Friday A/V Club: Woody Allen's Lost Nixon Movie
A mockumentary that PBS wouldn't air
Forty years ago today, Richard Nixon announced that he would resign as president of the United States. In honor of that happy occasion, I'm posting a peculiar film that Woody Allen made for public television in 1971, called Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story. The mockumentary mixes real footage of Nixon and other pols with material starring Allen as "Harvey Wallinger," a name whose resemblace to "Henry Kissinger" is no coincidence. Allen threw the movie together in just a few weeks, and it shows; the topical humor here is hit-and-miss. But the biggest gag isn't really political at all. It's the fact that Woody Allen plays Henry Kissinger as a stock Woody Allen character, all nebbishy and neurotic.
Note: I said Allen made this for public television. I didn't say public television broadcast it. As a 1997 article in The New York Times reports, higher-ups in the network
sent messages to their member stations saying that while PBS would not distribute the film, the stations were free to broadcast it. But they cautioned that there might be legal issues involved that could jeopardize the stations' licenses. These included equal-time regulations for other Presidential candidates, as well for people like Mrs. Nixon who were portrayed critically in the film.
Others, however, looked at this reasoning as a smoke screen.
"They were afraid to kill it because they'd look chicken," said [former WNET president James] Day. "But they didn't want to upset the politicians and get their money cut." At the time, public television was especially nervous about losing its Government support, which Nixon had vowed to cut.
Nixon did indeed threaten the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's funding in 1971. As is usually the case in such clashes, his aim wasn't really to reduce the broadcasters' subsidies so much as it was to use the threat of reducing their subsidies to whip them into line. As the reaction to Allen's film shows, Nixon's strategy worked.
For ages it has been just about impossible to see this movie, but it showed up on YouTube last month—and rapidly disappeared. Now it has been uploaded again. Watch it while you can:
Bonus link: If that's what happened when public broadcasters had to answer to Richard Nixon, what do you suppose happened when public broadcasters had to answer to George Wallace?
(For past installments of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Wait, what was that about running people over with the presidential limousine?
At the time, public television was especially nervous about losing its Government support, which Nixon had vowed to cut.
So we find out just how Nixonian Romney was.
Roll that beautiful bean footage dude, roll it.
http://www.AnonGalaxy.tk
Wrong movie, anonybot!
He likes his earlier, funnier movies/
I have a question:
Does anyone think any of Woody’s recent movies were any good?
Does anyone think any of Woody’s “classic” early movies have aged well?
OK, that’s two questions. Still . . . .
Does anyone think any of Woody’s “classic” early movies have aged well?
Sure. Love and Death is hilarious. And while it’s been a while since I last saw Sleeper, Bananas, or Take the Money and Run, I’m pretty confident I’d still like them too. (On the other hand, when I re-watched Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex a few years ago most of it didn’t hold up.)
I’d still vouch for Sleeper, Love and Death, Bananas, and Annie Hall, all of which I’ve seen relatively recently. I’d probably like some of his earlier efforts aside from those, but it’s been a good while since I’ve seen them.
I’ve liked a couple of his later films well enough, but none of them compare to his earlier productions in my book.
I’d still vouch for Sleeper, Love and Death, Bananas, and Annie Hall, all of which I’ve seen relatively recently.
Are we counting Annie Hall? I thought he was asking about the “early, funny” movies that throw a thousand gags at you.
I think Annie Hall and Manhattan both hold up, though the latter can seem creepy now for reasons that are, uh, extracinematic. Things get more uneven in the ’80s, though there are still some good efforts in there.
Annie Hall is definitely different from his earlier, funnier movies, but it still has some elements of that period. Like the scene with Christopher Walken, which is still one of my favorite movie moments.
I still think Bananas is funny, but I doubt anyone younger than 30 is going to get Howard Cosell or hijacking gags.
Does anyone think any of Woody’s “classic” early movies have aged well?
Zelig is pretty good.
well that was epic crap.