Stephen Dillane

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The Hollywood Reporter    

February 19, 1993

'Frankie's House'

Not many of us want to reminisce about the desperate days of 1960s' Vietnam, but ''Frankie's House,'' an A&E miniseries, wallows in it. It's a stirring, disturbing drama about the particular insanity required for wartime photojournalism.

by Irv Letofsky

Variety    

February 19, 1993

Frankie's House, Part 1

by Hoyt Hilsman

((Sun. (21), 8-10 p.m., A&E))
 
Filmed in Thailand and Australia by Anglia Films. Executive producers, Brenda Reid, Penny Chapman, Delia Fine; producers, Matt Carroll, Eric Fellner; director , Peter Fisk; writer, Andy Armitage, based on the book "Page After Page" by Tim Page.
 
Cast: Iain Glen, Kevin Dillon, Steven Vidler, Alan David Lee, Stephen Dillane, Caroline Carr, Alexandra Fowler, Todd Boyce, Nicholas Hammond, Kay Tong Lim, Alan Zitner, Candido Minniti, Marilyn Allen, Ron Hackett, David Arnett, Steve Bastioni, Donald Battee, Betty Bobbitt, Damian Cudmore, Gerald Matthew Good, Pham Van Lam, Peter Hathaway, Lois Larimore, Joanne Li, Kay Tong Lim, Martin Maddell, Christopher Pate, Jarat Petchcharoen, George A. Roark, Chad Tyler, Jemma Wilks, Carlon Wylder, Alan Zitner.
 
First two hours of four-hour drama, based on true story of Vietnam war correspondents, features a fine performance by Iain Glen as maverick British photojournalist Tim Page and often gripping battle scenes shot on location in Southeast Asia.

Vagabond Britisher Page hitches a ride in Laos with Australian journalist Steve Cutler (Steven Vidler) and ends up signing on as a photographer for Cutler's news organization in Saigon. Page is a reckless soul, with a goofy innocence in sharp contrast to the deadly surroundings.

He soon falls in with the rest of the peripatetic community of journalists, including French colonial Danielle Charasse (Caroline Carr), Oxford-educated writerAnthony Strickland (Stephen Dillane) and Sean Flynn (Kevin Dillon), actor Errol Flynn's son, who is changing careers from sometime actor to sometime freelance journalist.

Much of part one is consumed with the war for truth that is being fought between seat-of-the-pants journalists and the U.S. government, military and mainstream media; however, this struggle has been covered more thoroughly and dramatically elsewhere.

What this film does well is to offer a small slice of the war told from the very human P.O.V. of an eccentric Englishman who stumbles into this post-colonial Armageddon.

Director Peter Fisk and writer Andy Armitage, who adapted Page's autobiographical account, provide solid scripting and direction.

Iain Glen is outstanding as the devil-may-care Page, and he gives the film an important lift out of standard Vietnam war movie fare. Caroline Carr and Stephen Dillane are also excellent.

Notes