Richard Goodwin, a young Congressional lawyer, learns that the grand jury findings have been sealed and travels to New York City to investigate rumors of rigged quiz shows. Visiting a number of contestants, including Stempel and Van Doren, he begins to suspect that Twenty-One is a fixed operation. Stempel’s volatile personality damages his credibility, and nobody else seems willing to confirm that the show is fixed. Fearing Goodwin will give up the investigation, Stempel confesses that he was fed the correct answers during his run on the show, and insists that Van Doren must have been involved as well.

He visits New York County District Attorney Frank Hogan, who convenes a grand jury to look into his allegations. From invented dialogue to fabricated court transactions, “Quiz Show” often takes broad dramatic license. Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions, video games and more.

Storyline

“That’s pigskin and calfskin,” says the salesman, stroking the interior. “Hand rubbed.” As he does throughout the film, master cinematographer Michael Ballhaus perfectly captures the textures of luxury that lure the characters. On the car radio, Goodwin hears news of the Soviet launch of Sputnik — a crushing defeat for the U.S. in the space race — and that’s Bobby Darin singing “Mack the Knife,” a song that warns about sharks with pretty teeth. Fortunately, a remarkable cast shows no compromise in measuring the human toll taken by the quiz-show scandal. That includes Goodwin, superbly played by Morrow of TV’s Northern Exposure.

Van Doren (Fiennes), finely bred from a distinguished family led by a kindly overbearing poet patriarch (Paul Scofield), has his own problems. And now life has brought us “Quiz Show,” the movie (“They Conned America,” Calendar, Aug. 28). With Quiz Show, there were so many beautiful shots that pulled me out of the movie, because all I could see were the lengths director Robert Redford framing a beautiful shot. But as far as a movie’s shortcomings go, being too well shot, or too beautiful to look at, is a pretty minor complaint.

Robert Redford’s fascinating and meticulously crafted Quiz Show (1994) is one such determined showcase of TV’s moral corruption and duplicity that also doubles up as a insightful commentary on 50s America. Written by a former film critic, who calls it his “revenge on television,” and based on the memoirs of its hero, a young congressional investigator, the film is explicitly intended as a public morality lesson. In the subsequent weeks, Van Doren’s winning streak makes him a national celebrity, but he reluctantly buckles under the pressure and allows Enright and Freedman to start giving him the answers. Meanwhile, Stempel, having lost his prize money to an unscrupulous bookie, begins threatening legal action against NBC after weeks pass without his return to television.

We rank every Star Trek feature film by Metascore, from the franchise’s 1979 big-screen debut to the newest movie, Section 31. Nor, might I add, has Redford treated any of the characters unfairly. Indeed, in most cases he has struggled–successfully–to make them, if anything, more sympathetic on screen than they appeared to me at the time, with the exception of Van Doren, for whom I felt, and still feel, affection. But that remains now–as it was then–a matter of empathetic judgment. Film reviewers have given “Quiz Show” largely positive reviews, but several have been bothered by the film’s liberties. All this was done, the Oscar-winning director of “Ordinary People” said, to “elevate something so that people can see it.”

A colorful, well-written portrayal of a forgotten event in the history of television

Although the film does take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away — we’re talking the 1950s, in a world of black-and-white TV sets — Gen Xers won’t have trouble recognizing the fine art of mind fucking. Quiz shows were the rage — there were three dozen on the air — and hard as it may be to swallow in the age of Beavis and Butt-head, smarts could make you a celebrity overnight. Stempel (Turturro) is a neurotic know-it-all whose abrasive personality and Jewish looks (“there’s a face for radio”) are far less telegenic than his smooth, handsome, modest successor.

And then it asks us what we might have done, if someone offered us a lot of money and popularity for pretending to be smarter than we were. Despite the way Charles kowtows to the fame of ’15-minute variety’, Fiennes eventually makes us sympathize for Charles. Rob Morrow was also good at getting at the insecurities and bias of Goodwin which lies beneath the guy’s righteous indignation. Veteran actor Paul Scofield does a brilliant job in playing Charles’ father who is alternately disappointed and proud of his son. David Paymer and Hank Azaria were perfect as the wily show producers. Furthermore, director Scorsese was surprisingly great in his cameo.

“If Robert Redford had taken this movie and had changed the names, then I would have no argument,” says Don Enright, whose father Dan produced “Twenty-One” and is vilified in “Quiz Show.” Now take stock of what we have lost in the four decades since “Twenty-One”came crashing down. We have lost a respect for intelligence; we reward people for whatever they happen to have learned, instead of feeling they might learn more.

There’s a secondary theme dealing with the shortness of the public’s memory. Less than twenty years following his “Twenty-One” disgrace, producer Dan Enright returned to the game show business with another hit. Today, programs like Jeopardy are big draws, and the lure of a repeat champion is as strong as ever. We break down the highlights and the disappointments of Sundance 2025.

“The concept of shame,” he lamented to the New York Times, “carries no weight anymore.” Yet shame sure weighed heavily on Dan Enright. He lived in his shame until the day he died, trying for years to make amends, haunted by his history in everything he did. When the quiz show scandal broke, my sister was 10 years old, and I myself was 8. It’s so rare to find intellectual issues dealt with anymore in American movies, so rare that some film-industry observers are questioning whether Quiz Show will be a commercial success. Accept the film purely as entertainment, it is a pretty sensational movie, the best in Redford’s decorous directing career, and perhaps the most captivating non-action thriller since All the President’s Men.

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The fact remains that Quiz Show is a marvelously acted, intelligently crafted drama that contains a wealth of astute observations about the character of this country and its citizens. Quiz Show is that rare film that manages to be simultaneously provocative netflix quiz and entertaining. But its greatest accomplishment will be if viewers walk away contemplating our continuing erosion of values.

Find out what critics are saying about nearly 50 notable films that debuted at this year’s festival, including a roundup of award winners. Goodwin believes that he is close to a victory against Geritol and NBC, but realizes that Enright and Freedman will not jeopardize their own futures in television by turning against their bosses. He silently watches the producers’ testimony, vindicating the sponsors and the network from any wrongdoing, and taking full responsibility for rigging the show. Disgusted, he steps outside and sees Van Doren, who waves at him before boarding a taxi. A guilt-ridden Van Doren deliberately loses, but NBC offers him a lucrative contract to appear as a special correspondent on the morning Today show.