WUSA (1970)

★ 5.3 1h 55m IMDb

Drama

Rheinhardt, a cynical drifter, gets a job as an announcer for right-wing radio station WUSA in New Orleans. Rheinhardt is content to parrot WUSA's reactionary editorial stance on the air, even if he doesn't agree with it. Rheinhardt finds his cynical detachment challenged by a lady friend, Geraldine, and by Rainey, a neighbour and troubled idealist who becomes aware of WUSA's sinister, hidden purpose. And when events start spinning out of control, even Rheinhardt finds he must take a stand.

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Cast

Paul Newman as Rheinhardt Died 2008 · Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver, auto racing team owner, and auto racing enthus...

Joanne Woodward as Geraldine Age 96 · Thomasville, Georgia, USA Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her performance in The Three Faces of Eve (1957), which earned...

Anthony Perkins as Rainey Died 1992 · New York City, New York, USA Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and his Oscar-nominated role in Friend...

Laurence Harvey as Farley Died 1973 · Jonischkis, Lithuania Laurence Harvey (1 October 1928 – 25 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films..

Don Gordon as Bogdanovich Died 2017 · Los Angeles, California, USA Don Gordon (November 13, 1926 – April 24, 2017) was an American film and television actor, best known for playing in feature films alongside his friend Steve McQueen, such as "Bullitt", "Papillon" an...

Director Stuart Rosenberg

Cast Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Perkins, Laurence Harvey, Don Gordon, Pat Hingle, Bruce Cabot, Cloris Leachman, Jerry Catron, Jim Boles

Wuchak 3/10 Mar 29, 2026

**_“I’m just trying to stay alive… and stay human”_**

This marked the reteaming of director Stuart Rosenber and Paul Newman after their success with “Cool Hand Luke” 2½ years earlier. Robert Stone wrote the script based on his 1967 book “A Hall of Mirrors,” which fleshes out several characters involved with the top issues of the era: rightwing-ism, civil rights, women’s liberation and the counterculture.

Newman stars as a disillusioned alcoholic who gets a job in The Big Easy working as a disc jockey at Conservative radio station, while Joanne Woodward plays his new gal pal, who honestly tries to get a job but often settles for prostitution. Anthony Perkins is on hand as their bleeding-heart neighbor who works as a welfare surveyor. The quality cast also includes Laurence Harvey, Pat Hingle, Cloris Leachman, Don Gordon and Moses Gunn.

It’s a Southern Gothic with moralizing in the tradition of Tennessee Williams’ “The Fugitive Kind” and Woodward’s “Rachel, Rachel” meshed with a bit o’ “The Manchurian Candidate.” The problem is that Stone made the dialogues too allusive. All of the characters speak in one way or another of the issues noted above, but never directly. It becomes tedious after a while. The production needed someone like Tennessee Williams to do a rewrite.

But the worst infraction is the disingenuous way the so-called Conservatives and their corresponding rally are depicted. So, the executive is trying to expose people scamming the welfare system, how exactly is this “propaganda”? Don’t taxpaying citizens deserve to know if their tax funds are fraudulently used? Shouldn’t they be righteously angry about this?

Then there’s the “white power” balloons at the rally. Why Sure! You’d actually never see “white power” emblems during that era but, by golly, you’d see “black power” symbols everywhere, even patches sold in comic books!

And what about the arena filled with 15,000 white supremacists in freakin’ New Orleans, a city that’s been a Dem stronghold for the previous hundred years, going back to 1872? Estimates of active Klan members in 1970 was actually less than 2000 people in the entire USA. Needless to say, this part of the film is guilty of complete detachment from reality. Patriotic or Conservative Americans actually value citizens of all colors in their movement.

Interestingly, someone criticized Laurence Harvey for his beard as the minister, but he actually looks a lot like East Texas-based Mike Murdock did in the 1980s-2000s. Speaking of Harvey’s character, would such a pastor working in the inner urban area of a blue city have no qualms about appearing at a televised rally with “white power” balloons in the air? Again, complete detachment from reality.

Yet, the film gets several things right, such as the irate Lib response to legit fraud exposure or the ultimate, immature way they handle political opponents (think the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, PA).

It runs 1h 55m and was shot in the spring of 1969 in New Orleans.

GRADE: D+