Out of Focus

“A love letter to Miss Liberty and the Bill of Rights,” purred Jimmy Wechsler of the New York Post. Brendan Gill of the New Yorker called it “a precious document of American history.” “The greatest sustained drama . . . ever put on display,” exulted Alton Cook of the World Telegram, leaving this reviewer wondering whether cultural literacy is a job requirement for World Telegram critics.

They were all talking about Point of Order!, a 97-minute filmed synopsis of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. It may not accomplish much else, but this movie has certainly given some of Manhattan’s more tired critics a new lease on life. Not since Richard Rovere brewed up a heady potion of spleen in his posthumous “biography,” Senator Joe McCarthy, has there been such fun. As witness:

JM

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J. Daniel Mahoney

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“A love letter to Miss Liberty and the Bill of Rights,” purred Jimmy Wechsler of the New York Post. Brendan Gill of the New Yorker called it “a precious document of American history.” “The greatest sustained drama . . . ever put on display,” exulted Alton Cook of the World Telegram, leaving this reviewer wondering whether cultural literacy is a job requirement for World Telegram critics.

They were all talking about Point of Order!, a 97-minute filmed synopsis of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. It may not accomplish much else, but this movie has certainly given some of Manhattan’s more tired critics a new lease on life. Not since Richard Rovere brewed up a heady potion of spleen in his posthumous “biography,” Senator Joe McCarthy, has there been such fun. As witness: