The Rimers of Eldritch (TV) [1974] Lanford Wilson

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Great Performances (TV series 1972ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ )
The Rimers of Eldritch


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213198/

The Rimers of Eldritch is a play by Lanford Wilson. Set in the mid-20th century in Eldritch, Missouri, a decaying Bible Belt town that once was a prosperous coal mining community, it focuses on the murder of aging hermit Skelly by a woman who mistakenly thought he was committing rape when he actually was trying to prevent one. Presiding over the trial is the sanctimonious local preacher, a hypocrite who instills the fear of hellfire and eternal damnation in his diminishing flock.

Wilson adapted his play for a television movie broadcast by PBS as part of its Great Performances series on March 20, 1974. Directed by Davey Marlin-Jones, it stars Roberts Blossom, Susan Sarandon, Rue McClanahan, K Callan, Will Hare, Kate Harrington, Frances Sternhagen, and Ernest Thompson.

Roberts Blossom ... Judge / Preacher
K Callan ... Evelyn Jackson
Cliff Carpenter ... Peck Johnson
Sarah Cunningham ... Nelly Winrod
Kathleen Doyle ... Lena Truit
Will Hare ... Skelly Mannor
Kate Harrington ... Martha Truit
Rue McClanahan ... Cora
Clifford A. Pellow ... Trucker
Joanna Roos ... Mary Winrod
Susan Sarandon ... Patsy Johnson
Vance Sorrells ... Josh Johnson

Wilson was sparked to write this piece early in his career during the racial upheaval of the 60s. Though ethnic bigotry is not the main emphasis here, the story easily serves as a microcosm of small town Bible-belt prejudice and its devastating effects on its inhabitants after a series of events leads to a crippled teenage girl being raped and the town's chief undesirable shot to death. The events leading up to the shooting and the accompanying trial sorely exposes the detrimental mindset of a town sadly untouched by time, progress and human growth.

The low budget TV film, which co-stars Rue McClanahan, Frances Sternhagen and an up-and-coming Susan Sarandon, nicely captures the stifling, claustrophobic atmosphere of this rundown, decaying town, with townfolk whose minds and spirits have been frozen with inbred hate and fear.

The "rimers" (which is an antiquated term for "freeze" or "frost") of this town are well served for the most part. Rue McClanahan is a standout as Cora Groves, a lonely, middle-aged cafe owner castigated by town gossip for taking in a handsome drifter and hired hand. Joanna Roos as senile Mary Winrod too has several fine moments as a predictor of the deadly chain of events to come. Will Hare's decrepit, muttering derelict Skelly Mannor has a ripe monologue from the play that has been unjustly pared down, but still manages to convey his social outcast with penetrating ramblings. James Staley comes off well as Driver Jr., a naive, fresh-faced youth who ultimately yields to the town's pressing dogmatism to save his own skin. Young and pretty Susan Sarandon shows extreme signs of a yet untapped talent as a spoiled, wanton, capricious schoolgirl Patsy Johnson, desperate to break away from her small town constrictions any which way she can. And Kate Harrington and Frances Sternhagen as a pair of unrestrained tongue-waggers are aptly set up as the town's narrow-minded Greek chorus.