Tick, Tick, Tick

Director: Ralph Nelson Ralph Nelson

Overview

Racist rednecks fly into a rage after an African American lawman is elected to replace the white sheriff of a backwater Southern town. Despite the expected uproar, the new sheriff, with the support of the mayor, manages to keep the peace until he arrests a young white from a nearby town for running over a child with his car. The arrest leads the incarcerated boy's father to lead a revolt and stage a break out. This in turn causes the townsfolk to rally behind their sheriff and fight back.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/05/2012
UPC:	0883316470589
Original Release:	1970
Rating:	G
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:37:00
Sales rank:	31,756

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jim Brown	Jimmy Price,Harrison Harley
George Kennedy	John
Fredric March	Mayor
Lynn Carlin	Julia
Janet MacLachlan	Mary Price
Richard Elkins	Bradford Wilkes
Clifton James	D.J. Rankin,H.C. Tolbert
Bob Random	John Braddock
Mills Watson	Deputy Joe Warren
Bernie Casey	George Harley
Dub Taylor	Junior,Sara Jean
Ernest Anderson	Homer
Karl Swenson	Braddock
Barry Cahill	Bob Braddock
Anne Whitfield	Mrs. Dawes
Bill Walker	John Sawyer
Dan Frazer	Ira Jackson
Leonard O. Smith	Fred Price
Renny Roker	Shoeshine Boy
Roy E. Glenn Sr.	The Drunk
George Cisar	Barber
Paulene Myers	Mrs. Harley
Dino Washington	Randy Harley
Don Stroud	Bengy Springer

Technical Credits

James Lee Barrett

Ralph Nelson	Director,Producer
James Lee Barrett	Screenwriter,Producer

Editorial Reviews

In the wake of the success of Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night (1967), race relations in the contemporary south suddenly became a marketable subject, and led to the making of such films as William Wyler's The Liberation of L. B. Jones (1970) and James Goldstone's Brother John (1972). Ralph Nelson's Tick, Tick, Tick was MGM's major entry in the field and isn't a bad one, mostly by virtue of a lot of rewarding performances. Jim Brown wouldn't win any Oscars for his work here, which seems rather stiff, though the part calls for this; in George Kennedy's role is underwritten a bit too much to give him quite enough to work with, though he does convincingly convey some of the conflicts that drive his character -- much more effective and subtle is Lynn Carlin as his wife. The rest of the cast, including Fredric March as the mayor of the town at risk from the plot's ticking time-bomb, Clifton James as a local racist who is just smart enough for his own good, and Dan Frazer, Don Stroud, and Richard Elkins as various participants, is uniformly fine. If Tick, Tick, Tick has a flaw, it lies in the movie's overall positive outlook -- characters don't have to be killed for a drama of this kind to be convincing, but there has to be more than a general threat to the hero in order to drive a story of this type, if audiences are going to fully believe in what they're seeing. The action gets wrapped up here just a little too neatly, and there is none of the verisimilitude -- or the complexity of setting or characters that comes with it -- that one got from In The Heat Of The Night. Its good intentions aside, however, Tick, Tick, Tick is one of the better dramas of its kind, and even overcomes the burden of some not-too-subtle songs added to the soundtrack by the studio's record division (itself another legacy of In The Heat Of The Night).