Counterpoint [Blu-ray]

Director: Ralph Nelson Ralph Nelson

Overview

A Nazi general captures a classical music conductor and his orchestra and demands that they play a concert for his soldiers in this World War II drama. Already anticipating their eventual death, the musicians refuse, leading to a potentially deadly conflict.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/02/2021
UPC:	0738329256517
Original Release:	1967
Rating:	NR
Source:	Scorpion Releasing
Language:	English
Time:	1:47:00
Sales rank:	26,771

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Charlton Heston	Lionel Evans
Maximilian Schell	Gen. Schiller
Neva Patterson	Dorothy
Kathryn Hays	Annabelle Rice
Leslie Nielsen	Victor Rice
Anton Diffring	Col. Arndt
Linden Chiles	Lt. Long
Peter Masterson	Sgt. Calloway
Curt Lowens	Capt. Klingermann
Cyril Delevanti	Tartzoff
Gregory Morton	Jordon
Parley Baer	Hook
Dan Frazer	Chaminant
Ed Peck	Prescott
Ralph Nelson	Belgian Officer
Armande Saint-Jean	Host
Arthur Garmaise	Host
Bronislau Kaper	Composer

Technical Credits

James Lee

Edgar Sarton

Joel Oliansky

Dick Berg	Producer
Ralph Nelson	Director
James Lee	Screenwriter
Edgar Sarton	Screenwriter
David Bloomberg	Producer
Joel Oliansky	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Counterpoint is a ridiculous film, and one need only look at the casting to see that it was doomed to be thus. In no world could Charlton Heston ever conceivably play an orchestra conductor. Heston's miscasting alone is not responsible for Counterpoint being the dreadful mess that it is, but it's indicative of the wrong thinking that went into the creation of the film. Heston is visibly uncomfortable at the podium, but the bigger problem is his overwrought acting style in general; in Biblical epics, it can approximate an appropriate grandeur, but here it just seems like to so much shouting and gnashing of teeth. Maximilian Schell comes off somewhat better, but his performance is still nothing to write home about. The screenplay, though, is the bigger problem, a mass of clichés and terrible dialogue that is simply unsalvageable. Ralph Nelson's direction is dull, never a good thing but especially detrimental in this case. The only good things about the movie are Russell Metty's cinematography and the beautiful music supplied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.