A wealthy and seemingly homebound elderly man takes little delight in life, seeing as how his pleasure runs to having an accountant read his financial books to him. Charles Clay (Orson Welles) turns the tables on his aide and relates a story he once heard about a man who paid a jobless sailor to impregnate his wife since there was no love in the marriage. Elishama Levinsky (Roger Coggio) assures Clay the story is pure fiction, having been told with minor variations among seafaring men for decades. With that revelation, Clay becomes intent on making the story real with the appropriate participants to be chosen and paid by Levinsky to perform as the characters in the story. What might have passed for satisfaction having accomplished what his money could buy is brought to sudden disappointment when the sailor (Norman Eshley) states that even though it happened according to the familiar tale handed down through the years, he's convinced that no one would believe it, especially coming from him. The story seemed to suggest that even with his wealth, Mr. Clay was powerless to shape outcomes to his satisfaction and would have to accept the story of the hired seaman as apocryphal.
Review of The Immortal Story
The Immortal Story
(1968 TV Movie)
"... it's all nothing but a story, my story."
8 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers