"Four Days In November"
David Von Pein
>>> "Wonder why the purveyors of the official story and their Hollywood
shills can't come up with a film of this [Oliver Stone's "JFK"] power."
<<<
They have. And it came out less than one year after Lee Harvey Oswald
killed President Kennedy. It's a 2-hour film from United Artists and David
L. Wolper, and it was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of
"Best Documentary Feature" for the year 1964.
It's called "Four Days In November", and it's easily the very best film
ever made about the events of November 22, 1963:
www.YouTube.com/view_play_list?p=33FE4B18F8CA43E5
www.amazon.com/review/R1ACSVLKDMJIL2
David Von Pein
MOVIE REVIEW -- "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER" (1964)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-WBn0YcCRM&feature=PlayList&p=33FE4B18F8CA43E5&index=0&playnext=1
========================================
"In the memory of man, few events have shocked the world as
those Four Days in November. Here, with scenes never presented before,
is a complete motion picture chronicle of that incredible time in
Dallas. Here is the minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day story
-- with every detail revealed, every question answered."
http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/184977.1020.A.jpg
http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_product.asp?cmio=&sku=2035&dept_id=1869&master_movie_id=1869
~~~~~~~~
The words quoted above appeared on some of the United Artists
promotional movie posters advertising one of the best documentary
films ever made (and, in my opinion, THE very finest documentary film
dealing with the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy)
-- "Four Days In November" -- which debuted in American movie theaters
on Saturday, November 21, 1964, which was just one day shy of the
first anniversary of JFK's assassination. (The film had a New York
premiere on October 7, 1964, a month-and-a-half prior to its general
USA release date.)
"Four Days In November", a black-&-white documentary film directed by
Mel Stuart and skillfully narrated by actor Richard Basehart, remains
my all-time favorite JFK-related program (whether it be a movie or a
TV special). It's an expertly-edited chronological documentary which
guides the viewer through all four of those dark November days that
shocked the nation and the world in late 1963.
"Four Days" received a significant amount of attention and was, in
fact, nominated for an Academy Award (for "Best Documentary Feature"
of 1964). The film was released on VHS videotape by MGM/UA Home Video
in 1988, and was re-released on video by MGM in the year 2000.
Via several "re-creations" of the actual Dallas events (using some of
the people who were directly involved, such as Wesley Frazier, Linnie
Mae Randle, Earlene Roberts, Johnny Brewer, and William Whaley), this
David L. Wolper production gives the viewer a true feeling of being
able to re-live the events of November 22-25, 1963, when America's 46-
year-old leader was gunned down on Elm Street in Dallas, Texas.
"Four Days" was made only a matter of months after the assassination,
which helped in making the re-creations all the more effective, since
the people involved, the locations, the landmarks, and even the
automobiles had not changed much at all since the tragedy occurred. I
truly had the sense of being there BEFORE it happened because of the
very good re-created scenes.
One of the film's re-created segments that has an especially eerie
quality to it is the scene where we see Buell Wesley Frazier driving
his 1953 Chevrolet sedan toward the "drab bulk" of the Texas School
Book Depository, which looms ahead in the foreground. Frazier was the
19-year-old Book Depository co-worker of Lee Harvey Oswald's who gave
Oswald a ride to work on the morning of President Kennedy's
assassination.
In addition to the re-created portions of the movie, there's an
abundance of stock news footage presented throughout the documentary.
In fact, the majority of the film is composed of TV news footage and
archival film clips, including some pre-November 22nd footage covering
JFK's activities in the days leading up to that terrible Friday in
Dallas (including some rarely-seen footage of President Kennedy's mid-
November trip to Florida and his visits to San Antonio, Houston, and
Fort Worth on 11/21/63).
Another very big reason for why I hold "Four Days In November" in such
high esteem is its outstanding Elmer Bernstein musical score. Mr.
Bernstein's stirring musical arrangements fit "Four Days" just
perfectly, adding emotional impact to each and every portion of the
film.
Wolper Productions thankfully sidestepped all the conspiracy theories
and stuck by the Warren Commission Report's "Lone Assassin" verdict
for this documentary.
The narration spoken by Richard Basehart in "Four Days" was written by
Theodore Strauss. Below is an excerpt concerning Mr. Strauss that I
copied directly from the original 1964 pressbook for "Four Days In
November" (which was an advertising guide distributed to movie
theaters in advance of the film's release):
"When the executive producer of "Four Days In November," David
L. Wolper, asked best-selling author Theodore White "who would be the
best man to write this important narration?", White immediately named
Theodore Strauss. .... [Quoting Strauss:] "I can't recall any
assignment, anywhere, that has been as exacting as this one. In the
first place, to record these four unimaginable days accurately is a
frightening prospect alone. The world sat over our shoulders, and to
select just the right words to tell the story is a rather nervous task
at best." [End quote.]
