poe-48833 From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY by Ambrose Bierce: "HARANGUE, n. A speech by an opponent, who is known as an harangue-outang." We've crossed a Line, here in this company (the "united $tate$"), where "alternative facts" (LIES) are disseminated daily and Fat Cat Fascism is The Order of the Day. Fat Cat Fascists: CASHists. Alternative facts: ALTFAX, in Newspeak. At the head of it all, to quote Orwell, "some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilization." (Just the other day, we were told that a "massacre" had taken place in Bowling Green, Kentucky- "The Bowling Green Massacre," it was dubbed. Only it didn't happen. It was all a LIE. An "alternative fact" from, apparently, an Alternative Universe...) (From the book, by George Orwell: "She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her.") (And: "The heresy of heresies was common sense.") In this particular video version of George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, Donald Pleasance, in a small part as Syne, has one of my favorite lines. When he suspects that Big Brother suspects him of Thoughtcrime, he blurts: "Was it something I said...?" "Forget what you've forgotten," Peter Cushing as Winston Smith suggests. But therein lies the rub: short of lobotomies all around, is such a thing even possible...? With 65 MILLION refugees from War(s) and Global Warming knocking on the door hoping to be let in, we're already well past the Tipping Point. (Orwell: "Do you know what time of day it is?") What this company needs is competent Leadership (if such a thing exists), although such talk could get you kil-

MartinHafer This is the fourth and probably the best version of "1984" that I have seen. There's a decent version with Edmund O'Brien that is hard to find, one made for TV ("Studio One") and the more recent version with Richard Harris and John Hurt but for me, this made for TV British version is best for three main reasons. First, Peter Cushing was a dandy actor and did a fine job. Second, the book was set in London and the British accents made it work better than the American versions. Third, despite the very, very small budget, the cheap sets worked just fine--as they were able to provide an appropriate level of greyness for the story. A bigger budget really couldn't have helped in this way. Overall, it's well worth seeing and is available for free download at archive.org--a website frequently linked to IMDb.

wnstn_hmltn Teaming the ultimate speculative-fiction scenarist (Nigel Kneale) with two of the most monumental actors to have ever had a command of the Queen's English (Peter Cushing and Andre Morell) has resulted in a dynamic trio striking this unflinching rendition of the Orwell classic with sparks aplenty. Later to become living legends over at Hammer Films (particularly Cushing), it was this momentous pairing of Morell and Cushing that led the Hammer powers-that-be to reunite them seven years later in the truly remarkable "Cash on Demand" (see my review). The lovely, inscrutable Yvonne Mitchell acquits herself well as Cushing's forbidden love interest, and the atmosphere of foreboding and dread is so thick you could cut it. Last but not least, watching Kneale apply his inimitable touch to Orwell's concepts is a tremendously exciting foretaste of the wholly original yarns he would later spin ("Quatermass," etc. ) A superlative production all the way around.....don't miss it!

hugh1971 I had heard of this programme but never seen it so was very pleased when BBC4 screened it recently. In many ways the play was shockingly 'modern' with its allusions to sex and pornography...even the word 'orgasm' is mentioned which must have caused a few raised eyebrows in English drawing rooms! ('ask your father, dear....')What struck me more though was how BBC drama has changed since this was broadcast in 1954. While the production values are minimal (the sets of Victory Mansions for example look like something out of a primary school play, and the opening 'exterior' shot of the Ministry of Love looks like it was drawn with crayon) the acting is superb and unlike anything you would get on a modern tv drama. The sense of claustrophobia is intense and the 'stagey' feel adds to this. Cushing is brilliant as are the majority of the cast. While set in 1984 the atmosphere is clearly that of bombed out, austere post war London - the dinner lady 'Them's stew with salt; them's stew without' has an Edwardian proletarian twang which has now utterly gone from English speech. My one dislike was the scene when the 'proles' were reading a pornographic book - this looked like three RADA students pretending to be 'common'. Wilfred Brambell as the old man was suspiciously like 'Steptoe' - did Galton and Simpson get the idea from this, I wonder...!And Orwell's story comes across excellently - the sense of hopelessness in the face of grinding totalitarianism - he would have been proud.