Daniel *** (1983, Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Barkin) – Classic Movie Review 11,593

Director Sidney Lumet’s 1983 drama Daniel is written by E L Doctorow (Ragtime and Billy Bathgate, adapted from his own 1971 novel The Book of Daniel, and stars Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner and Ellen Barkin. The film is based on the life story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted as Soviet spies.

For once, director Lumet leaves cops, robbers and police corruption out of this story of the children of parents (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in real life, here called Paul and Rochelle Isaacson) who were convicted as spies and executed in the electric chair by the US government in 1953 for giving nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.

Hutton plays their fictionalised 1960s son Daniel desperate to find out the truth about his parents in an attempt to cure his sister’s schizophrenia. Paul and Rochelle Isaacson are played by Mandy Patinkin and Lindsay Crouse. Daniel’s wife Phyllis is played by Ellen Barkin, and the Isaacsons’ fictional daughter Susan is played by Amanda Plummer. In fact the Rosenbergs had two sons, Michael and Robert.

Too liberal for its own good, this film should have been more incisive and determined rather than just being an affecting melodrama with political overtones. But it is still very worthwhile for the fine, high-quality acting, especially by Hutton, and the always intriguing, involving story.

Also in the cast are Tovah Feldshuh, Julie Bovasco, Joseph Leon, Amanda Plummer, John Rubinstein, Maria Tucci. Peter Friedman, Lee Richardson, and Carmen Mathews.

It was not a box office success on its limited release, taking only $687,475.

RIP Edward Asner.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,593

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