Teller is a terrific actor, and he does a creditable job of playing the protagonist, Andrew Neiman, who's nineteen and idolizes Buddy Rich.
Bernard Malamud's short story, "Angel Levine," about how a black Jewish angel comes to earth to save the health, the wife, and the fortunes of a New York teller, is a charming, if slightly sensational, success in a minor genre.
Teller is a student at New York's fictional Shaffer Conservatory, where he catches the attention of Terence Fletcher (Simmons), the authoritarian leader of the school's concert band and an ostensible career maker.
America's most popular morality-tale teller is a master at putting people of seemingly impeccable character and high integrity in situations that corrosively challenge their ethics.
In this case, the teller is a good one, and by the time the protagonists meet and form an alliance amid mounting intrigue, "The Princess in the Opal Mask" becomes an invigorating read.
Being a teller was a good, if boring, lifetime job, straight out of an Orwell novel like Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
He believes Teller was a modern Coriolanus: acclaimed as a national hero (Teller made the cover of Time in 1957) for his H-bomb work, but later shunned (exiled) as hubris and jealousies set in.
Horrifying statistics being given amidst tears from the teller are a hard combination to ignore.
I will preface this story by saying, my elderly aunt is anything but sweet, but still the actions of the bank teller were a bit over the top.
