Classic Horrors Club

The great Edward G. Robinson was 77 years old when he made The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970), playing a man who was just turning 70. Age plays a big part in the movie, adding a layer of emotion to what’s already a gripping thriller. So compelling is Robinson’s performance that it’s one of the handful of 70s TV movies I distinctly remember watching when it first aired.

He plays Emil Pulska, a kindly man who has moved from the city to live in the ‘burbs with his son, Stanley (Martin Balsam) and his wife, Peggy (Diane Baker.) When he returns to visit his friend, Abe Stillman (Sam Jaffe), he witnesses him being brutally attacked and murdered, and then no one believes him. Most baffling is that a key witness, Mrs. Raspili (Naomi Stevens) claims she was in his store buying candy when Abe simply collapsed and died of a heart attack.

We’re in Emil’s shoes from the very beginning and throughout the film. We know what happened, so it’s as frustrating for us as it is for him that everyone thinks he’s suffering from what we might call today, “dementia.” You can’t really blame his son, the police, and Dr. Morheim (Edward Asher.) There’s not one piece of evidence to corroborate his story.

It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Emil is not losing his mind. Even if we think we’ve lost our minds as well and are witnessing imagined events, by the time Frank Jones (Percy Rodrigues) gives him a throat-cutting gesture on the street, there’s no doubt that he’s in grave danger if he doesn’t stop trying to find out why everyone he questions seems to be complicit in the crime.

In broad strokes, we learn the old neighborhood in which Emil grew up has changed. Shops are empty, glass is broken, trash lines the sidewalks. The Old Man Who Cried Wolf was filmed in the neighborhood of San Pedro in downtown Los Angeles. The decay was real. A few years later, the area was demolished for redevelopment. 

People have changed as well. They’ve given up, emerged from being jaded to simply accepting the downfall of their home. Even the children act as if they have no soul, throwing tin cans at Emil and lying to the police. Abe is like the last man standing, the one holdout who tries to survive in a new world within his store, yet maintain the atmosphere of the old.

Emil encounters actions and reactions unfamiliar to him, contributing to him not being taken seriously. So what happens? I didn’t remember the ending and it took me by surprise. I hadn’t realized how deeply involved I was in the story and the feelings it elicited from me until it was over. If you think the experience is going to be typical and the ending pre-determined, think again. And feel.