tavm In continuing to review movies featuring African-Americans in chronological order for Black History Month, we're once again at 1965 with another of Sidney Poitier's releases from that year. Here, he's Alan Newell-one of his few roles in which race is not an issue, a lone operator at the crisis prevention center in Seatle, Washington. He doesn't expect much service since the initial call is some barber complaining about his job but suddenly a woman who we find out is one Inga Dyson (Anne Bancroft) is on another line and talks about ending it all. I'll stop there and just say this was quite a compelling drama with excellent performances by both of the leads and crisp direction by Sydney Pollack on his first feature film. And they're surrounded by many good supporting turns by Telly Savalas as Dr. Joe Coburn, Edward Asner as Det. Judd Ridley, and Steven Hill as Inga's husband Mark. Other faces you may be familiar with that appear in smaller roles include Jason Wingreen and Dabney Coleman without his famous mustache. Other than a couple of extras in a dance scene, the only other person of color involved here is composer Quincy Jones on his first Poitier project. He work is excellent throughout the film. So on that note, I highly recommend The Slender Thread. P.S. Jones, like me, is a Chicago native.

Barbara Donahue My late father, Donald J."Bud" Donahue and my sister, Sandy Donahue ( now Bernard) were extras....since my father was part of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce,at 2nd and Columbia streets, where the office scenes were filmed, he asked that we have small walk-on parts...my father was the "coffee cart guy" and my sister was beside him at the file cabinet....I got a role that entailed walking behind the amazing Bancroft as she talked with Kay Doubleday...it was SO much easier said that done....cables, cords and wires were covering the floors....I did succeed...it was So brief. When my sister and I went to the screening at a very small "theatre", we were so amazed at how the story took shape and the importance of mental health crises programs are in real life. I think that due in a large part to my introduction to the mental health issues shown in The Slender Thread, I began my work in day therapy programs for schools and continue working with high schoolers who might be "at risk".Seattle was beautiful, as always, yet the continuity for those of us who grew up in Seattle was a bit of a stretch...trying to determine how the protagonists moved from one neighborhood to another in mere minutes.....it was fun to critique. It was laughable, yet serious.I have since viewed this "dated" movie many times and am returned to a time much simpler..where people showed much empathy and truly cared for the well-being of others...without regard to personal gain...To me THAT is the value of this timeless movie...timeless in regard to social values it demonstrates..those values Never go out of style..for this reason this movie will never be "dated" to me.

howdymax I remember seeing this movie some years ago and it stayed with me. When it popped up again on TCM I made it a point to record it so I could pay closer attention to it. I hate to say that I was a little disappointed. Some of the more obvious and unavoidable problems you can chalk up to the age of the movie. 1965 was rife with mop-haired nerds and white-booted chicks doing the jerk-agogo or whatever the hell we did back then. The whining, blues tainted horns of the Quincy Jones score seems dated as well.A young wife, played to perfection by Anne Bancroft, has a dark secret. When her husband discovers her indiscretion, she begins to retreat into her own, dark, guilt-filled space. As time goes by, her husband becomes distant and judgmental while she plunges deeper and deeper into depression. She loses all hope of reconstructing her life, checks into a motel and chucks down a cocktail of pills.This is when the movie gets interesting. She calls in to a crisis hot-line because she has no one else to talk to and doesn't want to die alone. As luck would have it, she reaches a student volunteer played by Sidney Poitier. The rest of the story is a frantic search to find her before the pills do the business. As she babbles on the phone, we are treated to flashback after flashback telling us her story.The movie is a bumpy ride. While the director concentrates on those tense scenes where the rescue team is trying to trace the victim, we find our muscles tensing and our eyes tearing, wishing they knew what we know. At other times, we get to know the players oh so much more than we need to. There is a scene where we get to watch Anne Bancroft staring into a pool for what seems like forever. Very arty - but very boring. This is not an action flick, and I don't want to sound impatient, but a little less art and a little more action wouldn't hurt.Anne Bancroft plays her part to perfection. At times she is seductive, confused, disturbed, and profoundly sad. She hit almost every emotion in the book, and hit the mark every time. On the other hand, Sidney Poitier seems to be angry, explosive, almost seething in his emotional display. I know it's heresy, but I just didn't think he was very good. I could envision any number of actors that would have been more believable. I don't know how much to blame him as opposed to Sidney Pollack who directed. It all depends on who had control, but the end result was disappointing. I accidentally gave this movie a 6. On reflection, I think I'll jack that up to an 8. Sidney Poitier aside, it was still a good movie.

mchaun-1 I haven't seen "The Tender Thread" but am certain it was a knock off of a much earlier TV version. Sidney Poitier was in that one too, but to the best of my recollection, there was only one set, the hotline phone room. The basic plot seems similar to your commentator's impressions of Tender Thread, but in the end, they get hold of the husband and work him over pretty good for getting mad about his wife's deceit and blame him for Moms feeble suicide attempt. I consider the earlier version the beginning of the lunatic notion that a man should be responsible for another's children. Monte Haun