The Slender Thread (1965)
Sidney Poitier is a college student who volunteers once a week at a suicide hotline clinic. When he checks in one evening, he gets his coffee, sharpens his pencil, looks at his files, and answers the phone. “I need to talk to someone,” a husky-voiced woman requests. The woman, Anne Bancroft, has taken pills. Sidney tries to keep her talking long enough so that he can trace her call and find out where she is.
The Slender Thread is a fantastic thriller that takes a very simple story and manages to completely engross the audience by the potential outcome. Stirling Silliphant’s screenplay is very interesting, and Sydney Pollack, in his first theatrical film, creates a fantastically tense atmosphere. Since the film cuts back and forth between Sidney Poitier in the clinic and Anne Bancroft’s flashbacks, it would be easy for the story to drag or seem uneven. Pollack’s direction keeps the main goal in sight and constantly moves towards it in every scene. I guarantee you’ll be so enthralled by the film, the ending will come too soon.
Sidney gives an excellent performance, trying desperately to save Anne’s life even though he’s a once-a-week volunteer. He’s nervous, ill-prepared, and doesn’t always play by the rules. Rather than acting as a bottomless well of human kindness, he gets frustrated as the time ticks on. He—and the audience—becomes emotionally involved with Anne, and before the end, everyone in and watching the film will be hanging by a slender thread, waiting and anxious to find out what will happen!
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Classic Cinema Central Seleus B" for posting!
More Sidney Poitier movies here!
The Slender Thread is a fantastic thriller that takes a very simple story and manages to completely engross the audience by the potential outcome. Stirling Silliphant’s screenplay is very interesting, and Sydney Pollack, in his first theatrical film, creates a fantastically tense atmosphere. Since the film cuts back and forth between Sidney Poitier in the clinic and Anne Bancroft’s flashbacks, it would be easy for the story to drag or seem uneven. Pollack’s direction keeps the main goal in sight and constantly moves towards it in every scene. I guarantee you’ll be so enthralled by the film, the ending will come too soon.
Sidney gives an excellent performance, trying desperately to save Anne’s life even though he’s a once-a-week volunteer. He’s nervous, ill-prepared, and doesn’t always play by the rules. Rather than acting as a bottomless well of human kindness, he gets frustrated as the time ticks on. He—and the audience—becomes emotionally involved with Anne, and before the end, everyone in and watching the film will be hanging by a slender thread, waiting and anxious to find out what will happen!
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Classic Cinema Central Seleus B" for posting!
More Sidney Poitier movies here!