The Twilight Zone / Nothing but a Man
This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series “Going My Own Way”: Celebrating Ivan Dixon.
The Twilight Zone: “The Big Tall Wish” (4/8/1960)
In a rare showcase for an all-Black cast in early 1960s network television, Ivan Dixon delivers a deeply poignant performance as an aging boxer with only scars to show for years of painful defeats. With his best days seemingly behind him, he’s confronted by the immeasurable power of hopes and dreams via a small child (Steven Perry) who channels giant-sized beliefs into an alternate reality.
DCP, b&w, 30 min. CBS. Production: Producer: Bert Granet. Director: Ron Winston. Writer: Rod Serling. With: Ivan Dixon, Steven Perry, Kim Hamilton.
Nothing but a Man (1964)
When a railroad worker named Duff marries Josie, an educated preacher’s daughter, the racial tensions of their small Alabama town tear at the threads of their new life together. The film was reportedly made on a microbudget of $230,000, and distribution was limited. With an all-Black cast, including non-actors from the community, the film broke new ground for the period by showcasing the dignity and resistance of Black people in the South in the face of systemic oppression. In a tour-de-force performance, Ivan Dixon portrays Duff with a roiling vulnerability opposite the quiet intensity of Abbey Lincoln’s Josie; the naked emotion between them bursts forth from the screen. Relatedly, director Michael Roemer deploys broken glass as a visual motif in the foreground and background throughout the mise-èn-scene: unexplained holes in the car windows, drinking glasses dropped to the floor, pointing to how too often women like Josie and Lee, Duff’s stepmother, are meant to gather the shards left by the demons rattling their men. A major achievement in the American neorealist tradition, it won the San Giorgio Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1964. The film was named to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1993.
35mm, b&w, 91 min. Director/Screenwriter: Michael Roemer. With: Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris, Stanley Greene, Gloria Foster.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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