Men Don't Tell

Men Don't Tell
CBS Advertisement for "Men Don't Tell"
Genre	Drama
Written by	Selma Thompson Jeff Andrus
Directed by	Harry Winer
Starring	Peter Strauss Judith Light
Theme music composer	Cameron Allan
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Nancy Bein
Producer(s)	Philip L. Parslow
Cinematography	Kees Van Oostrum
Editor(s)	David A. Simmons
Running time	95 minutes
Production company(s)	Daniel H. Blatt Productions Nancy Bein Productions Lorimar Television
Distributor	CBS
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	March 14, 1993 (1993-03-14)

Men Don't Tell is a 1993 television drama film starring Peter Strauss and Judith Light. It was directed by Harry Winer. The film first aired on the CBS network on March 14, 1993.

The film was based on the true story of a loving husband who is terrorized by the violent behavior of his wife.

The film stars Peter Strauss as Ed MacAffrey and, Judith Light as his wife Laura MacAffrey. Others in the film included James Gammon as Jack, Noble Willingham as Riley, Stephen Lee as Chuck, Mary Kane as Susan, Richard Gant as the Pope, Carroll Baker as Ruth and Ashley Johnson as Cindy.

After the original airing, the film was never rebroadcast on over-the-air television, reportedly because it incurred the wrath of several women's groups. However, the film was later shown a number of times on cable's Lifetime channel. The film has never been released on VHS or DVD, available unofficially only, recorded from the television showings. "Men Don't Tell" was seen in 18.3 million homes, ranking third among the week's prime time broadcast, behind ABC's Home Improvement and CBS's 60 Minutes.

An advertisement was created to promote the film's original broadcast.

An unofficial full upload of the film on YouTube has gained over 125,000 views since March 2011.

The film's tagline reads "It's not supposed to happen. But it does, more often than you think. And when it does...".

In the book Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence by Philip W. Cook, the film's producer Nancy Bein was interviewed about the film, which she believed the reaction of the film was the greatest of all relating issues to abused men. Bein stated "I decided to do this movie because a friend, who is a psychologist, told me about a client who was a police officer and who had been a victim of domestic violence."

In relation to the script writing, Bein stated "We made a very conscious effort to make sure the man was very masculine, because a number of people when they heard about the subject felt that the man must be very wimpy." In relation to the casting, Bein stated "Judith Light said yes immediately. Peter Strauss was our second choice. Our first choice was an actor who said he was very offended that we sent him the script. He was angry at his agent for soliciting the script and forwarding it to him for him to read. Peter Strauss, a very bright man, accepted and did a very good job."