Crisis at Central High

Crisis at Central High
Genre	Drama History
Written by	Elizabeth Huckaby (memoir) Richard Levinson William Link
Directed by	Lamont Johnson
Starring	Joanne Woodward Charles Durning Henderson Forsythe Calvin Levels William Russ Tamu Blackwell Shannon John Bonnie Pemberton
Music by	Billy Goldenberg
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Richard Levinson William Link David Susskind
Producer	Robert Papazian
Production locations	Dallas Central High School - 1500 Park Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Cinematography	Donald M. Morgan
Editor	John Wright
Running time	125 minutes
Production company	Time Life Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	February 4, 1981 (1981-02-04)

Crisis at Central High is a 1981 made-for-television movie about the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957, based on a draft of the memoir by the same name by former assistant principal Elizabeth Huckaby.

William Link and Richard Levinson wrote the screenplay and were executive producers together with David Susskind of Time-Life Productions. The film starred Joanne Woodward as Huckaby and told the events from that character's point of view, although one obituary at the time of Huckaby's death cited her as saying the TV-movie enlarged her role. Woodward was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special and a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, in 1981 and 1982 respectively.

Composite characters

Like many docudramas, Crisis included some composite characters; at least one reviewer (O'Connor) criticizes the vague disclaimer to that effect, arguing that in a piece about such controversial events, alterations to the truth should be identified more specifically. In addition to the creative license already mentioned with regard to her role in the crisis, Huckaby was reported to have said the film showed some events are out of sequence and slightly altered others.

Filming

The movie was filmed on location in Little Rock and at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas. Many local Dallas actors had featured roles in the film, including radio personality Suzie Humphreys, TV and theater actor Jerry Haynes, teacher and actress Irma P. Hall, and Theater Three director Norma Young, as well as Taylor, a native Dallasite who was attending Southern Methodist University at the time the film was being cast.

Critical reception

Reviewer John O'Connor of The New York Times observed, "In the end, of course, the real heroes of this piece are the nine black students," whom O'Connor described as "played to quiet perfection." Actors highlighted for their portrayals included Calvin Levels as Ernest Green (the only senior in the group) and Regina Taylor as Minnijean Brown, launching that actress' professional career. Other principal actors in the film included Charles Durning as the principal and Henderson Forsythe as Huckaby's husband, Glenn.

See also

• Civil rights movement in popular culture
• The Ernest Green Story

Further reading

• Huckaby, Elizabeth. Crisis at Central High, Little Rock, 1957–58. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.

External links

• Crisis at Central High at IMDb
• Crisis at Central High at AllMovie
• Guardians of Freedom - 50th Anniversary of Operation Arkansas, by ARMY.MIL