Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

IN REVIEW on-the-spot local news... when it happens, where it happens, as it happens! Man the tape recorder! Roll out the mobile pick-up truck! Those little independents with the big pull of country music have stolen the show again with on-the-spot local news coverage 5 minutes before the hour. Write in . . . cash in for your client! RICHARD III LAURENCE OLIVIER'S production of Shakespeare's "Richard III" is a motion picture masterpiece, and its American premiere March 1 1 on NBC-TV can well be described as the most successful union to date of television and the film industry. If perhaps some of the spectacle (in particular the final battle scenes) was lost in the reduction of the work to the tv screen, this loss was more than compensated by the dramatic impact of the more intimate passages. As the villianous nobleman who by his twisted machinations wins for himself the throne of England, Sir Laurence Olivier even surpasses the fine portrayals of his previous major film excursions into Shakespeare — "Henry V" and "Hamlet," and other members of the cast, including such skilled performers as Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Cedric Hardwicke and Claire Bloom, offer brilliant support. A special vote of thanks must go to the sponsors of the television showing for a minimum of carefully placed commercials and for devoting the major part of one of them to an entertaining talk by Dr. Frank Baxter, Shakespearean authority and wit, on the England of Richard's day. Production costs: Approximately $300,000. Sponsored by United Motors. Delco-Remy, Guide Lamp, A. C. Spark Plug and Pontiac Divs. of the General Motors Corp., through various agencies on NBC-TV, Sunday, March 11, 2:30-5:30 p.m. EST. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Cedric Hardwicke, Claire Bloom, Helen Haye, Pamela Brown. Producer-Director: Sir Laurence Olivier; associate director: Anthony Bushell; music by: Sir William Walton; played by: the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; conducted by: Muir Mathieson; production supervisor: John Gossage; production manager: Jack Martin. MIDDLE EAST REPORT ALTHOUGH interesting and informative, See It Now's latest 90-minute journalistic effort bent over so far to be fair that it lost its balance. Obviously, a problem which has been building for over 5,000 years cannot be adequately analyzed in so short a time, but it is to the credit of Messrs. Murrow and Friendly that they made at least a small, provocative attempt. However, one might have gotten the idea that the Arab-Israel struggle, the subject of the reporting effort by Edward R. Murrow (covering Israel), and Howard K. Smith (CBS European news chief covering Egypt for this program), was strictly a fight between Egyptians and Israelis rather than between the young Jewish state and half-a-dozen Arab countries. Even though Egypt's population of 22 million comprises about half the potential Arab protagonists (Israel's population: 1.8 million), Jordan's crack British-trained and supplied Arab Legion and oil-rich Saudi Arabia (land area three times that of Texas) are not to be taken lightly. See It Now barely mentioned them. This particular issue of SIN (as CBS affectionately calls it) should have had more "rest periods" to give the viewer a chance to digest the rather heavy material. Production costs: Approximately $85,000. Sustaining on CBS-TV, Tuesday, Mar. 13, 8:3010 p.m. EST. Editor and producer: Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly; reporters: Howard K. Smith and Edmund Scott; cameramen: Leo Rossi, Charles J. Mack and Martin Burnett, production men: Palmer Williams, Don Hewitt and Ed Jones; film editors: William Thomson, F. Howard O'Neill, Mili Lerner. THE TWISTED CROSS ONE REASON that Project 20's "The Twisted Cross" surpassed in scope and body the efforts spent on its first production, "Nightmare in Red," must have been that the producers had more material to work with — 90 million feet of film, to be exact [B«T, March 12]. Given this staggering footage and five years of time in which to properly distill it, the team that gave us Victory at Sea and "Three-TwoOne-Zero" effectively telescoped 25 years of German history into a scant 53 minutes. That they managed to accomplish this feat and still remain historically true is remarkable in itself. Starting out with the post World War I birth of the NSDAP Party in the gutters of Munich and ending in its fiery 1945 Gotterdammerung in the rubble of Berlin, the hour-long film was essentially a potpourri of official film shot during that period. Narration, by Alexander Scourby, and musical scoring, by Robert Russell Bennett, helped to frame this bloody canvas and lend more than just credence to Hitler's 1935 boast: "Give me 10 years and you will not recognize the face of Germany." Production costs: Approximately $125,000. Sponsored by North American Philips Co., N. Y„ through C. J. LaRoche & Co., N. Y., Wed., March 14, 9-10 p.m. EST on NBCTV (pre-empting time period usually occupied by Kraft Foods Co., J. Walter Thompson Co., N. Y., for Kraft Tv Theatre. Producer: Henry Salomon; writers: Donald Hyatt and Mr. Salomon; asst. producer: Mr. Hyatt; film editor: Isaac Kleinerman; asst. film editor: Silvio D'Alisera; research staff: Daniel Jones, Mel Stuart, Judith Greene; score: Robert Russell Bennett; narrator: Alexander Scourby. HIGH TOR IF ANYTHING was proved by the March 10 musical version of Maxwell Anderson's "High Tor" on Ford Star Jubliee, it was that someone was mistaken in his judgment of what is satisfying entertainment. But seeing this puzzler did lead to research that proved once more tv is boosting traffic in public libraries. A dazed viewer went to the neighborhood library to find out what the adaptation did to "High Tor" to turn it into a 90-minute question mark. Out of several copies of the play listed in the catalog, not one was to be found two days after the tv production. Maybe the play originally made sense. Saturday's musical version did not. Its fantasy was all right, and so was its slapstick. Arthur Schwartz' songs were singable, pleasant to hear. Some of them— like "I'm Livin' One Day at a Time" — may live awhile. Bing Crosby and the cast are all first rate artists. But the ingredients just wouldn't blend. Music, if there had been more of it, could have carried the senseless action along. But this weird comedy was neither musical nor play. Whatever it was, it was unworthy of Mr. Crosby and colleagues. Production costs: Approximately $250,000. Sponsored by Ford Div. of Ford Motor Co. through J. Walter Thompson on CBS-TV, Saturday, March 10, 9:30-11:00 p.m. EST. Stars: Bing Crosby, Nancy Olson, Julie Andrews, Everett Sloane, Hans Conried, Lloyd Corrigan and John Picard. Director: James Neilson; Producer: Arthur Schwartz; Story Based on Maxwell Anderson's play, "High Tor"; tv script: Maxwell Anderson and John Monks Jr.; music: Arthur Schwartz; lyrics: Maxwell Anderson; art director: Robert Tyler Lee. 5232 Lee Highway, Arlington, Va. Ken more 6-9000 IN NORFOLK, VA. WCMS Plume & Granby Streets Madison 5-0525 Combination rates available on request Page 14 • March 19, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting