Unmade Movies: Arthur Miller's The Hook

Oct 7, 2024 2:18 PM

Author:Arthur Miller,Full Cast,Elliot Cowan,Tim Pigott-Smith,David Suchet

Arthur Miller's unproduced screenplay about a 1950s Brooklyn dock worker who takes a stand against corruption, directed by Adrian Noble

The annals of movie history are full of lost treasures - spectacular scripts from world-renowned writers that could have been classics, had they only been made. Now, for the first time, some of these forgotten gems have been brought to life, fully realised as vivid, cinematic radio productions. Scripted by major 20th Century writers, including Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Alfred Hitchcock and Dennis Potter, they star a host of A-list actors and feature richly evocative, atmospheric soundtracks.

The Hook, one of seven 'unmade movies' available on audio, is set in New York's docks in 1951, where hundreds of longshoremen queue up at dawn hoping to be given a counter and a place in the day's gang. It's hard, dangerous work, but in a world ruled by corrupt union bosses on the take, they have no choice but to accept it. Then a tragedy occurs, and one man, Marty Ferrara, decides to fight back...

Arthur Miller was America's leading post-war playwright, but his credits also include several successful movie scripts, among them the 1961 classic The Misfits. Developed with Elia Kazan, The Hook was shelved when Miller refused to comply with Columbia Pictures' demands that he make the corrupt union bosses Communists. However, it went on to inspire both Kazan's On the Waterfront and Miller's A View from the Bridge. This dazzling production marks director Adrian Noble's radio debut, and stars Elliot Cowan (Lost in Austen) as Marty, withTim Pigott-Smith (The Jewel in the Crown) as Farragut. It is narrated by David Suchet, who flawlessly reads Miller's directions, describing the action we can't see. Gritty, powerful and resonant, this rediscovered masterpiece will have you hooked from beginning to end.

Production credits

Written by Arthur Miller

Adapted for radio by Laurence Bowen

Directed by Adrian Noble

Produced by Laurence Bowen

Sound Design: Wilfredo Acosta

A Feelgood Fiction production for BBC Radio 4

Cast

Narrator - David Suchet

Marty - Elliot Cowan

Louis - Nigel Lindsay

Rocky - Michael Feast

Farragut - Tim Pigott-Smith

Piggy - Nathan Wiley

Enzo - Jonathan Guy Lewis

Sleeper - Kerry Shale

Therese - Joanne Pearce

Old Dominic - Vincent Riotta

Mama - Lorelei King

Irene - Hollie Burgess

Pete - Leo Heller

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 17 October 2015

(p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

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—— Irish Independent

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