Movies
Rack, The (MGM 1956, Paul Newman, Wendell Corey)
Dark courtroom drama The Rack was based on a Rod Serling teleplay, and proved to be (along with ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’, 1956) young Paul Newman’s breakthrough role. Newman plays an officer accused of collaborating with enemy interrogators during the Korean War. As his defenders attempt to show that his mental state exposed him to tortures as extreme as the medieval rack, Newman’s buttoned-up father (Pidgeon), an army colonel, must come to terms with his own role in his son’s collapse.
The movie version of The Rack was written by Stewart Stern. When Newman made his directorial debut in 1968 with Rachel, Rachel, he was once again working from a screenplay by Stern.
production details
USA | MGM| 100 minutes | 1956
Director: Arnold Laven
Script: Rod Serling, Stewart Stern,
cast
Eve McVeagh as Woman at Airfield
James Best as Millard Chilson Cassidy
Lee Marvin as Capt. John R. Miller
Trevor Bardette as Court President
Robert Burton as Col. Ira Hansen
Anne Francis as Aggie Hall
Paul Newman as Capt. Edward W. Hall, Jr.
Wendell Corey as Maj. Sam Moulton
Walter Pidgeon as Col. Edward W. Hall, Sr.
Edmond O’Brien as Lt. Col. Frank Wasnick
Cloris Leachman as Caroline
Robert F. Simon as Law Officer
Adam Williams as Sgt. Otto Pahnke
Fay Roope as Col. Dudley Smith
Barry Atwater as Maj. Byron Phillips