Many of the facts surrounding President Kennedy's assassination have
been disputed and debated by researchers for decades. And this tragic
crime will likely remain a topic that shall cause heated debate for
many more years to come.
But what the film "Four Days In November" does accomplish is to allow
the viewer to re-live those sorrowful November days, in the order in
which the events transpired, based on the evidence available.
Anyone who has a collection of John F. Kennedy-related videos and DVDs
should definitely own a copy of this remarkable motion picture.
David Von Pein
July 2001
August 2006
February 2008
==========================================
http://amazon.com/Four-Days-In-November/dp/6301969308
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XAHVMMABL._SS500_.jpg
http://amazon.com/review/R1ACSVLKDMJIL2
http://imdb.com/title/tt0059197
http://mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=FOURDYNO
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/18312/Four-Days-in-November/overview
http://DavidVonPein.blogspot.com
http://JFK-Audio-Video-Page.blogspot.com
http://box.net/static/flash/box_explorer.swf?widgetHash=7x7co2jkkg
==========================================
yeuhd
> It's called "Four Days In November", and it's easily the very best film
> ever made about the events of November 22, 1963:
Thanks for putting that up. Some fascinating footage, for example, the
camera "walks" the route from Wesley Frazier's parked car to the rear
entrance of the TSBD.
pamela
4DIN has a narrow focus on the assassination. It parrots the WCR.
What a surprise. No wonder "DVP" likes it.
Anthony Marsh
>
> MOVIE REVIEW -- "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER" (1964)
>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-WBn0YcCRM&feature=PlayList&p=33FE4B18F8CA43E5&index=0&playnext=1
>
> ========================================
>
> "In the memory of man, few events have shocked the world as
> those Four Days in November. Here, with scenes never presented before,
> is a complete motion picture chronicle of that incredible time in
> Dallas. Here is the minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day story
> -- with every detail revealed, every question answered."
>
> http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/184977.1020.A.jpg
>
> http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_product.asp?cmio=&sku=2035&dept_id=1869&master_movie_id=1869
>
> http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_i_1?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=Four%20Days%20In%20November&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AFour%20Days%20In%20November%2Ci%3Agarden
>
> ~~~~~~~~
>
> The words quoted above appeared on some of the United Artists
> promotional movie posters advertising one of the best documentary
> films ever made (and, in my opinion, THE very finest documentary film
> dealing with the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy)
> -- "Four Days In November" -- which debuted in American movie theaters
> on Saturday, November 21, 1964, which was just one day shy of the
> first anniversary of JFK's assassination. (The film had a New York
> premiere on October 7, 1964, a month-and-a-half prior to its general
> USA release date.)
>
Funny how the WC defenders always say that pro-government propaganda is
the best. Well, it may be well done and it may have some fine photography,
but that does not make it worthy of being believed 100% by innocent
viewers.
> "Four Days In November", a black-&-white documentary film directed by
> Mel Stuart and skillfully narrated by actor Richard Basehart, remains
> my all-time favorite JFK-related program (whether it be a movie or a
> TV special). It's an expertly-edited chronological documentary which
> guides the viewer through all four of those dark November days that
> shocked the nation and the world in late 1963.
>
> "Four Days" received a significant amount of attention and was, in
> fact, nominated for an Academy Award (for "Best Documentary Feature"
> of 1964). The film was released on VHS videotape by MGM/UA Home Video
> in 1988, and was re-released on video by MGM in the year 2000.
>
> Via several "re-creations" of the actual Dallas events (using some of
> the people who were directly involved, such as Wesley Frazier, Linnie
> Mae Randle, Earlene Roberts, Johnny Brewer, and William Whaley), this
> David L. Wolper production gives the viewer a true feeling of being
> able to re-live the events of November 22-25, 1963, when America's 46-
> year-old leader was gunned down on Elm Street in Dallas, Texas.
>
> "Four Days" was made only a matter of months after the assassination,
> which helped in making the re-creations all the more effective, since
> the people involved, the locations, the landmarks, and even the
> automobiles had not changed much at all since the tragedy occurred. I
> truly had the sense of being there BEFORE it happened because of the
> very good re-created scenes.
>
But maybe that was too early to flesh out a SBT. You accept the FBI's
solution without a SBT?
