SACCO-VANZETTI STORY, THE {PART 1 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
This two-part drama depicts the arrest and murder trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the 1920s through re-enactment of key events and testimony and voice-over narration by various characters. In part one, Sacco and Vanzetti are seen in their jail cells, followed by a flashback to a robbery/murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Questionable police work leads to the arrest of the two political activists in an anti-communist raid. The district attorney of Plymouth and Norfolk counties, Frederick Katzman, questions the two men; Sacco is held for trial, while Vanzetti is charged, tried, and convicted of another crime. On May 31, 1921, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti for the South Braintree robbery/murder begins, with Judge Webster Thayer presiding. Narration and re-enactment show witnesses changing their stories. Popular support builds for the defendants. Improprieties on the parts of prosecutor Katzman and Judge Thayer are conveyed, and the narrator sums up questionable aspects of the trial. Part one ends as the jury returns with a guilty verdict. Part two opens with Sacco and Vanzetti discussing their situation in their cells. Attorney William Thompson takes on their case. Despite new evidence, however, Judge Thayer denies Thompson's motion for a new trial. (Part two continues on T87:0486.) Commercials deleted. Includes a message from the sponsor, the Purex Corporation.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: June 3, 1960 Friday 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:01
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T87:0485
- GENRE: Docudrama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Docudrama; Trials (murder)
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1960
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Robert Alan Arthur … Executive Producer
- Alex March … Producer
- Sidney Lumet … Director
- Ben Grauer … Narrator
- Reginald Rose … Writer, Teleplay by
- Martin Balsam … Cast, Nicola Sacco
- Steven Hill … Cast, Bartolomeo Vanzetti
- Frank Campanella … Cast, the Prison Guard
- Dana Elcar … Cast, the Newspaperman
- Stuart Germain … Cast, Judge Webster Thayer
- Carroll O'Connor … Cast, Frederick Katzman
- E.G. Marshall … Cast, William Thompson
- Bartolomeo Vanzetti
- Michael A. Musmanno
- Nicola Sacco
- Webster Thayer