QUIZ SHOW
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: QUIZ SHOW is an intellectual EIGHT MEN OUT. It is an in-depth look at an almost forgotten scandal that made national headlines back in 1958. Once the public realized that TV quiz shows were rigged to promote ratings, they would never look at television in quite the same way again. Robert Redford directs from a terrific, ironic screenplay. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
In 1958 the biggest things on television were the TV quiz shows. They were a national craze of rarely matched proportions. One producer had four highly-rated quiz shows: "Dotto," "Twenty-one," "The $64,000 Question," and "The $64,000 Challenge." Edward Hilgemeier Jr. was a daytime "Dotto" standby contestant who was never actually chosen to appear, but was waiting to appear if he was needed. A woman waiting to appear was chosen and she went on-stage leaving behind a small notebook. Hilgemeier read the notebook and found some odd notes. The woman contestant won that night against a man who was a former winner, but all the answers she gave were in the little notebook. Hilgemeier went to the man she defeated and showed him the notebook. The two then complained to the producers and each was given a bribe to forget about the notebook. But Hilgemeier found out the actual contestant was paid $4000 for his silence, he had gotten only a $1500 bribe. This struck Mr. Hilgemeier as unfair and he no longer felt bound to keep silent. Soon the New York State attorney was involved. Little attention was paid to the story until a second contestant confirmed Hilgemeier's claims. This was a disgruntled former winner on "Twenty-one" named Herbert W. Stempel. He joined Hilgemeier to claim that the game show he was on was also fixed. Hilgemeier was a complete unknown but millions of viewers knew Stempel and now the story was news. The result was a three-year national scandal that would rock the TV industry and the country as well as tarnishing the name of one of the most respected families in American academics.
To tell the story in 130 minutes in QUIZ SHOW, those three years have been somewhat simplified and scoped down to seem like less than one year. But the result is yet another powerfully-scripted and beautifully made film co-produced and directed by Robert Redford. The film is like an ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN or EIGHT MEN OUT for the first television generation.
Why was it considered important to control the results on quiz shows? The most commonly heard explanation is a shrug and the comment "This is television." Indeed television was and is treated as if it is a different reality and this scandal and its aftermath helped the industry define just what television is.
When the film opens the sponsor is unhappy that the reigning champion on "Twenty-one" Stempel (played by John Turturo) is a Jew, and one with a Queens accent and bad teeth. The time has come to get a new champion. About this time Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) is applying to be a "Dotto" contestant. Van Doren comes from a family of well-known scholarly academics. Van Doren has just the WASPy style and background that the show producers Enright and Freedman (David Paymer and Hank Azaria) would like their champion to have. But they need to control him and ask will he play along and take answers? "What would Kant say?" Van Doren muses. "He'd agree!" the producers tell him confidently. Van Doren and Stempel allow themselves to be manipulated into cooperating with the rigging. But when Stempel is first humiliated by having to miss an easy question and then feels he is not being properly rewarded he decides to take action. The story is told by Richard Goodwin (Rob Morrow), an idealistic Harvard grad student in a low-paid job on House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight who led the investigation. Incidentally, after the uproar the real Goodwin wrote a book about the scandal and now is one of the producers of this film based on the book.
With the possible exception of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, QUIZ SHOW has the best script of any film I have seen this year. Paul Attanasio has written a screenplay full of often very funny ironic humor. It is also packed with contrasts and conflicts. Beyond the obvious contrast of honesty and dishonesty, we have a father-son conflict with Mark Van Doren (played by Paul Scofield) representing the values and honor of the family while Charles at once tries to live up to and rebel from those values. There is the high academic standard that the father hold up for the family and the son who is only a disappointingly very good. There is a conflict between the academic culture of the Van Dorens and the mass culture that television and the quiz shows represent. We see the wealth of the aristocratic Van Dorens and the cheap and disarrayed home of the Stempels. There is a perceived anti-Semitism in the viewing public to which the Jewish game show producers pander in their decision to take Stempel off the show. And there is just a moment of negative reaction at the Van Doren when they hear that their guest, Dick Goodwin, is from the predominantly Jewish town Brookline. The script also contrasts the slow money world of campus teaching with the fast-money world of television where a college instructor who used to earn under $90 a week but lives a quiet scholarly life can earn thousands in one night at the cost of a life of fame and constant tension. All of these individual conflicts continue at the same time in the script.
As someone who considers SCHINDLER'S LIST and A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS to be the two best films he has ever seen, seeing Paul Scofield and Ralph Fiennes on the screen together as father and son is a special experience in itself. No character is really the main character of QUIZ SHOW, but Ralph Fiennes's Charles Van Doren is the character we learn most about. And Fiennes certainly cuts a trimmer and more dashing figure than he did in SCHINDLER'S LIST. He has not quite mastered an American accent, but here one ascribes his tones to perhaps having been educated abroad. Scofield is very dignified as his father, but it is hard not to see a lot of Thomas More's quick mind and starchy correctness in his Mark Van Doren. John Turturo is adequately abrasive as his course vulgarian from Queens. One of the biggest surprises is David Paymer's slimeball executive. He has usually played simpy nice- guy roles and it is nice to see him in a role into which he can put a little power. Barry Levinson, who directed Redford in THE NATURAL, is cast as Dave Garroway, long-time host of the "Today Show." The two men are entirely different types and one wonders why there was such an inappropriate piece of casting. Levinson gives the roles about the same authenticity that Sylvester Stallone could give to playing Ronald Coleman. Martin Scorsese is also present playing a very high executive for Geritol, but at least here nobody knows what a Geritol executive is supposed to look like.
Michael Ballhaus was director of photography and here one of the big mistakes was made. The entire film is shot in a tiresome yellow filter to create some sort of period feel and in addition most scenes seem dominated by the color brown, probably for the same reason. The effect is artificial and irritating, though it might have worked better with a lighter filter.
A few minor quibbles with the script: In a crowded restaurant quiz show producer Dan Enright has a heated discussion with Stempel over arranging for Stempel to lose. It is very difficult to believe Enright would be so indiscrete. Levinson raises his hand in a gesture somewhat like the one that Dave Garroway would use, but Garroway would say "Peace." Levinson merely raises his hand. And frankly I do not remember NBC using the peacock until the 60s, though I could be misremembering.
Still, this is a great script and a very good look at a nearly forgotten, but nontheless influential American scandal. I give it a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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