IMDb > Tail Gunner Joe (1977) (TV)

Tail Gunner Joe (1977) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   81 votes
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Director:
Jud Taylor
Writer:
Lane Slate (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Tail Gunner Joe on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
6 February 1977 (USA) more
Genre:
Biography | Drama more
Plot:
A dramatization of the life of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the alcoholic senator from Wisconsin whose tactics... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
Hollywood Producer Eckstein Dies
 (From WENN. 15 September 2009, 9:06 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Very good history more (8 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Peter Boyle ... Sen. Joseph McCarthy

John Forsythe ... Paul Cunningham
Heather Menzies ... Logan
Burgess Meredith ... Joseph Welch
Patricia Neal ... Sen. Margaret Chase Smith

Jean Stapleton ... Mrs. DeCamp
Philip Abbott ... Sen. Scott Lucas
Wesley Addy ... Middleton

Ned Beatty ... Sylvester
Karen Carlson ... Jean Kerr
John Carradine ... Wisconsin farmer
Charles Cioffi ... Logan's Boss
Diana Douglas ... Sarah
Andrew Duggan ... Dwight Eisenhower
Henry Jones ... Armitage
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
145 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
USA:Not Rated
Company:
Universal TV more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Burgess Meredith, who plays the attorney Joseph Welch who finally stood up to Senator McCarthy, was himself named an unfriendly witness by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which nearly ruined his acting career. more
Quotes:
JOSEPH WELCH: Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream that you could be so reckless, and so cruel, as to do an injury to that lad. Have you no sense of decency, sir; at long last, have you left no sense of decency? more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
Very good history, 13 April 2008
8/10
Author: democratpat from United States

A terrific piece showing the insanity that even a democracy can fall victim too, when the public's imagination and fear are stoked by outright lies and liars.

'Tail Gunner Joe' covers the story of Joseph McCarthy (called by President Truman, "that most lamentable mistake of the Almighty") and his skyrocket to national prominence with claims that the State Dept harbored known Communists. This, of course, during a time when America lived in dread fear of Communism and the term 'Commsymp' had been created as a means of destroying a person who couldn't be accurately labelled a 'Communist' so they were 'communist sympathizers' or commsymp's.

The horror of McCarthy's lust for power was beautifully captured in an exchange between McCarthy (Peter Boyle) and Army lawyer Welch (Burgess Meridith, who was himself labelled an enemy of America by McCarthy's gang back in the day), where Welch had hit McCarthy right between the eyes legally, and instead of trying to counter Welch, McCarthy instead names a random member of Welch's team and smears him as a communist. Knowing that just a person's name coming from McCarthy's mouth was a career death sentence, Welch gave his famous remark, "At long last senator - have you no shame?" McCarthy had destroyed a career just because someone made him feel uncomfortable.

It's a matter of some significance that McCarthy went into a career spiral himself not long after being brought down by Welch. Had McCarthy's beliefs and accusations been real, they would have been picked up by another person and brought to fruition - the proof that McCarthy was a liar and a political gangster is in the fact that not one of his list of "207 known names of communists" was ever brought to light, McCarthy never proved the existence of a single communist in the State Department, and he himself died of alcoholism 3 years after his fall from fame.

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