the side of George Jackson and Angela Davis, portraying them both as activists who are fighting back against an unjust system that is determined to hold them down and destroy them if necessary. Bernie Casey and Vonetta McGree both give good performances as David Thomas and Paula Jones. Casey, in particular, smolders with an intensity that makes him instantly believable as someone who could organize a rebellion. Unfortunately, the film itself moves a bit too slowly for its own good and it ends on a false note, suggesting that David’s sacrifice has managed to unify both the white and the black prisoners against the guards. Considering that, up until that point, the film had been honest about racism in prison, the ending feels like an attempt to provide some hope to an otherwise downbeat story. Unfortunately, the hope doesn’t feel earned. Still, Brothers is an interesting historical document, one that deals with issues that are still being fought over to this day.

Back to School Part II #6: Jeremy (dir by Arthur Barron)

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

After I finally finished working out my thoughts concerning A Clockwork Orange, I continued my back to school reviews by watching a 1973 teen romance called Jeremy. I have to admit that it was kind of a shock going from Stanley Kubrick’s confrontational masterpiece to this rather gentle and sweet-natured film about two nice kids who fall in love. But that’s one of the things that I love about reviewing movies. You get to see all sorts of things.

As for Jeremy — it’s a film that tells a familiar story but it doesn’t quite go in the direction that you’re expecting. 15 year-old Jeremy (played by Robby Benson, who was apparently the Justin Bieber of his day) is a 15 year-old student at a private high school in New York City. He’s a brilliant but painfully shy student. He’s very serious about learning the cello, even though his teacher (Leonardo Cimino) tells him that he’s good but he’ll probably never be great. He’s also really into horse racing, though he never bets himself. Instead, he just likes to pick the winner and is content with the knowledge that he was right. Jeremy is largely ignored by his parents and has only one friend but he seems to be okay with his largely solitary life.

That is, of course, until he spots Susan (Glynnis O’Connor) practicing ballet in a classroom. Jeremy is instantly attracted to her and it’s obvious that she likes him as well but, because of his pathological shyness, Jeremy cannot bring himself to ask her out. (In fact, he even forgets to ask her name the first time that they meet.) It’s not until Susan compliments him on his cello playing that Jeremy is able to work up the courage to ask her out. It’s not that Jeremy is arrogant or stand-offish or any of the other stuff that people regularly say about shy people. It’s just that talking about his cello gives Jeremy the courage to be himself. It’s rather sweet, actually.

Jeremy and Susan go out for three weeks and, in a tastefully handled scene, even end up making love for the first time. However, Susan’s father has been transferred to another city and Susan is about to move away. Even when Susan and Jeremy say that they’re in love, all of the adults ignore them.

At this point, I was expecting Susan and Jeremy to enter into a suicide pact but it didn’t happen. That’s not the type of film that Jeremy is. Jeremy is a very sweet but ultimately realistic film about first love and first heartbreak.

As for the two lead performers, they apparently dated for a while after making Jeremy and they both display a very real chemistry in the film. Admittedly, there’s a few scenes where Benson goes a little bit overboard but, watching him, I could tell why he was a teen idol in the 70s. There’s not a threatening or dangerous thing about him and when he’s insecure or sad, you just want give him a big hug. Glynnis O’Connor brings a bit of an edge to Susan (there always seems to be a poignant sadness right under the surface when it comes to Susan) and it contrasts nicely with Benson’s performance.

In the end, it may not add up too much but it’s heartfelt and nicely done and I’m glad that I watched it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLi-oAbkEHQ