Studio One (TV Series) The Trial of John Peter Zenger (1953) User Reviews

Behind Every Good Man . . ."

[PamSwear · 7/10 · 27 July 2016]

There stands a great woman, and this is no less the case in this "Studio One in Hollywood" production of "The Trial of John Peter Zenger". There are two (2) actors in this TV film that stand out more than any other performers and make this episode worth 59 minutes of your time: Frederick Worlock as Mr. Andrew Hamilton,the attorney for Zenger, and Marian Seldes as Mrs. Anna Zeger. Seldes's performance gave me goosebumps. Both professionally-trained actors, the proof is in their focus, concentration, and passion - you truly feel that they believe every word they've uttered.

Narrowing it down to this one thing, I'd say Seldes's performance makes this episode stand out from so many of the others. I found myself looking forward to each scene in which she appeared.

Colonial America sets the standard for freedom.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 10 August 2016]

A real life newspaper man, John Peter Zenger stood up to the injustices of British rule in regards to printing the truth and ended up in prison as a result of his "rebellion". Eddie Albert plays the title role, but the real credit here goes to young Marian Seldes, a future stage legend, who plays his loyal wife, standing by him and continuing to fight when everything seems hopeless. She risks everything for him while the pompous British governors treat Albert with disdain and complete inhumanity. This is just one example of both the determination of early Americans to expose the irrational way they were treated by the mother country and the determination of early T.V. producers to tell important stories, this one to my knowledge never presented in any other form than this. That makes this Studio One episode to be a bit above the others, and quite well presented in spite of its antique technologies. Freedom of the press may have been stretched over the years, but this presents the facts in an important manner that gives question to the modern methods of journalism.

Well done--and an unfortunately forgotten episode in our history.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 18 July 2012]

"Studio One" was an amazing show. Each episode was a live teleplay--like a mini-movie performed in one take on national television. Many of the shows were wonderful plays that later went on to become movie classics (such as "12 Angry Men")--and of the several dozen episodes I have seen (many are not now available), they have been uniformly excellent.

While "The Trial of John Peter Zenger" is not one of the more famous episodes in this series, it's among the best. It's about a real episode of American history--one that laid the foundations for our First Amendment and its guarantee of freedom of the press. In the mid-1700s in Colonial America, it seems that a publisher, Zenger, printed a newspaper critical of the Royal Governor of New York. While the articles were essentially true, Zenger was jailed for eight months without a trial. When he finally was tried, he was accused of libel--though his lawyer was able to establish the concept that libel can only apply when the written words are untrue--and the case was dismissed. In this teleplay, Eddie Albert played Zenger but the real standout was the man who played his lawyer, Mr. Hamilton (John W. Austin). Austin's performance was magnetic--and when he got wound up, you really are mesmerized by his eloquence. Well worth seeing--and very well made.