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'homme qui crait au loup

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

The folks in this film seem way too quick to dismiss him as an old crackpot!

The fundamental theme in this film is so flawed that it is not a particularly good movie...and it's a shame as I love Edward G. Robinson and really wanted to love "The Old Man Who Cried Wolf".

When the story begins, Emile (Robinson) goes to visit an old friend he hasn't seen in many years, Abe (Sam Jaffe). However, a man comes into Abe's shop and beats him with a rubber hose and steals the $1000 he'd been saving to send to family back in Poland. Now here's the part that just didn't ring true. Emile is beaten as well and when he awakens the police immediately assume that Abe died of natural causes and there was no attacker. At the same time, a really annoying neighbor woman vehemently denies anyone else had been there and says that Abe never had $1000 in cash. How would she know this since she wasn't there?! Yet, inexplicably the entire case is chalked up to an old man losing his faculties...even though he never had a history of mental impairment. Plus, the intensity at which the nasty neighbor insisted nothing happened is very suspicious in and of itself. Yet, oddly, folks assume Emile is confabulating this story. It just defies common sense and essentially ruined the film. Why should he have to prove he ISN'T demented and why does everyone ignore him?!

So is there anything about this film worth seeing? Well, Robinson's performance is quite good as he was the consummate professional. But it's also so very sad that he wasn't given a better written story. Provide REAL reasons for folks to not believe Emile or at least build up to this better. Instead, it seems as if part of the story is missing...like they forgot to explain why people didn't believe Emile. Fortunately, this was not his final film as it would have been sad if this was his final film considering his terrific battery of work.