PLAYHOUSE 90: THE RANK AND FILE (TV)
Summary
One in this dramatic anthology series. In this drama, written by Rod Serling, Van Heflin stars as Bill Kilcoyne, a hapless alcoholic factory worker who, through a remarkable set of circumstances, finds his voice as a local union president. As Kilcoyne rises to national prominence, he begins a parallel descent into a world of greed, corruption, and inhumanity. Set primarily in the present at a Senate hearing into Kilcoyne's mob ties and racketeering at which an arrogant, bemused Kilcoyne and his former associates testify, the story of his rise to power unfolds in flashback sequences. In the first sequence, set years earlier, a drunken Bill Kilcoyne meets union organizer Irving Werner at a gathering of striking workers from the factory at which Kilcoyne works. On the picket line the next day, Kilcoyne is sobered and radicalized by a confrontation at the factory gates with a guard who calls him a "rummy" and breaks both his hands with his nightstick. His bloodied hands bandaged, Kilcoyne immediately becomes a symbol of worker repression. Werner capitalizes on this and nominates him as local president, to the cheers of the workers. Battling his own insecurities about his lack of education, Kilcoyne meets with the intimating factory owner, Harker, and his Ivy League minions and, after making strong threats of union solidarity, wins a raise for the men. With this victory, Kilcoyne's career is born and his ambitious nature awakened. In the next flashback, set some time later, in 1946, Kilcoyne has been sent to another city to organize a local tool and die factory. He gets word from Werner that, if he can get the factory workers to join their national union, it seems highly probable that Kilcoyne will be elected national vice-president at the next day's convention. The elated Kilcoyne suffers a setback, however, when he learns that the machinists have been scared off by local mobster Tony Russo, who has a hold on the factory. At the cost of the respect of his longtime friend Andy Kovaric, and his own integrity, Kilcoyne makes a deal with Russo, granting the gangster control of the local if the workers are encouraged to join the national union. Later, Kilcoyne reacts angrily when Werner and national union officials call him in for a reprimand because of his involvement with Russo. When they tell him they want him to pull out of contention for national office, he strikes back with threats of blackmail against Werner, who has a skeleton in his closet. Werner's career is destroyed in a matter of minutes; and at the convention, Kilcoyne is elected national vice-president. In the final flashback, set shortly before the hearings, Kilcoyne now heads his own independent union. He unwittingly orders the death of an old friend, when some incriminating papers disappear from his office and he sends Russo out to retrieve them and eliminate the thief. This murder is the breaking-point for Gabe Brewster, another close friend and longtime associate of Kilcoyne's, who decides to testify against him at the Senate hearings, in spite of Kilcoyne's threats to destroy him. Includes commercials, a promo, and a public service announcement.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: May 28, 1959 Thursday 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:28:13
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T88:0050
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Trade-unions - Drama
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1956-1961
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Ansco Anscochrome color film
- TV - Commercials - Ansco Cadet camera
- TV - Commercials - Camel cigarettes
- TV - Commercials - Delsey bathroom tissue
- TV - Commercials - Helene Curtis Enden dandruff shampoo
- TV - Commercials - Helene Curtis Tempo hairspray
- TV - Commercials - Kleenex tissues
- TV - PSA - Your Gas Company
- TV - Promos - "Playhouse 90: The Killers of Mussolini"
CREDITS
- Herbert Brodkin … Producer
- Herbert Hirschman … Associate Producer
- Russell Stoneham … Associate Producer
- Franklin Schaffner … Director
- Rod Serling … Writer
- Joy Munnecke … Story Consultant
- Jerry Goldsmith … Composer, Conductor
- Paul Coates … Host
- Dick Joy … Announcer
- Van Heflin … Cast, Bill Kilcoyne
- Luther Adler … Cast, Irving Werner
- Harry Townes … Cast, Gabe Brewster
- Charles Bronson … Cast, Andy Kovaric
- Prud'homme, Cameron (Prudhomme, Cameron) … Cast, Joseph Farrell
- Carl Benton Reid … Cast, Senator Henders
- Bruce Gordon … Cast, Tony Russo
- Whitney Blake … Cast, Martha Brewster
- Addison Richards … Cast, Harker
- Wright King … Cast, Riley
- Tom Palmer … Cast, Eaton
- Danny Richards … Cast, Charlie Hacker
- Joe Sullivan … Cast, the Union Man
- Clegg Hoyt … Cast, the Guard
- Bruce Hall … Cast, Dickson
- Henry Barnard … Cast, the Secretary
- Alfred Hopson … Cast, a Striker
- Jay Overholts … Cast, a Striker
- Robert Cass … Cast, a Striker