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still The Slender Thread (Sydney Pollack, US 1965)

The Slender Thread

Sydney Pollack / US, 1965 / 98 min.

Emergency switchboard volunteer Alan (Sidney Poitier) gets a call from a desperate woman who has taken an overdose and refuses to reveal her name or location. Alan cajoles, orders and begs in order to keep the woman on the line in a heart-pumping race to save her life.

poster The Slender Thread (Sydney Pollack, US 1965)
Sydney Pollack made his directing debut with this taut suspense drama, based on a real-life incident reported in Time Magazine. Sidney Poitier is superb as Alan Nuell, a student and volunteer in a medical clinic in Seattle. He’s hoping for an uneventful night so he can get some studying done. But he answers an incoming call and is confronted by Inge Dyson (Anne Bancroft) on the line.

Details

Director

Sydney Pollack

Production year

1965

Country

US

Original title

The Slender Thread

Length

98 min.

Language

English

Subtitles

NONE

Format

DCP

Part of

Sidney Poitier & Denzel Washington

Sidney Poitier was Denzel Washington’s shining example. The actors were good friends, but never played in a film together. This summer, Eye brings them together on the big screen for the first time by showing the best of their films.

Learn more
still In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, US 1967)
still The Slender Thread (Sydney Pollack, US 1965)
still The Slender Thread (Sydney Pollack, US 1965)
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    American Avant-Garde Film in the 1960s

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