My last review was badly flawed, for two reasons. For one thing, it was based on fragmentary memories of an old book of classic television plays that I read when I was 13 or 14. More inexcusably, I ascribed the script to its director, Delbert Mann, rather than its real author, the brilliant Alvin Sapinsly. I finally saw it. It is on the second DVD of the excellent E1 release, Omnibus: James Agee's Mr. Lincoln and The Civil War. It was very, very good. The verse may have been imitation Stephen Vincent Benet, but it was still verse, metrical,, well rhymed, and fluent. The acting was superb. Above all, James Daly was a revelation- a better Lee Than Martin Sheen, and fully equal to Robert Duvall. Don Gordon, who usually played gangsters and cops, was great as Longstreet, while Dark Shadows fans may notice Dr. Lang, Addison Powell, playing Pickett. In short, this WAS one of the greatest things ever put on Television.
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