McTeague

Starred review from August 25, 2008
The classic novel by Frank Norris is revisited in this 1989 recording by an immensely talented and well-directed group of actors. Set in 1899 San Francisco, Norris’s story relates the life and times of a dentist, played wonderfully by Stacy Keach, and his wife, Trina (Carol Kane). With a celebrity cast of nearly 40 players that features superior performances from, among others, Helen Hunt, Ed Asner, Marsha Mason, Teri Garr and Hector Elizondo, the production is flawless and captivating. With music and realistic sound effects, director Gordon Hunt takes full advantage of the performing weapons at his disposal. Notable standouts include Joe Spano, who plays Trina’s jealous cousin, Katherine Helmond as Miss Baker and Bud Cort portraying an array of secondary characters.

This classic American novel of naturalism, the tragedy of a San Francisco dentist and his wife, was published in 1899, famously filmed by Erich von Stroheim as GREED in 1924, and brought to unabridged, multi-voiced audio in a definitive recording by L.A. Theatre Works. There is probably room, however, for a no-frills, lower-priced reading for rental customers, and this version by Jonathan Reese qualifies. His narration is clear, his voicing attentive and careful, if somewhat dry. He seems often to be delivering the text with the same distinct, announcer-like diction that he uses for the end-of-side notices to flip tapes. Tiresome for some, such an uninterpreted approach produces a reading others might wish to consider. G.H. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine