ORDEAL
US, 1973, 73 minutes, Colour.
Arthur Hill, Diana Muldaur, James Stacey, Macdonald Carey, Michael Ansara.
Directed by Lee H. Katzin.
Ordeal is a remake of the 1950s 3 -D drama, Inferno, which starred Robert Ryan and Rhonda Fleming. This film is a more sombre approach, Arthur Hill not having the fierce screen presence of Robert Ryan and Diana Muldaur not having the glamour of Rhonda Fleming. However, the two stars offer strong performances.
The film is about a husband and wife, the wife having been unfaithful to her husband, stranded in the desert waiting for rescue. This leads, of course, to intense interactions.
The film was directed by Lee H. Katzin who directed quite a number of telemovies during the 1970s. During the late 60s and early 1970s he did make some theatrical feature films, The West and Heaven With a Gun, the horror film Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice and a version of Helen Mc Innes’ The Salzburg Connection. During the 1970s he made twenty-eight telemovies.
1. Audience expectations from the title? Their fulfilment? (The original was called 'Inferno'. Would this have been better?)
2. Comment on the TV techniques and their success close-ups, locations.
3. How important was the location and the desert for the theme and the plot? How contrived did the whole story seem? Did this matter?
4. How credible was the plot? Were motivations made clear and plausible? The background explanation of the inter-relationships leading to the abandoning of Damien?
5. How did the film centre on Damien? His rich background, his meanness, domination? His disregard of Kay, humiliation of Folson? The effect of the ordeal on him? The determination and the way that this meant his struggling down the mountain? How strong was the motivation of vengeance? The ordeal of the climb, the heat, water, rain? The symbolic use of animals and his encounter with them?
6. Did his character change during his ordeal? His vengeance, and then his finally being hunted? What did he wish at the end an he turned towards his wife and Folson?
7. How interesting was the character of Cathy? The quality of the marriage, the financial arrangements, the humiliations and hurt? Was it credible that she seized the chance against her husband? Her cool behaviour, her cruelty and yet her wondering about murder? Her relationship with Folson, fear, animal love? Her fear at the end?
8. Was Folson a credible character? His criminal background, his work for Damien, the humiliations? His deciding to go with Cathy? His cruelty towards Damian? The clash of the two and their pretences? The searching out of Damien?
9. What did the minor characters add to the films Frost and his friendship, explanation of Damien, the sheriff and the search parties?
10. The nature of the ending? How inconclusive, how appropriate?
11. The quality of the film and its short treatment of such themes as greed, cruelty, vengeance, hatred, lust and love?
