WUSA (1970)

68% of users liked it
(73 ratings)

Paul Newman served as co-producer of this allegorical drama and stars as Rheinhardt, a opportunistic drifter who ends up in New Orleans and hits up his old friend Farley (Laurence Harvey), a con man-turned-phony preacher, for a job. Farley is able to get Rheinhardt hired on as an announcer at a… More Paul Newman served as co-producer of this allegorical drama and stars as Rheinhardt, a opportunistic drifter who ends up in New Orleans and hits up his old friend Farley (Laurence Harvey), a con man-turned-phony preacher, for a job. Farley is able to get Rheinhardt hired on as an announcer at a local radio station, WUSA, but the station is a right-wing propaganda mill that devotes its air time to venomous tirades against political and social progress. Rheinhardt is happy to be making decent money, and he makes the friendly acquaintance of a local working girl, Geraldine (Joanne Woodward), so he refuses to look his gift horse in the mouth. However, when he finds out that WUSA is actually involved in shadowy political actions, he is at a loss for what to do, especially after a naïve and troubled social worker (Anthony Perkins) is tricked into starting a race riot. Robert Stone wrote the screenplay, adapted from his novel A Hall of Mirrors. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 55 min.
Directed By: Stuart Rosenberg
Genres: Drama, Classics

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
It's too bad that the execution of this Paul Newman starring film is so poor for it raises some interesting social and political issues
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...serves as a nostalgia-inducing oddity, a kind of scrapbook of American sensibility at the end of the 1960s, a time when there really were people ... who believed we were on the brink of revolution
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
... the film hammers home its politics with blunt force yet leaves the conspiracy drama vague, more symbolic gesture of outrage than convincing plot.
John Lingan, Slant Magazine
WUSA predicts the right's coming media dominance while greatly overestimating the conservative movement's slyness, subtlety, and respect for their own audience.

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Cast

            Paul Newman as Rheinhardt

            Joanne Woodward as Geraldine

            Anthony Perkins as Rainey

            Laurence Harvey as Farley

            Pat Hingle as Bingamon

            Don Gordon as Bogdanovich

            Michael Anderson Jr. as Marvin

            Leigh French as Girl

            Cloris Leachman as Philomene

            Moses Gunn as Clotho

            Wayne Rogers as Minter

            Robert Quarry as Noonan

            Skip Young as Jimmy Snipe

            Tol Avery as Senator

            Hal Baylor as Shorty

            Lucille Benson as Matron

            Jim Boles as Hot Dog Vendor

            Bruce Cabot as King Wolyoe

            Zara Cully as White-Haired Woman

            Louis Gossett Jr
            
            Paul Hampton as Rusty Fargo

            David Huddleston as Heavy Man

            Clifton James as Speed

            Diane Ladd as Barmaid at Railroad Station

            B.J. Mason as Roosevelt Berry

            Preservation Hall Jazz Band as Themselves

            Sahdji as Hollywood

            Geoffrey Edwards as Irving

            Susan Batson as Teenaged Girl

            Geraldine West
            
See full cast