"Four Days In November" (The 1964 Film)
David Von Pein
http://EducationForum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=16928&st=0&p=211695&#entry211695
I recently decided to spruce up some of my blogs on the Internet, and
one of them that received an overhaul is my "Four Days In November"
website/blog, at:
http://Four-Days-In-November.blogspot.com
At the website above, I've added 88 still images from the film.
In my opinion, David L. Wolper's 1964 documentary film "Four Days In
November" is easily the very best and most accurate movie (or TV
documentary) ever produced about the events surrounding President
Kennedy's assassination.
Naturally, of course, all conspiracy theorists will vehemently
disagree with that last statement (and then some). But it's true just
the same.
And what is even more remarkable, in my view, is the fact that Wolper
and company made the film months BEFORE the Warren Commission even
completed its investigation into JFK's death -- and yet Wolper,
director Mel Stuart, and writer Theodore Strauss were still able to
get virtually every fact correct in the movie.
Each time I watch the film I'm always amazed by how accurate it is,
right down to even some of the very small details, such as the exact
amount of the cab fare for Lee Harvey Oswald's taxi drive to Oak Cliff
on 11/22/63 -- 95 cents:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6kYzhJGqq2M/TN1kZxCBCbI/AAAAAAAAGYs/goQ4AXHYLPg/s1600/2i.bmp
Some of the details that appear in "Four Days" were undoubtedly
gathered by Wolper and his team of researchers themselves, since
several witnesses appear in the film and were (I assume) interviewed
by the filmmakers about what they knew concerning the events of
November 22nd, such as cab driver William Whaley.
Whaley was one of the witnesses (along with Buell Wesley Frazier,
Linnie Mae Randle, and Johnny Brewer) who provided a detailed re-
enactment of his November 22 movements, taking the Wolper cameras
along for the ride as he re-created the taxicab drive he and Oswald
took to Oak Cliff.
As far as I can recall, I think there is only one factual error in the
movie (and even this error isn't a major one), and that's when
narrator Richard Basehart says that Lee Oswald exited his roominghouse
at 1026 North Beckley Avenue wearing "a different, lighter jacket",
which implies, of course, that Oswald entered the roominghouse wearing
a jacket.
According to housekeeper Earlene Roberts, however, Oswald was in his
shirt sleeves and was not wearing any jacket at all when he rushed
into his rented room on 11/22/63.
However, in fairness to David Wolper and his crew, it's quite likely
that Wolper and company got the additional "jacket" information from
William Whaley himself, because Whaley's Warren Commission testimony
indicates that Whaley thought that Oswald was wearing "a work jacket
that almost matched [his] pants".
Therefore, it's very likely that Whaley would have told the "Four
Days" filmmakers the very same story about Oswald wearing a jacket,
with Wolper having no real reason for doubting Whaley's account. (And
I assume the Wolper people did not interview Mary Bledsoe or Earlene
Roberts during the making of the film. Had they done so, of course, a
different story concerning Oswald's jackets would have emerged.)
A side note concerning this subject ---
I was recently discussing the "Four Days" movie via written
correspondence with "Reclaiming History" author Vincent Bugliosi, and
he told me something I had never heard before -- Vince said that in
the early stages of writing his JFK book (when the book was still
untitled), David Wolper told him that he wanted to make another
documentary on the JFK assassination, which would be based on
Bugliosi's book. Unfortunately, however, that documentary was never
made.
Mr. Wolper passed away at the age of 82, on August 10, 2010. He will
be remembered for producing many excellent documentaries, mainly for
television. And the Academy Award-nominated "Four Days In November",
which was a United Artists theatrical release, is certainly one of his
finest accomplishments.
Two other first-rate documentaries from the Wolper film factory are
"The Making Of The President 1960" (made in 1963) and "The Legend Of
Marilyn Monroe" (1964):
http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/09/making-of-president-1960.html
http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/05/legend-of-marilyn-monroe.html
And here's another place where "Four Days In November" can be seen in
its entirety:
http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/01/four-days-in-november.html
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http://YouTube-Playlists.blogspot.com
http://JFK-Assassination-As-It-Happened.blogspot.com
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aeffects
<snip the nonsense of course>
more cut-n-paste lone nut bullshit eh, troll? What YOU need is a
paying job, moron! Time to move out of mom's house!
David Von Pein
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/6529e93125de9454
ANTHONY MARSH SAID:
>>> "Well, I am curious about a couple of things and hope that you have studied this enough to know the answers. First there seems to be something wrong with my video player because I could only hear TWO shots. Was one of the shots lost in the music perhaps? Or did Wolper really think there were only TWO shots?" <<<
DAVID VON PEIN SAYS:
There are three shots on the "Four Days In November" soundtrack, Tony.
