An Error in Chemistry
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{{Infobox television episode
| series = Climax!
| image =
| caption =
| season = 1
| episode = 7
| music =
| director = William H. Brown Jr.
| teleplay = David Dortort
| based_on = {{based on|An Error in Chemistry|William Faulkner}}
| presenter = William Lundigan
| photographer =
| airdate = {{Start date|1954|12|02}}
| guests =
| prev =
| next =
}}
"An Error in Chemistry" is a 1954 American television play based on the like-named William Faulkner story, which first appeared in the June 1946 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.Duvall, John N. (Spring 2017). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26831503 "'An Error in Chemistry': The Final Typescript"]. The Faulkner Journal. p. 1. It was the seventh episode of the anthology series Climax! and starred Edmond O'Brien as Joel Flint.
Cast
- Edmond O'Brien as Joel Flint
- Lon Chaney as Old Man Pritchell
- Douglas Kennedy as Uncle Gavin
- Tommy Ivo as Billy Sartoris
- Margaret Field as M'Liss
- James Bell as Sheriff
- Dan White as Ben Berry
- William Schallert as Young Farmer
Reception
Reviewing the episode for the New York Herald Tribune, John Crosby wrote, "this may have been the best television drama I have ever seen" (a fact he attributes equally to all parties concerned),{{Cite news|title=RADIO AND TELEVISION: Great Drama|author=Crosby, John|date=December 6, 1954|work=New York Herald Tribune|page=21|quote=The works of Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner seem wonderfully adaptable to television. I have seen two—the first, 'Barn Burning,' on the last of the Suspense programs [...] The other one was 'An Error in Chemistry' last Thursday night, and this may have been the best television drama I have ever seen.|id={{ProQuest|1322566286}}}} while Hollywood Reporter critic Milton Luban's equally emphatic thumbs-up focuses primarily on Brown's "beautiful directing job, from both performance and acting viewpoints, his crowd handling being masterful," and on O'Brien's "brillian[ce]."
O'Brien has turned in far too many brilliant performances to call this his best, but it certainly ranks close to it, [...] getting every nuance out of the role yet maintaining a certain inscrutability that keeps his motives a complete mystery until the bitterly ironic climax.{{Cite news|title=TV Review: 'Climax! – An Error in Chemistry'|author=Luban, Milton|date=December 3, 1954|work=The Hollywood Reporter|page=8|quote=From the opening moment showing a carnival scene crowded with spectators, it was hard to believe that, apart from the spontaneity, this was a live production. William H. Brown, Jr., did a beautiful directing job ...|id={{ProQuest|2338182185}}}}
Time magazine likewise singled out O'Brien's performance but deemed the story's climax "too forced and too trifling to support an hour show."[https://archive.org/details/time-1954-05-17/Time%201954-12-13/page/36/mode/2up?q=%22error+in+chemistry%22+Climax+%22edmond+o%27brien%22 "Radio & TV: The Week in Review; Brisk Gallop"]. Time Magazine. December 13, 1954. p. 36.
At the Seventh Annual Emmy Awards, adaptor David Dortort's script received a nomination for Best Written Dramatic Material.Michaell, Paul; Parish, James Robert (1970). [https://archive.org/details/emmyawardspictor00mich/page/308/mode/2up?q=%22error+in+chemistry%22+ The Emmy Awards; A Pictorial History]. New York: Crown Publishers. p. 308. {{LCCN|76108082}}.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0542654/ An Error in Chemistry] at IMDb
{{William Faulkner}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Error in Chemistry}}
Category:1954 television plays