The Slender Thread (1965)

A college volunteer at the crisis phone gets a call from a suicide caller.

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

Shana Alexander (article), Stirling Silliphant

Stars:

Sidney Poitier, Anne Bancroft, Telly Savalas

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sidney Poitier	...	Alan Newell
Anne Bancroft	...	Inga Dyson
Telly Savalas	...	Dr. Joe Coburn
Steven Hill	...	Mark Dyson
Edward Asner	...	Det. Judd Ridley
Indus Arthur	...	Marian
Paul Newlan	...	Sgt. Harry Ward
Dabney Coleman	...	Charlie
H.M. Wynant	...	Doctor Morris (as H.N. Wynant)
Bob Hoy	...	Patrolman Steve Peters (as Robert Hoy)
Greg Jarvis	...	Chris Dyson
Jason Wingreen	...	Medical Technician
Marjorie Nelson	...	Mrs. Thomas
Steven Marlo	...	Arthur Foss
Thomas Hill	...	Liquor Salesman

Storyline

Alan is a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. One night when at the clinic alone, a woman calls up the number and tells Alan that she needs to talk to someone. She informs Alan she took a load of pills, and he secretly tries to get help. During this time, he learns more about the woman, her family life, and why she wants to die. Can Alan get the cavalry to save her in time before it's too late?

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Plot Keywords:

attempted suicide | tracing a telephone call | student | telephone | volunteer | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 August 1966 (France)

Also Known As:

Trente minutes de sursis

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Stephen Alexander Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally titled "Cross My Heart And Hope To Die" and slated to star Elizabeth Ashley (who was forced to drop out over contract dispute)

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Goofs

After Inga attempts suicide by drowning herself in the bay, she arrives at hospital with perfectly styled hair.

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Quotes

Mark Dyson: [to Inga] Do you think that not getting caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth?

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Connections

Referenced in American Masters: Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light (2000)

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Soundtracks

Theme For Inga
Written and Produced by Quincy Jones
Performed by Quincy Jones

User Reviews

THE SLENDER THREAD (Sydney Pollack, 1965) ***

The late Sydney Pollack tried his hand at several different genres and succeeded in most; since he never demonstrated an individualistic style (for many he was the antithesis of an auteur!), he could adapt himself to virtually anything (and Pollack often set his sights on grand themes) – though the end result would always be somewhat artificial (if undeniably slick) because of the director’s impersonal approach!

Anyway, for his debut film, he settled on an intimate melodrama – shot on location in glorious black-and-white (incidentally, all his subsequent work would be in color). The plot is simple: Sidney Poitier is a student who works nights at a Seattle Crisis Clinic; on one occasion, a call comes in where a wealthy socialite at the end of her tether (Anne Bancroft) declares she has deliberately overdosed on barbiturates! She phoned not so much because she wanted help but rather so that someone will know of her outcome; Poitier, however, determines to keep her on the line – while he sets in motion a complex operation in order to trace Bancroft’s whereabouts and save her life.

For about the first third of the film, Bancroft barely appears: we only hear her world-weary voice booming across the room at the clinic, Poitier having switched the call to the loudspeaker; eventually, she starts to let her hair down and, in intermittent flashbacks, we see her movements during the last few days (which boils down to her alienation from familial cords due to a past mistake which has come back to haunt her). While this was certainly a way to do it, I’m baffled as to why we never cut to where Bancroft is now until the last act: consequently, we have to contend with a fair bit of padding during the ‘re-enactments’ (which could have easily been covered via dialogue delivered by the heroine)! That said, I guess it was a conscious decision on Pollack’s part to ‘open up’ the drama (not merely to include other characters – most prominently, Steven Hill as the woman’s husband – but also to utilize a number of exteriors, where he was able to exercise a keen eye for realistic detail).

Still, the film compels attention despite an essentially contrived central situation: for instance, at this point, it’s best not to go into how Bancroft manages to remain lucid for so long or, even more importantly, why she just doesn’t hang up on Poitier; and what about the plausibility of the latter’s temper-tantrums (to the exasperation of clinic psychiatrist Telly Savalas!) to coerce the woman into reacting, thus hanging on to life in spite of herself? But that’s Hollywood for you…and, in a talky film such as this, the emphasis is on the writing (by Stirling Silliphant) and the acting (Bancroft is typically excellent and Poitier’s contribution, amounting to a variation on his PRESSURE POINT [1962] role, just as good if slightly overstated in the long run). Even so, as a counter-balance to the ongoing histrionics, reasonable suspense – aided by up-to-date methods of detection – is generated throughout by the race-against-time to locate Bancroft.

At the end of the day, THE SLENDER THREAD emerges as a quite impressive (and generally still powerful) first outing – recalling the gritty work of many a contemporary film-maker who, like Pollack, had emerged from TV.