The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970)

Emile Pulska is visiting his old friend Abe Stillman. During the visit they are attacked and Emile is struck senseless. When he wakes up he is told that Abe is dead, dead by natural causes,... See full summary »

Director:

Walter Grauman

Writers:

Luther Davis (teleplay), Arnold Horwitt (story)

Stars:

Edward G. Robinson, Martin Balsam, Diane Baker

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Edward G. Robinson	...	Emile Pulska
Martin Balsam	...	Stanley Pulska
Diane Baker	...	Peggy Pulska
Ruth Roman	...	Lois
Percy Rodrigues	...	Frank Jones
Sam Jaffe	...	Abe Stillman
Edward Asner	...	Dr. Morheim
Martin E. Brooks	...	Hudson F. Ewing
Paul Picerni	...	Det. Green
Robert Yuro	...	Det. Seroly
William Elliott	...	Carl (as Bill Elliott)
James A. Watson Jr.	...	Leon
Naomi Stevens	...	Mrs. Raspili
Virginia Christine	...	Miss Cummings
Jay C. Flippen	...	Pawnbroker (as J.C. Flippen)

Storyline

Emile Pulska is visiting his old friend Abe Stillman. During the visit they are attacked and Emile is struck senseless. When he wakes up he is told that Abe is dead, dead by natural causes, the doctors tell him. When Emile insists that they were attacked, his relatives try to give him psychiatric help. Emile decides to try to find the killers himself, but someone is watching his every step...

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Plot Keywords:

abc movie of the week | murder | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'uomo che gridava al lupo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aaron Spelling Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[last lines]
Emile Pulska: See?

User Reviews

Exceptional TV movie

Man, TV movies in the '70s were so much better than they are today. Hell, many of them are even better than theatrical films today. This is an engrossing movie starring the great Edward G. Robinson as an elderly man who sees his friend murdered but can't get anyone to believe him. It's a well-written and fairly gritty picture with a fine cast of familiar faces backing up Robinson, who's just dynamite. The ending is a bit of a downer but that was the '70s for you.

Other reviewers seem to be picking on "why didn't anyone believe him" as a major flaw with the film. I just can't disagree more. I mean, were we watching the same movie? First, there's the underlying theme of how the elderly are treated at the heart of all this. The well-meaning but full-of-it shrink even compares them to adolescents. Second, there's the fact that there wasn't one shred of evidence to back him up. They spent the majority of the film showing him trying to convince people only to have it repeated over and over that there simply was no proof. So it was his word versus the evidence, which is all that would matter in reality to anyone but those who loved him. The son was the most sympathetic to his plight and even that wasn't much. The daughter-in-law, the real villain of the piece in my view, seemed like she couldn't muster an ounce of sympathy for the sweet old man. I half-expected her to be in on the cover-up! There simply was nothing to back up what he was saying. And the shrink going out investigating, which at least one reviewer took issue with, was more about the shrink trying to prove to the old man that he was wrong than it was about trying to seriously investigate the case.