The Summer of Ben Tyler

A man who acts upon his conscience opens a Pandora’s box of racism and intolerance in this made-for-TV drama. Temple Rayburn (James Woods) is an attorney who lives and works in a small Southern community in the 1940s. When Rayburn and his wife Celia (Elizabeth McGovern) encounter a young man named Ben Tyler (Charles Mattocks) — an African-American youth who is retarded and has nowhere to go — they take pity on him and allow him to stay in their home. However, at a time and place when black and white citizens were not allowed to use the same drinking fountains, Temple’s decision raises more than a few eyebrows, and the Rayburn household soon becomes the center of a local political firestorm. The Summer of Ben Tyler was originally aired as part of the award-winning anthology series The Hallmark Hall of Fame., An uplifting drama about race relations, responsibility and the law that unfolds in a small town in the Deep South in 1942. Temple: James Woods. Ben: Charles Mattocks. Spencer: Len Cariou. Celia: Elizabeth McGovern. Junius: Kevin Isola. Nell: Julia McIlvaine. Chief Sam: Clifton James. Filmed in North Carolina. Arthur Allan Seidelman directed., In 1942, in the Deep South, Temple and Celia Rayburn open their home to a young, mildly retarded orphan, Ben Taylor. Because Ben is black; this simple act of compassion shocks many in the community including its leading citizen, Spencer Maitland. When Maitland’s drunken son kills an elderly woman in a car accident, the father turns to lawyer Temple Rayburn to beat the charges. Rayburn must make a tough, life-altering decision: to defend a person he knows is guilty, or to be true unto himself., Drama set in America’s Deep South during the 1940s and telling the tale of a white lawyer who is forced to make a decision whether to pursue his political career. Drama set in America’s Deep South during the 1940s and telling the tale of a white lawyer (James Woods) who is forced to make a decision whether to pursue his political career, and turn a blind eye to the corruption within the town’s power structure, or to follow his heart and stand up for his family, which includes his adopted black son, Ben Tyler.