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QUIZ SHOW
January 6, 2014  | By David Bianculli

Flix, 8:00 p.m. ET

 

It’s now been 20 years since Robert Redford directed this 1994 examination of the quiz show scandals of the Fifties. I show portions of this movie in my TV History class at Rowan University, not only to bring that era and topic to life, but to point out that Redford, in this retelling, manipulated things for the sake of entertainment just as the producers and sponsors of the tainted games shows did. That does not, however, detract from the film’s overall effect, or from the fine performances, especially by John Turturro and Ralph Fiennes as, respectively, rival Twenty-One contestants Herb Stempel and Charles Van Buren.

 
 
 
 
 
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