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The acting surpasses even the BBC's high standards. At this point in his career, Guinness, solid and elegantly thoughtful, is beyond praise. His lesser-known colleagues are, without exception, worthy of him and of the drama's subtle subject. Even the smallest scene is memorable— like Beryl Reid's appearance as a dipsy researcher who fell from favor with Smiley and Control. "Poor loves," she says to Smiley, her whiskied voice falling slowly and softly, like autumn leaves. "Trained to empire. Englishmen could be proud then. Oh, God. Taken away. Good bye, world." One reason Le Carré's sad story rings with such resonance is that it is largely true. There really was a "mole," a treasonous golden boy of the British Establishment. His name was Kim Philby, and he defected to the Soviet Union in 1963. Now 68, he lives in Moscow, a hero of the Soviet state, honored for that trove of secrets he stole from London and Washington. No one knows whether he would look upon this show as tragedy or comedy.
—By Gerald Clarke
Soloist in a Choir of Martyrs Playing for Time (CBS, Sept. 30). Film and TV movies about the Holocaust have be come so numerous they now constitute a genre: horror-show effects, mannered performances and madhouse melodrama. In Playing for Time, the true story of Chanteuse Fania Fenelon's survival in Auschwitz as the vocalist of its female orchestra. Dramatist Arthur Miller and Director Daniel Mann have set these Holocaust clichés against each other. Though Fenelor (Vanessa Redgrave) and her fellow prisoners must fight for their lives and their dignity against the SS oppressors, they find their sternest, most domineering antagonist in Alma Rosé (Jane Alexander) niece of Gustav Mahler and conductor of the Auschwitz orchestra. Playing for Time is as much the tale of two strong women, in conflict or in concert, as it is of inhuman degradation and heroic grit. Because Redgrave and Alexander are two of the great modern actresses, the film is also a record of their competition and triumph over the limitations of the genre and the viewer's expectations.
The casting of Redgrave, La Pasionaria of the P.L.O., as a half-Jewish inmate of a Nazi camp has provoked much controversy. The Anti-Defamation League has attacked the casting as "both an insult and an injury to the millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust." CBS has found advertisers reluctant to peddle their hair sprays and frozen foods between segments of a downbeat film with an unpopular performer and has sold its commercial time at a fraction of the standard rate. Meanwhile, most of the Playing for Time starring cast have signed an open letter urging that Redgrave's "personal political views" not obscure "a dynamic and honest piece of work."
On paper, Redgrave may indeed seem ill-suited to play a Jew in Nazi Germany. The Fania Fenelon of Playing for Time is more than a survivor: she is a tough, generous woman with an aura of eccentric sanctity. The part demands an actress of profound force and intelligence. Redgrave is that actress. Surrendering herself to the part, she has created a giving, living exemplar of human strength under pressure. Fania Fenelon should be proud.
—By Richard Corliss