The camera freezes on Mary Moorman's photo for a few seconds after we
hear the first gunshot, and then the second shot can be heard right
after they unfreeze the Moorman Polaroid. And then there's a third
shot heard.
But, yes, you're right, Tony--the second of the three shots is almost
lost in the background music.
>>> "How does Wolper explain or diagram the SBT, which you guys can't live without?" <<<
There's nothing in the film about the SBT at all. And there doesn't
need to be that kind of detail in a documentary of this sort, Tony.
Executive Producer David L. Wolper knew there were only three shots
fired, with all of those shots coming from the exact same gun. So,
what difference does it really make if the SBT is true or not (from
Wolper's movie-making perspective, that is, which is a perspective in
which the filmmaker has to squeeze a whole lot of stuff inside a 122-
minute framework)?
>>> "Do you know exactly when the narrative was written and when it was filmed?" <<<
No, I don't. But it was certainly written and filmed well before
October 7, 1964, which is when the movie made its premiere in New York
City.
>>> "You show the crosshairs on Kennedy's back above his shoulders and to the left of his spine. Is that what you mean by accuracy? And there is no Connally in front of him so how is that supposed to convince us that one bullet went through both men?" <<<
As I said -- who cares? Wolper knows that Oswald's gun did ALL of the
shooting. The rest is fodder for the buffs. And it has been for
decades.
>>> "Maybe when he was writing it he didn't even know about the Specter SBT and only had the FBI version of three shots, three hits. So if you think this film is the most accurate then you believe in the FBI version of three shots, three hits with no SBT." <<<
~sigh~
When I said that David Wolper's movie was the most accurate film/
documentary ever made about the assassination (and it definitely is,
IMO), I was referring to the MAJOR, BIG-TICKET stuff, e.g.:
1.) Oswald shot Kennedy (alone).
2.) Oswald shot Tippit (alone).
3.) Three shots were fired at JFK.
4.) All three shots fired at JFK came from Oswald's Mannlicher-
Carcano.
5.) Jack Ruby was not part of a conspiracy to rub out Oswald.
6.) Oswald got on McWatters' bus just after the assassination.
7.) Oswald got into Whaley's cab after getting off the bus.
8.) Oswald took a long brown bag into the TSBD on 11/22/63.
Things like that.
>>> "Every fact?" <<<
The movie gets every big-ticket fact correct, yes. See my list above.
>>> "Maybe they meant a different jacket than the one he wore to work, which he had left in the TSBD." <<<
I doubt that.
http://Four-Days-In-November.blogspot.com
http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/01/four-days-in-november.html
David Von Pein
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/6529e93125de9454/e12811b72616d96f?#e12811b72616d96f
>>> "Then you can tell me the timing of the shots. Do you have a program which can extract the audio and then plot that on a graph? Can you then mark each shot and measure how many seconds between each? Is it 0.0 4.0 8.0?" <<<
You're being extremely silly, Anthony. David Wolper wasn't concerned
with filming the EXACT TIMING of the three shots in exactly an 8.4-
second or 5.6-second (or whatever) timeframe.
The scene which depicts the shooting (via the amateur films and
Moorman's photo) was filmed to merely demonstrate the BASIC fact of
"three shots" being fired from the TSBD. Nothing more, nothing less.
You're requiring too much of Wolper. And you're being silly about
something that you already know the answer to (as usual).
>>> "Duh! In other words[,] you have not thoroughly researched it, yet vouch for its 100% accuracy. .... But you said it was 100% accurate. That means that you think the bullet hit above Kennedy's shoulders and to the left of his spine." <<<
You're getting sillier by the minute, Tony.
I'll repeat some of the things I said in an earlier post:
"Executive Producer David L. Wolper knew there were only three
shots fired, with all of those shots coming from the exact same gun.
So, what difference does it really make if the SBT is true or not
(from Wolper's movie-making perspective, that is, which is a
perspective in which the filmmaker has to squeeze a whole lot of stuff
inside a 122-minute framework)? ....
"Wolper knows that Oswald's gun did ALL of the shooting. The
rest is fodder for the buffs. And it has been for decades. ....
"When I said that David Wolper's movie was the most accurate
film/documentary ever made about the assassination (and it definitely
is, IMO), I was referring to the MAJOR, BIG-TICKET stuff." -- DVP;
11/14/2010