"We Want A Guy Who Looks Like He Can Order A Table At 21."

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2006)

I remember back in the day when the scandal of the rigged quiz shows came to public attention, in one of his monologues Bob Hope said that with all the investigations uncovering all the crooked doings on television the most honest thing on there was professional wrestling.
It was quite the scandal back in the day, the producing team of Barry and Enright were far from the only ones rigging their shows. In one fell swoop nearly all the television quiz shows went off the air. For a long time the only ones you saw on television were Concentration, Password, and The Price is Right and none of them were for the big money that 21 and others were giving out.
Poor Charles Van Doren he was just ahead of his time without knowing it. Today a guy like Herbert Stempel would never make it through the screening process. But he did back in the day and therein lies the tale.
I remember it well from my childhood. Herbert Stempel, nerdy ex-GI who probably was a Democrat who voted for Ike just ain't cutting it on the Nielsen ratings. They need someone with glamor and when Charles Van Doren, scion of one of America's most glittering family of intellectuals and folks who were definitely madly for Adlai tries out for one of the Barry-Enright Quiz Shows, they think they've found their star. Stempel gets promised all kinds of stuff to throw the show, but his promises are welshed on.
That does not sit too well with Stempel who starts protesting loud and long to the Grand Jury in New York County and finally to the Halls of Congress. Van Doren and his family are disgraced.
I remember the attention given to the real Charles Van Doren. A matinée idol professor, he looked to have a golden future. I could have easily seen him running for public office at some point had the scandal never occurred.
John Turturro as Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren ring true to their characters, especially Fiennes as I remember Van Doren. There was an Oscar nomination for Paul Scofield who played Charles's father Mark Van Doren and Rob Morrow does very well as Richard Goodwin the Congressional investigator who reluctantly brings down a great liberal hero to be.
Robert Redford did a great job recreating a forgotten piece of Americana and the times that accompanied it. After all, it's only show business.