TV Reviews : Odets’ ‘The Big Knife’ Doesn’t Cut It as Theater

In “The Big Knife,” Clifford Odets compares a movie star, enslaved to his studio by an unsavory incident in his past, to Hamlet and Macbeth. But after watching the “American Playhouse” rendition of this 1949 play (tonight at 9 on Channels 28 and 15), the more appropriate comparison would be with the tormented hunks who stalk through the daytime soap operas.

True, a good-looking movie star in 1949 was probably as close to royalty as anyone in America. But except for one brief scene, when the star (Peter Gallagher) watches himself in one of his earlier movies, Odets didn’t offer much of a glimpse into the glory that was Hollywood, instead focusing obsessively on the dark side. From the beginning, the tone is somber, foreboding, heavy-handed.

“What’s next on our sordid agenda?” asks one of the characters in an all too appropriate line.

That agenda does include a juicy role for a truly reprehensible movie mogul, and Nehemiah Persoff plays it to the hilt. As his slimy assistant, Harry Ditson also etches a vivid portrait of corporate creepiness. Stubby Kaye and Irene Worth contribute strong cameos as an agent and a gossip queen.

But it’s difficult to work up much concern for the movie star himself. The language doesn’t help; Odets’ attempts to rise to poetic grandeur misfire laughably. At one point, the star tells his accusing wife (Betsy Brantley): “You throw this handful of naked pigeons in my face. . . . What can I say?”

Generally the dialogue is simply mundane rather than colorful, and a soapy-sounding musical score underlines the banality of it all. John Jacobs directed.