By Erin Free

The biopic has long had a warm, comfortable home in the telemovie format. Even here in contemporary Australia, the lives of prominent locals have been documented in small screen projects like Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You (2018), Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story (2017), INXS: Never Tear Us Apart (2014), Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War (2012), The King (2007), Molly (2016) and many, many more. In the 1970s and 1980s heyday of the US telemovie, biopics were a regular go-to for the networks, with political figures (1974’s The Missiles Of October with William Devane as JFK), movie stars (1980’s The Jayne Mansfield Story with Loni Anderson and Arnold Schwarzenegger), sports figures (1971’s Brian’s Song with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams), historical icons (1986’s The Last Days Of Patton with George C. Scott) and many more essayed for the small screen. In a few fascinating instances, some actors even played themselves in TV biopics like Victims For Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story (1984), The Ann Jillian Story (1988), Call Me Anna, with Patty Duke (1990), Tears and Laughter: The Joan And Melissa Rivers Story (1994) and more.

One of the most enjoyable and uplifting of the 1970s biopics is unquestionably Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story, which tracks the life of a truly compelling and utterly singular pop-cultural figure now largely and sadly forgotten. If you want a triumph-over-adversity real-life story, it’s hard to beat Kitty O’Neil’s. Left deaf by an early childhood illness, O’Neil fought obstacles and prejudice all through her life, forging forward to eventually become first a promising high diver, and then a stuntwoman, auto-racer and all-round speedster known at the time as “the fastest woman in the world”, finding enormous success in a male-dominated field. O’Neil broke the woman’s high-fall record while doubling for Lynda Carter in a legendary building-drop for an episode of TV’s Wonder Woman, and then went on to break a host of high-octane land and water speed records. Kitty O’Neil became so well-known in the 1970s that she inspired Barbie creators Mattel to craft an action figure in her likeness…which still get a good price on the internet today. A powerful female answer to the far more problematic daredevil and stunt rider Evel Knievel, Kitty O’Neil (who passed away in 2018 from pneumonia at the age of 72) was a true American hero and a profoundly under-celebrated feminist icon.

The low budgets and quick turnaround of the telemovie format meant that networks could jump on trends quickly (see our review of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders), which they did with media sensation Kitty O’Neil, putting together Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story while its subject was very much still in the public eye. Directed with real punch by actor turned prolific TV director Lou Antonio and richly penned by talented small screen writer and director David Gethers, the 1979 telemovie was kinda-sorta endorsed by O’Neil, who claimed later in an interview that about “half of the film was accurate.” Either way, Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story is a truly gripping affair, helped to no end by the sensational leading performance of Stockard Channing, who concocts a staggering mix of toughness, naivete, sweetness, grit and sass to make Kitty O’Neil a truly three-dimensional figure here. Today, the role would more likely and more appropriately be played by a hearing-impaired performer, but that shouldn’t diminish the incredible work done in the film by Channing, an always-impressive actress due a little more credit than she currently receives.

“It’s been said of the films of Stockard Channing that they never live up to her performances in them,” Cecil Smith wrote in The Los Angeles Times in 1979. “For once, the material is worthy of the actress.” That’s certainly true of Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story, with Channing not just ripping into the film’s textured, nuanced and dynamic script, but also being met toe-to-toe by everyone else in the strong cast. Colleen Dewhurst is brilliant as Kitty’s tough, domineering, single-minded mother, who determinedly encourages her daughter to talk rather than use sign language (which may upset some sections of the contemporary audience), and pushes her relentlessly to succeed and meet her challenges head-on at every turn. It’s a bold, unforgiving performance typical of the towering Colleen Dewhurst, and she forms a vital pillar of the film’s narrative.

Brian Dennehy is equally strong as Kitty’s more sensitive, accepting father, and the film raises some pointed questions about how difficult it can be for parents with divergent opinions on how to best raise children with disabilities. Busy 1970s fixture Edward Albert brings an enjoyable sense of swagger to the role of a music industry wannabe who turns Kitty on to the joys of motorcycles, while the ever-underrated James Farentino is great as bank manager turned stuntman Duffy Hambleton, who forges a strong relationship with Kitty. The headstrong duo shares a number of powerful emotional scenes together, with the head-to-head intensity of their heated arguments (all edgily written by David Gethers) often shocking in their lack of compromise. Kitty and Duffy are two tough, don’t-back-down people, and Silent Victory doesn’t shy away from that occasionally difficult fact for a second.

Moving at a brisk pace (David Gethers cleverly deposits important plot information via casual dialogue) even while focusing more on O’Neil’s personal life than her splashy career as a stuntwoman and record-smashing daredevil, Silent Victory isn’t afraid to dig into the dark stuff while telling its essentially triumphant story. The scenes with Kitty as a child are deeply moving and occasionally upsetting (they also allow the brilliant Colleen Dewhurst to really shine), while a disturbing sequence where Kitty is violently attacked in a hotel room show how vulnerable those with disabilities can be even while displaying incredible bravery and independence. These elements only serve to make Kitty’s successes even more rewarding for the viewer, and Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story ultimately stands as a nuanced, sensitively handled, but appropriately gritty portrait of a truly extraordinary woman.

“My mother pushed me to read lips, but she didn’t push me in sports…I did that myself,” the extraordinary Kitty O’Neil said in a 1977 interview. “Because I was deaf, I had a very positive mental attitude. You have to show people you can do anything. I like my deafness. It’s a challenge. I’m not afraid of it…I know I’m deaf. But I’m still normal. The way I look at it, being handicapped is not a defect. People say I can’t do anything. I say to people I can do anything I want.”

Available on YouTube via The Chicago Museum For Television, Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story is in pretty ropey but still very much watchable form, and is presented as a complete CBS “Saturday Night Movies” broadcast, boasting in-programme interstitials and ads featuring Hayley Mills (plugging nappies!), Peter Horton (schilling for toothpaste), and Sam The Butcher from The Brady Bunch (doing his bit for Liquid Plumber drain-unblocker), as well as promos for upcoming CBS shows including, WTF, The Celebrity Challenge Of The Sexes (featuring Valerie Bertinelli, Lou Ferrigno and Sammy Davis Jr!), Billy (a sketch comedy show fronted by Steve Guttenberg!) and Flatbush (a seemingly Wanderers-derived comedy starring Adrian Zmed from Grease 2 and TJ Hooker). Nostalgia overload!