The Seduction of Joe Tynan [Blu-ray]

Director: Jerry Schatzberg Jerry Schatzberg

Overview

Alan Alda wrote and starred in this tale about a big-time politician's struggles with his own morality and the corruption he finds surrounding him. He plays a U.S. Senator, Joe Tynan, who falls for a lovely lady attorney and has an affair that jeopardizes his marriage, and possibly, his career.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/14/2021
UPC:	0738329256982
Original Release:	1979
Rating:	R
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:47:00
Sales rank:	28,832

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alan Alda	Joe Tynan
Barbara Harris	Ellie Tynan
Meryl Streep	Karen Traynor
Melvyn Douglas	Sen. Birney
Rip Torn	Sen. Kittner
Charles Kimbrough	Francis
Carrie Nye	Aldena Kittner
Michael Higgins	Sen. Pardew
Blanche Baker	Janet
Adam Ross	Paul Tynan
Maureen Anderman	Joe's Secretary
Chris Arnold	Jerry
John Badila	Reporter on TV
Robert Christian	Arthur Briggs
Maurice Copeland	Edward Anderson
Lu Elrod	Congresswoman at Party
Clarence Felder	Golf Pro
Gus Fleming	Eric
Merv Griffin	Himself
Marian Hailey-Moss	Sheila Lerner
Dan Hedaya	Alex Heller
Bill Moor	Barry Traynor
Ronald Hunter	TV News Director
Walter Klavun	Waldorf MC
Norman La Rochelle	Oscar Harris
Kaiulani Lee	Angela
Charles Levin	John Cairn
Christopher McHale	Bert
Ron Menchine	Sen. Aikers
M.B. Miller	Reporter Tom
Novella Nelson	Carla Willis
Stephen D. Newman	Congressman Wayne Tiler
Eric Pederson	Waiter
Wyman Pendleton	Dick Harman
Don Plumley	Clerk at Golf Resort
Ben Prestbury	Servant
Frederick Rolf	Harvard Professor
Peter Schroeder	Ned the Senator,Ned (The Senator)
William Shust	Ned Townes
Martha Sherrill	Woman at Golf Resort
Ben Slack	Man in T-Shirt
Leon B. Stevens	Sen. Hamer
Frank Stoegerer	Reporter
Suzanne Stone	Reporter
Kay Todd	Woman at Party
Nathan Wilansky	Senate Clerk
Marian Hailey	Sheila Lerner
Bill Conti	Composer

Technical Credits

Alan Alda

Martin Bregman	Producer
Jerry Schatzberg	Director
Louis A. Stroller	Executive Producer,Producer
Alan Alda	Screenwriter
James Sabat	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Alan Alda starred in and wrote the script for this observant take on the rise of a liberal senator loosely based on the career of Ted Kennedy. While lacking the bite and wealth of detail of The Candidate (1972), it casts a similarly jaundiced eye on the world of politics, although it deals with life in Washington rather than on the campaign trail. Alda plays a character not too far from his good guy persona, and in the course of the politician's everyday, almost banal transactions, makes one see just how omnipresent and alluring are the temptations that spring up in the path of even the most well-intentioned person of power. When he slips into an affair with a coltish labor lawyer played by the young Meryl Streep, their scenes have a sense of playful eroticism rather than an air of guilt-ridden adultery, as Alda temporarily suspends judgment. But it's the larger perks of power and influence that the title addresses, and it is these which will test his mettle. While the shell games and horse-trading of politics are sharply noted, the motivations of Alda's character remain somewhat elusive, and the film's best and most revealing scene deals not with politics per se, but with Alda's marriage to a wife, played by Barbara Harris, who hates his profession. Among a stellar cast, Harris is by far the best as a woman with penetrating vision, but Streep, Rip Torn, and Melvyn Douglas, an actor who knew politics from the inside, are also superb.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello