THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL
Starring Glenn Ford

This little-known TV movie stars one of Hollywood’s most enduring and most under-appreciated stars, Glenn Ford. I think Mr. Ford is incapable of giving a bad performance. Why he has not received a Life Achievement Award from the AFI or an honourary Oscar is beyond me. All I do know is that it is a crime he has not been recognized.

This is a very tense thriller shot with style and imagination. Despite a slightly unsatisfying ending, BELL keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The Brotherhood of the Bell is a secret organization of American men who have power and influence in both government and the upper echelons of business, education and society in general. Once sworn to secrecy as a member, to go against the Brotherhood is to risk ruin and ostracism. Glenn Ford’s character, after being asked to blackmail a University professor (which results in his suicide) has a crisis of conscience and determines to leave the Brotherhood and expose their evil ways.

Ford’s journey leads him down a path of paranoia and fear and he loses his job, his wife and almost his sanity in the process. Along the way he meets an assortment of interesting characters that may or may not be members of the Brotherhood.

Glenn Ford has an Everyman quality, which allows him to play the leading man within a range that can encompass heroes (the men we’d like to be) and average Joes (the men we essentially are). He conveys struggle with subtlety and effectiveness. Like all great actors, he draws you into his dilemma, not by imploring your participation, but by living it. The ever-beautiful Rosemary Forsythe plays Ford’s wife, caught between the man she loves and her father-in-law (Maurice Evans) who is also a member of the Brotherhood. Will Geer, in a very un-Grandpa Walton role, plays Ford’s father with brash strength and bluster.

Dean Jagger (an Oscar winner for the great war film 12 O’CLOCK HIGH) plays the chief villain with subtlety and menace. William Conrad even shows up as a sleazy television host who foreshadows the excesses of Jerry Springer and Howard Stern.

Intelligently written, boldly directed (with distorted angles and perspective-warping lenses), THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL is worth owning despite the only fair quality of the transfer to tape available from BELLE & BLADE. Again, Steve is very up front about this. This is not a studio dub. This is a dub of a dub of a dub, but Steve has tracked it down and made it available to Glenn Ford fans and fans of the subversive thriller genre. I was actually surprised to find it available through BELLE & BLADE since it is not a military film, but I’m glad they carry it. It’s yet another superb Glenn Ford performance that should not be missed.

Contact Belle & Blade Home Video! Visit their web site and Steve will gladly send you a catalogue. They also have books, audiotapes and other merchandise (T-shirts, etc.) Be sure to check them out and tell Steve that Einsiders sent you!

Jon Ted Wynne