> One of the film's re-created segments that has an especially eerie
> quality to it is the scene where we see Buell Wesley Frazier driving
> his 1953 Chevrolet sedan toward the "drab bulk" of the Texas School
> Book Depository, which looms ahead in the foreground. Frazier was the
> 19-year-old Book Depository co-worker of Lee Harvey Oswald's who gave
> Oswald a ride to work on the morning of President Kennedy's
> assassination.
>
> In addition to the re-created portions of the movie, there's an
> abundance of stock news footage presented throughout the documentary.
> In fact, the majority of the film is composed of TV news footage and
> archival film clips, including some pre-November 22nd footage covering
> JFK's activities in the days leading up to that terrible Friday in
> Dallas (including some rarely-seen footage of President Kennedy's mid-
> November trip to Florida and his visits to San Antonio, Houston, and
> Fort Worth on 11/21/63).
>
> Another very big reason for why I hold "Four Days In November" in such
> high esteem is its outstanding Elmer Bernstein musical score. Mr.
> Bernstein's stirring musical arrangements fit "Four Days" just
> perfectly, adding emotional impact to each and every portion of the
> film.
>
> Wolper Productions thankfully sidestepped all the conspiracy theories
> and stuck by the Warren Commission Report's "Lone Assassin" verdict
> for this documentary.
>
How did they explain the SBT?
> The narration spoken by Richard Basehart in "Four Days" was written by
> Theodore Strauss. Below is an excerpt concerning Mr. Strauss that I
> copied directly from the original 1964 pressbook for "Four Days In
> November" (which was an advertising guide distributed to movie
> theaters in advance of the film's release):
>
> "When the executive producer of "Four Days In November," David
> L. Wolper, asked best-selling author Theodore White "who would be the
> best man to write this important narration?", White immediately named
> Theodore Strauss. .... [Quoting Strauss:] "I can't recall any
> assignment, anywhere, that has been as exacting as this one. In the
> first place, to record these four unimaginable days accurately is a
> frightening prospect alone. The world sat over our shoulders, and to
> select just the right words to tell the story is a rather nervous task
> at best." [End quote.]
>
> Many of the facts surrounding President Kennedy's assassination have
> been disputed and debated by researchers for decades. And this tragic
> crime will likely remain a topic that shall cause heated debate for
> many more years to come.
>
> But what the film "Four Days In November" does accomplish is to allow
> the viewer to re-live those sorrowful November days, in the order in
> which the events transpired, based on the evidence available.
>
> Anyone who has a collection of John F. Kennedy-related videos and DVDs
> should definitely own a copy of this remarkable motion picture.
>
Do you have any insider info on the difference in time between the final
edit and the theater release?
David Von Pein
>>> "["Four Days In November"] has a narrow focus on the assassination.
It parrots the WCR. What a surprise. No wonder "DVP" likes it." <<<
Damn right, Pam. I love it. Have for years.
And that movie is just as fresh (and more importantly, valid) today as it
was when it was first screened in New York City on October 7, 1964. And
that's because David Wolper and Mel Stuart FOLLOWED THE EVIDENCE WHERE IT
LED THEM -- to Lee Harvey Oswald and his guns.
"Four Days" isn't tainted and marred by the conspiracy "crazies" like Jim
Garrison and Mark Lane (etc.), because the movie was completed well BEFORE
the Warren Commission even finished its work. And that fact has always
amazed me somewhat too.
I've often wondered how the film could be based (at least in part) on the
Warren Commission's findings, which it clearly says it is during the
opening credits of "Four Days" (with the WC being listed at the very top
of the credit marked "Film and Research Sources"), when those "findings"
weren't even known to the public until a mere 10 days before the movie
debuted in NYC on 10/7/64?
Perhaps Mr. Wolper and company were privy to some "inside" info from the
WC before the Commission made its conclusions public on 9/27/64. ????
In any event, Wolper and Director Stuart and writer Strauss probably also
utilized a lot of their own common sense when putting the film together
(plus there's a "United Press International" credit in the opening titles
as well), so even without being "privy" to anything the Warren Commission
was doing in advance, there would still have been a whole lot of
accessible "Oswald Did It Alone" material to work with between November
1963 and the film's premiere in October 1964.
And as we all know, still to this very day, there is absolutely no hard
evidence of a conspiracy in JFK's murder....which makes David L. Wolper's
"Four Days In November" as accurate and praiseworthy in 2009 as it was in
1964.
