Arthur H. Nadel | Clambake
The Rifleman: The Assailants
The Big Valley: Hide the Children
Classic Film and Television Home Page
Arthur H. Nadel
Arthur H. Nadel is an American film and television director. He began as an editor.
Some common subjects in the films of Arthur Nadel:
Subjects:
- Deceptive identities (disguises: The Assailants,
disguises: No Drums, No Trumpets, as Gypsy: Hide the Children, switched identities: Clambake)
- New clothes (uniforms, suit: The Assailants, uniforms: No Drums, No Trumpets,
Gypsy clothes: Hide the Children, rich man's duds: Clambake)
- Rotating machinery (Gatling gun: The Assailants, Gatling gun: No Drums, No Trumpets,
playground in "Confidence" musical number: Clambake)
- Learning experiences (family and life goals: Hostages to Fortune,
relationship to society: No Drums, No Trumpets, prejudice: Hide the Children)
- Threatened violence that ends in rejection of violence (revenge: End of the Hunt, attack: No Drums, No Trumpets)
- Trading families (Hostages to Fortune, Clambake)
- Children (The Assailants, The Most Amazing Man, Hostages to Fortune,
No Drums, No Trumpets, Hide the Children)
Minorities and Civil Rights:
- Racial prejudice attacked (Hide the Children)
- Sympathetic views of minorities (Sammy Davis, Jr in Western: The Most Amazing Man,
Japanese: The Sixteenth Cousin, Mexicans: No Drums, No Trumpets)
Clambake
Nadel and prolific Rifleman screenwriter Arthur Browne Jr. made the Elvis Presley vehicle
Clambake (1967), a film also produced by The Rifleman producers Laven, Gardner and Levy.
The Rifleman: The Assailants
The Assailants (1962) is Nadel's first film as a director.
It is an entertaining macho fantasy.
Nadel went on to re-make this unofficially as a The Virginian episode,
No Drums, No Trumpets (1966). Both films have a similar plot premise.
But The Virginian episodes are three times as long as The Rifleman.
This lead to a great deal of development and change of the political background,
characters with new personalities, and new plot incidents. I enjoy both film.
The Big Valley: Hide the Children
Hide the Children (1966) is is a powerful look at the prejudices faced by Gypsies.
By implication, it offers full support of the Civil Rights movement, then in progress
in real life.