The Power and The Glory (1961) {DVD Review}

Reviewed by Jason Lockard

Before TV, DVD and Blu-rays the only way to see movies was in the theaters. Than in they early years of television productions for game shows, sitcoms and talks shows began. But somewhere along the way someone got the great idea to produce full length movies for TV. Than they became all the rage.

On October 20th 1961 Graham Green's 1940 novel The Power and The Glory would get a TV treatment. When you look at the cast it truly is a star studded one. Now the good folks at Liberation Hall have

A cynical catholic priest is sent to Mexico to preach. In the post-revolution Mexican government sees the church as competition. The priest wants to perform the sacraments of Catholic Mas, but in order to do so he needs wine. In order to get the wine needed for the mass it will call attention to his activities and threaten his very life.

Now this teleplay is short on action and long on dialogue. Now for some viewers this will not be a problem at all, but I fear audiences in this generation will grow extremely tired of all talk no action, even though the performances are very good.

The great Laurence Olivier stars in this TV production. But he is not alone he is joined by a great cast including, George C Scott, Roddy McDowall, Martin Gabel, Julie Harris, Keenan Wynn, Frank Conroy, Mildred Dunnock, Patty Duke, Fritz Weaver and Cyril Cusack

Playwright Dale Wassterman adapted Graham Greene's novel to TV play in a mere seven days. Now Graham Greene did not like this television version, although he preferred it to John Ford's movie version, The Fugitive (1947).

On this DVD release the production runs 1 hour and 58 minutes. However it is good to note that, this runtime includes the classic TV commercials that have not been removed from this production.

The film has been transferred in it's original full screen format in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The audio is a Dolby Digital 2.0. Now looking at this production it is not crystal clear. But you have to remember these TV Broadcast only survive on a kinescope. We are lucky they survive at all!

You can watch the Liberation Hall DVD Trailer Below:


If you are a fan of early TV, or Graham Green The Power and .The Glory is going to be a DVD is going to be one you are gonna want to add your collection head over to Amazon.com


Out of 4 Film Reels (4 Being the Best) Liberation Hall's DVD of The Power and The Glory receives...