The Childhood Friend

THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND

L'amico d'infanzia

1994 • IT HMDB

April 14, 1994

40-year-old Arnold Gardner is put in charge of the talk show "The Twenty-fifth Hour" after the death of the former host Duncan Mackay. His role on screen creates immediate interest and the program becomes a great success with TV audiences. This proves to be a period of great satisfaction for Arnold, but his childhood friend, Eddie Greenberg, suddenly comes on the scene. Eddie is ill and frustrated by lack of success, and is so resentful and envious of Arnold's fame that he wants him to make a full public confession of a "sin" he committed in his young days.

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Marco Castellini • January 1, 2026

Arnold Gardner, a television presenter, after the suicide of anchorman Duncan Mackay, takes his place hosting the TV show "Venticinquesima ora." His goal is to reveal the "skeletons in the closet" of public figures in front of the cameras. But Arnold also has a past to hide and a "friend," now long forgotten, is determined to remind him... With this film, shot entirely in the USA, Pupi Avati tries his hand at the thriller genre and once again demonstrates his talent. The screenplay is very attentive to the psychological nuances of the various characters, the pace (as often happens in Avati's films) is rather slow but never enough to lose the viewer's attention, and even the cast, though lacking in big names, is absolutely up to the task. A biting and effective thriller that doesn't get lost, as often happens, in genre stereotypes and deserves much more attention than it has received. Worth rediscovering.

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