=======================================
RELATED VIDEO:
David Wolper's television "companion piece" to "Four Days In November" --
"A THOUSAND DAYS: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY" (1964):
www.YouTube.com/watch?v=B5YV-TSvfMY&feature=PlayList&p=302AF54066C6F0DE
www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=302AF54066C6F0DE
=======================================
bigdog
>
> - Show quoted text -
Why does that surprise you? Documentaries are supposed to be factual.
They don't take liberties with the truth under the premise of artistic
license such as Oliver Stone did in JFK.
Questionin
resonable doubt evidence that Oswald didn't kill anyone. Not a CT viewpoint,
just examining the evidence with an open eyeball.
For example, 1st u pointed out Frazier driving a car. Well, any idiot can
drive a car. But what u didn't say, 2 days before the killing, Frazier
brought a rifle into the building, but nobody saw him leave with it? It was
1st thought to be that particular rifle. Hummmmmmmm...
Anthony Marsh
Oliver Stone did not make a documentary. He made a Hollywood movie, what
he called a countermyth.
bigdog
Frazier's rifle did not fire the bullets that killed JFK and were later
recovered. Only one rifle in the world could have fired those bullets.
Oswald's rifle. The one he ordered from Klein's. The one he fired at
General Walker. The one he was photographed with. The one that had fresh
fibers in the butt plate that matched the shirt he wore that day. The one
that was found at the scene of the crime. Reasonable doubt? You have a
very strange concept of what reasonable means.
pamela
Actually, it has a very lame narrative, pure party line. Lots of good
footage, though. Perfect for those who want to be told what to
think.
pamela
The WCR is a myth, developed to calm the people, and to tell them what to
think. There is nothing 'factual' about it. Documentaries based on it
are just as slanted.
Now, a documentary based on the suppressed FBI Gemberling report, that was
supposed to have been the basis for the WCR, might have been interesting.
:-0
Anthony Marsh
Wait a minute here. Are you saying that someone has a theory that
Frazier was the shooter on the grassy knoll?
Osprey
> Via several "re-creations" of the actual Dallas events
> <snip> this David L. Wolper production gives the viewer
> a true feeling of being able to re-live the events...
In the 1967 book "Accessories After the Fact," Sylvia Meagher commends
the film for "the quality, volume, and variety of the sound track!"
But the initial acclaim soon turned to ash; the Grand Duchess of
Henpickia bemoans how Stuart's film eventually "leads to frustration."
"And when the Presidential car turned on to Elm in the newsreel, I
expected, with rising excitement, to hear the actual 'crack!' of the
first shot." (Those rapturous tones betray her arousal in the dark!)
"Instead," she writes, "both the film and the sound stopped abruptly,
and a still photograph showing the President after he was shot in the
head was projected onto the screen in awful, heart-stopping
solemnity."
Her bleak, if grimly absorbing, book is supposedly the "definite
analysis" (Epstein) and "by far the most meticulous and compelling
indictment of the Warren Commission Report" (Sen. Schweiker).
Conspiracy theorists are more charitable still. But the beloved shrew
was often given to exaggeration and adopting fantastic assumptions as
facts. Why Garrison and she failed to connect is more a matter of ego
than modus.
Sitting in the dark--suffering severe disappointment--Meagher manages
one last gesture of praise: "No doubt this is excellent dramatic
technique." The gimmick was used in such movies as "Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid"; a silent black screen figured strategically in
"Oswald's Ghost."
Though aware of cinematic liberties, Meagher is incognizant of aural
recreation. Naively, she posits: "But if the original unedited sound
track recorded the swell of crowd noise and the sirens and the
motorcycles’ guttural reports, why couldn’t it resolve the problem of
how many shots were fired, and of the interval between the shots?”
Her aching disgust—and unfettered hyperbole--naturally leads to
perverse innuendo: “The Warren Report, like the sound track at the
crucial moment, is silent.” Thus, the Commission—if not maligned enough
—is faulted for ignoring a fiction of Meagher’s boundless imagination,
a figment not available to the quibbler herself until a year after the
Commission had disbanded.
This type of sweeping self-delusion set the pattern for most of the
conspiracy claims that were to follow, particularly within the
Garrison camp and on the set of the "JFK" movie (both tied more than
most realize to the mind of Penn Jones, Jr.). All is built on
imaginary slights and perceived deficits in the investigation.
Surely Meagher remedied her stupendous error and the malicious, ill-
founded charge against the Commission. In his introduction to the 1976
reprint of “Accessories After the Fact, “ Professor Peter Dale Scott—a
scholar equivalent to Meagher—wrote: “The book has had to correct a
few slips and misunderstandings.” But Meagher’s bittersweet lament on
the "Four Days in November" survived the dogged scrutiny of the
learned harridan.