mark.waltz Review of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1980 TV Movie)

All that glitters in the hearts of man is not gold.

[5/10 · 4 January 2017]

Broadway's biggest talents and some of Hollywood's unsung great character performers get their chance to shine in major roles in a series of short stories that made public television a special place in the 1980's and 1990's. In this version of an obscure Mark Twain short story, the emphasis is on the townspeople who question which of their friends gave a stranger $20 and ended up getting a bag of gold to hang onto in return. Robert Preston is not only the narrator, but the stranger as well. One day, he shows up at the home of Tom Aldredge and Frances Sternhagen, and when word gets around as to who gave him the $20 in the first place, all sorts of stories begin to spread about the initial donor in question. Fred Gwynne, aka Herman Munster, is the town pastor who oversees the moral outcome of the receipt of the gold, and this creates an uproar in the town that creates chaos. Certain plot pints of this episode are rather puzzling, making me wonder what the whole point of the story was and if certain parts of the story that needed to be there were edited out. But you can't fault that cast.