The Name of the Game: The White Birch

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The White Birch ranks 0 out of all 118,840 episodes (of all shows) on TV.com.

The Name of the Game fans have written a total of 1 reviews of The White Birch.

Air Date

November 29, 1968

Production Code

Unknown

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  3 Bad

  As the Russian tanks invade Czechoslovakia in August, 1968, Glenn Howard has the chance to smuggle out of the country an inflammatory manuscript by a famous writer. hide show

  This was an atrocious episode, and coming only three months after the whole world had been horrified by the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, it seemed appallingly exploitative and tasteless. For a time, it looked as if World War III might be starting, and we got this dumb, cliched piece of simplistic Cold War propaganda. The episode actually has nothing whatever to do with Czechoslovakia - it's inspired by the story of how Italian publisher Feltrinelli smuggled the manuscript of "Doctor Zhivago" out of Russia - and the script was clearly subjected to a few, small last-minute alterations to adapt it to the Czech situation. The famous writer is called "Mikhail Orlov" - a Russian, not Czech, name. The other Czech characters are the usual "Russki" stereotypes. There is an excellent performance by Boris Karloff (very near the end of his life) as the novelist, but he is required to play a cliche. No-one British will be able to accept Roddy McDowall's dreadful performance as a Carnaby Street-clad swinging Londoner!

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  orswel Added Apr 17, 2009 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Jean Pierre Aumont Emile
  • Susan Oliver Tatiana
  • Roddy McDowall Philip Saxon
  • Louise Sorel Marie
  • Boris Karloff Mikhail Orlov
  • Lilia Skala Madame Orlov
  • Richard Jaeckel Melchek
  • Robert Wolders Dubrek
  • Pete Duel Chernin
  • Malila Saint Duval Hedrika Heldjob

• Stars

  • Susan Saint James Peggy Maxwell
  • Gene Barry Glenn Howard
  • Robert Stack Dan Farrell
  • Ben Murphy Joe Sample
  • Cliff Potter Andy Hill
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• this is Boris Karloff's last acting appearance. Allthough the principal players appear to be traveling abroad, this is actually filmed at UNIVERSAL's backlot. Music by Oliver Nelson [edit]

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