DUMMY

US, 1979, 96 minutes, Colour.
Paul Sorvino, Le Var Burton, Brian Dennehy, Gregg Henry.
Directed by Frank Perry.

Dummy is an effective telemovie, allegedly based on real life incidents. It is an interesting courtroom drama with social and racial overtones. However, it is important in its presentation of a deaf mute defended in court by a lawyer going deaf. The film takes the audience into the subjective world of the deaf mute and his grave disabilities in communicating. Le Var Burton is very good in the central role. He began his acting career in the teleseries Roots and has appeared in Looking For Mr. Goodbar and The Hunter. Paul Sorvino is excellent as the deaf lawyer - an actor who is excellent in comedy roles e.g. A Touch of Class as well as drama e.g. Cruising. The film was directed by Frank Perry who has made many interesting films over the decades, especially
with his former wife, Eleanor: David and Lisa, Last Summer.

1. Audience interest in courtroom dramas? Films with social themes? The plight of the disabled? How well did they combine here?

2. The atmosphere of Chicago, its streets, houses, working places? Its institutions? The courts? The film as a piece of '70s Americana?

3. The impact of the telemovie: serious themes, strong characterisations, social issues - for the home audience? Emotional impact? Understanding?

4. The background of racial themes - blacks in the large American cities, treatment by the police, treatment in courts, in institutions? Background of civil rights?

5. Social themes: the poor and the deprived, lack of education, finance for disabled children? The background of institutions for the insane, jails? Victims brutalised in such institutions?

6. The theme of the disabled: the deaf mute, the possibility for education, improvement? Illness? The treatment of the deaf mute by people with all their faculties? Criteria for normality? Limited lifestyle, introspection, relationships? The subjective silent world? Inability to communicate by word? The need for touch, lipreading, feeling? The deterioration of powers? The film as a special plea for the disabled?

7. The parallel in disability between the man accused of crime and the man defending the accused? Their mutual needs and dependence? The effectiveness of the relationship, each helping the other?

8. The boy and his world? Seeing him in the bar, eying the prostitute, the discovery of the violence? whether he killed the prostitute or not? The audience sharing the inability to communicate as well as the inability to understand the boy? Was it in his character to murder? The re-enactment of the crime in the alley?

9. The importance of the flashbacks in showing the boy as a child, his relationship with his parents, the need for finance, his inability to be educated? The growth in the family, love of his brother? His going to work and ingratiating himself with the workers in the markets?

10. Seeing him at work, eagerness, being well-liked? The sudden transition to the arrest, his terror in the car, the interrogation, imprisonment, his presence in the court - and his being taunted by the mocking policeman, the re-enactment of the crime? The film suggesting the bewilderment of the boy in these events?

11. The justice of the verdicts: his being declared incapable of defence, his being institutionalised, the experience in the institutions, work, the homosexual rape, the possibility of learning?

12. The film's emphasis on the boy's basic drives and their being unco-ordinated? The early scene with the prostitute, the effect of the gang rape in the prison, his saving the officer from assault, his advances to the lady teacher? The need for education and co-ordination?

13. The boy being brutalised, the effect of his coming out of the institutions -and the later killing? Coincidence or did he do it?

14. The points made about justice: the long time being taken, the nature of evidence, evidence being lost over the years? The nature of proof? Sanity and disability and their unjust linking? The psychological tests - the presuppositions of the tester? Medical opinion? Legal opinion? The role of the judge? The judge's moral obligations, legal obligations?

15. Grief for the boy, for his family? The sequences with his brother - discussing with the lawyer, co-operating? The return?

16. Paul Sorvino's portrait of the lawyer - the background of his character, deterioration of his hearing, reliance on his sister? His legal skills and commitment? His deafness and his manner of talking - his explanation of it and the deterioration of his hearing? Investing his energy in the job? The questions, the means taken to inspire confidence, means of communication? The re-enactment of the crime? The frustration in the administration of justice? The intensity and persuasiveness of his speeches in the court? The plea for compassion? The scenes of his visiting the boy in prison, the busyness of his work, not knowing what the boy was suffering? The values that the lawyer stood for?

17. The dramatic impact of the court sequences - evidence, injustice, the taunting of the boy by the policeman? The picture of intolerant normal people towards the disabled?

18. The emotional and intellectual response by the home audience? Moved to understanding, compassion? The effectiveness of the telemovie for social change?