Point of Order

Point of Order is again available on DVD. I highly recommend it, and it’s a fair bit more interesting than Good Night and Good Luck. Army lawyer Joseph Welch is the star, and although the film includes the “Have you at long last no decency” scene, my favorite line is Welch’s indirect mention of Roy Cohn’s sexuality:

WELCH: Did you think this came from a pixie? …
MCCARTHY: Will the counsel for my benefit define – I think he might be an expert on that – what a pixie is?
WELCH: Yes, I should say, Senator, that a pixie is a close relative of a fairy. Shall I proceed, sir? Have I enlightened you?

Welch later appeared as the judge in Anatomy of a Murder, which is one of my favorite Jimmy Stewart films.

But, if you don’t trust me, then at least listen to esteemed reviewer jtpaladin, at Amazon.com:

This film is nothing but an attempt by left-wing degenerates to smear a great Senator who had the guts to stand up to communist infiltration of our government. Senator McCarthy used legal means and protected the innocent by giving those questioned an opportunity to meet in Executive Session and anyone found innocent, left without further issue. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the treatment that Senator McCarthy received. This film was edited in such a way as to make the Senator look bad.

The rest of his 106 reviews are genuinely fascinating; he combines a hatred of various gadgets and “left wing” books and films with a deep affection for Sex and the City and the Village People. I confess that I found this deeply reassuring.