Hanging by a Thread (1979) (TV)

Director:

Georg Fenady

Writer:

Adrian Spies (writer)

Release Date:

8 May 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure

Plot:

A group of old friends on an outing re-live various traumas and tragedies via flashback whilst trapped high above a ravine in a disabled cable-car.

Plot Keywords:

Cable Car | Beautiful Woman | Stranded

Cast

Sam Groom	...	Paul Craig
Patty Duke	...	Sue Grainger (as Patty Duke Astin)
Joyce Bulifant	...	Anita Minton
Oliver Clark	...	Eddie Minton
Bert Convy	...	Alan Durant
Burr DeBenning	...	Jim Grainger
Peter Donat	...	Mr. Durant
Donna Mills	...	Ellen Craig
Cameron Mitchell	...	Lawton
Roger Perry	...	Mitchell
Michael Sharrett	...	Tommy Craig
Ted Gehring	...	Jim Croft
Lonny Chapman	...	Charles Minton
Jacquelyn Hyde	...	Mrs. Durant
Brendon Boone	...	Marty

Runtime:

190 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Palm Springs, California, USA

Company:

Irwin Allen Productions

Not as Campy as Earthquake, but with Patty Duke Astin, it was a lark

A group of old friends on an outing are trapped in a skylift. Sam Groom loved Donna Mills, but now she was with Burt Convy. Patty Duke Astin and Burr Debenning were a couple, Joyce Bullifant and Oliver Clark were a couple. Groom is quickly established as our anti-hero, with Convy snipping at him. Every disagreement between these two men is because Convy got MIlls and Groom didn't.

Debenning is severely injured, burned, trying to get the lift to move. This now gives us the gut wrenching, angst ridden Duke Astin performance, as she tells the story how she, Debenning, Clark and Convy knew how the man Bullifant had loved, really died. Oh, the betrayal, the lies, the deception. Can you ever forgive me?

This was just one of several seventies performances that Duke Astin gave as the Academy award winning actress who was now available for television, and like all the rest, she poured all the emotion she could manage into it. The rest of the cast is merely seventies names and faces, with the possible exceptions of Clark and Debenning. Oliver Clark did do other things and will be recognizeable if you watched alot of seventies tv, but Debenning is the face without a name. YOu may recognize him, but you won't know from what.

This thing was shown in two nights, more than necessary. Definitely watch it edited. I am surprised to see Doug Llewellyn somewhere in the cast, and that this cast is so big, as anything that could remotely hold your attention, and that isn't saying much, takes place on that skylift.

But if you just want to see some tame, empty 1970's television that will leave you exactly the same after you see it that you were before you saw it, Hanging by a Thread is the film for you.