JOHN O'HARA'S GIBBSVILLE: THE TURNING POINT OF JIM MALLOY (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television movie, based on John O'Hara's semi-autobiographical collection of stories, "The Doctor's Son," tells the story of Jim Malloy, a young man who returns to his home town of Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, in disgrace after being kicked out of Yale. From the moment he steps off of the train, Jim clashes with his father, the stern, respected town doctor who is humiliated by his son's expulsion, the latest in a long series of scandalous incidents. Jim is charged with taking the newly arrived Doctor Enright on his father's rounds in the course of a severe flu epidemic after Doctor Malloy collapses from exhaustion. Jim is reunited on these outings with his first love Edith Evans, who breaks off with him because of his immaturity -- but not before asking him a favor which results in further alienation from his father. Desperate to prove his worth to his father and to the town, Jim takes a job at the local newspaper, where he is treated as a contemptible janitor/errand boy on the basis of his reputation as a delinquent. There Jim befriends Ray Whitehead, a once internationally admired journalist turned drunken town joke. Jim eventually proves himself as a reporter, but his life is rocked by a sex/murder scandal which tangentially involves him, and by Edith's news that she is engaged to a respectable young man. Doctor Malloy is heartened to receive a letter welcoming Jim back to Yale, but the budding young writer is torn between pleasing his father by returning to school and the promise of making his own destiny alone in New York. Commercials deleted.
(This program contains minor technical problems. This represents the best copy of this program currently available to the Museum.)
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: April 12, 1975 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:04:39
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T89:0194
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1975
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- David Gerber … Executive Producer
- Peter Katz … Producer
- James H. Brown … Producer
- Robert Mintz … Associate Producer
- Frank D. Gilroy … Director, Writer
- John O'Hara … Based on short stories by
- Johnny Mandel … Music by
- John Savage … Cast, Jim Malloy
- McGuire, Biff (See also: McGuire, William Biff) … Cast, Dr. Mike Malloy
- Peggy McCay … Cast, Mrs. Malloy
- Gig Young … Cast, Ray Whitehead
- Kathleen Quinlan … Cast, Edith Evans
- Janis Paige … Cast, Lonnie
- Allan Miller … Cast, Dr. Enright
- Frank Campanella … Cast, Lintzie
- John McLiam … Cast, Mr. Kelly
- Rosalind Miles … Cast, Bo-Peep
- Janis Hansen … Cast, Terry
- Sarah Cunningham … Cast, Mrs. Ingram
- Noah Keen … Cast, Mr. Evans
- Dolores Dorn … Cast, Mrs. Evans
- John Hoyt … Cast, Mr. Longden
- Robert Ginty … Cast, Arthur Pond
- Wallace Rooney … Cast, Mr. Winfield
- Ivor Francis … Cast, Mr. Pell
- Byron Morrow … Cast, Mr. Conrad
- John Durren … Cast, Officer Dorelli
- Bobby Johnson … Cast, the Bellman
- Betty Cole … Cast, the Maid
- Meg Wyllie … Cast, the Irish Woman
- Joseph George … Cast, the Desk Sergeant
- Charles Alvin Bell … Cast, the Conductor
- George Reynolds … Cast, the Bartender
- Fredric Franklyn … Cast, the Reporter
- Gloria Manners … Cast, the Woman Reporter