Variety (Jan 1949)

80 TELEVISION REVIEWS Wipdnesday, January 12, 1949 COLGATE THEATRE With Edward- Forbes, Alexander Kirkland, Howard Wendell, Neva Patterison, Lawrence Tib- bett, Jr., Peeity Conklin Writer: Beth Hodmn, iidapted by William L. Stuart Director! Hal Keith Producer: Viv McLeod, 30 Mins.: Mon., 9 p.m. COLGATE NBC-TV, from N. Y. JAZZ CONCEBT With Max KaMtnshy sextet, Henry ("Red") Allen, Willie ("The Lion") Smith, Edward Powell, Avon Long, Fran Warren; Jack McCarthy, commentator; Valerie Bettis, Georeres Ulmer, guests Director: Clark Jones 20 Mins.; Monday.^ 7:10 p.mi Sustaining - ' WPIX, N. ¥; N.Y. Daily News' WPIX, in Jazz Concert," has come up with .£t't^^r.l^n^^^J'A- nifty replacement for Eddie Con- low and insipid play. "The; don's "Floor Show," the World Haunting Years," the offering, was ; video package which recently completely devoid of quality. ' s^yit^hed over to the NBC-TV web. somfattSs'brtro^'ftrr of. carrying basically the same for- Ihosts to frighten a young gal out | mat. "Concert" features several of of her apartment. It was sup-» i the jazz insti-umentalists who have posed to be a gag of cosmic pro-j pj.,yg^ ^^.^^ ^i^g to time with SSlf rkindlglrdrromp' NonI' Condon and should grab off a good of the cast members had a chance I share of listeners among the under this load, and director Hal {squares who refuse to get hep to I Tele Follow-up Comment I ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦■♦♦t»»»»»*«»tt»<<«»»«4»»«»« M < » 4 > "Critic At Large," John Mason i Berle doing a Charlie Chaplin, in Brown's weekly half hour for WJZ, costume,, with Coogan as The Kid. r rr 1 • • tu» K„* It supplied plenty of howls, added put Television on the rack but ,k,hiAi, r<„„„or. w intn tha nnt Keith was forced to resort to in ept camera tricks to carry the ghostly, or rather, ghastly action. Keith, like everyone else, was vic- timized by the script. Two filmed plugs" for the Col- _gate_ product_ were expertly pro- duced. One for a hair shampoo had a slick musipal accompani- ment while the other, for a dish had an effective bebop, but want their music in the true jazz form. Show could ■ stand considerable polishing, particularly in the elim- ination of those phony guest spots. On the show caught (10), dancer Valerie_ Bettis and French singer Georges ~Ulmer~"were—'pominally- guests but, under the prodding of commentator Jack McCarthy, did Hem. washing soap, had an ettective: nothing but interfere with the mu Visual message and a nicely-toneo McCarthy himself should limit his remarks to an intro of the musi- cians; In addlti6n, that recorded au- dience applajase, inserted for obr 'should be ditched, commentary. «riu*'^S?l„K?I**nav rarl Reiner, vious reasons, snouid De aitcneo. ^n!^« sJxoS Pamela O'S K the show's good, the home view- Doris La^r PatsrDavis, Ela'ne ers can applaude with no prompt- 'Joyce' ■ ■ mg. Producer: Gene Seagle M"sic on the show was in the Director: Howard Cordery °"S'"«L ^''^V tradition and was 30 Mins., Thurs., 8 p.m. great. Max Kami»isky sextet, m- Particinating' eluding such name instrumentalists ABC-TV, New York '\^^J^r%^^ Sedric, Vernon Brown, lUKcuii-i, . . . , Smith and Edward Powell were standout in solo spots. Powell, a symphonic flautist, was especially entertaining with his novel "chro- neither tortured nor tickled the new medium. Frankly, nothing hap- pened. The only expert within camera range, anyway, was Dr. Al- len B. DuMont with other of Brown's guests being John Crosby, radio critic of the N. Y. Herald Tribune, and Charles (Bud) Barry, v.p. of tho ABC network. It was a cinch that Crosby wasn't going to contribute much when he started to apologize for his conv6r- I sational split infinitives^ and it I turned out just that way. Mr. I Barry was still tangled in the foi- I bles and fables of radio's reticence [ as to ever mentioning another pro- gram or ' station, and Dr. DuMont x;onfin6d himself to speaking only when spoken to. This left Mr. Brown to carry on practically alone, an unhappy occurrence be- cause Mr. Brown must be about the unhappiest man in the world —^-here-being no ..exp.ertsjn* tele- vision . except the :engineers,"~Be-: cause thfe rest of it is anyone's guess at the moment. Dr. DuMont's disinclination to chip in was a blow. So what is Mr. Brown going to do about television? Nothing, beyond dueling with a slight siege of ver- tigo at the thought of what it may do to the cultural, state of the union. For Mr. Brown has been seeing the very devil in the cards what with deploring the legitimate theatre one week, the movies the next, and comic strips and books the week after that. Indeed, Mr. Brown has gotten himself into one h^l of a mental mess so that the only happy hours left for him may be Sunday afternoons behind the locked doors of Brentano's. . As the medico forced at gunpoiht to perform an operation on ' a wounded yegg, Marlon Brando was to which Cooper got into the act I competent but imparted no special together, ^ „ With the turns well executed. And it's enhanced by some good pro- duction, But this multiple-sponsored pro- instrument Vocalist Fran value, winds up -.. ,. ^ comes to selling fashions. In spite of all heralded claims that lashions were right up the TV alley, this showcase in reality fulfilled none of these claims. It was a good scripting job as far as the commercial plugs were concerned, with the models (who ^ double as the entertainers) in de- j scribing their own dresses lending i a natural note. But the actual | film of the creations—and the I modelling of them-r-^lacked glamor and failed to project visually. Its possible that with simple, un- dramatic clothes, without the fan- fare of glitter and display, color Is a must in putting across women's apparel. Of course it's also pos- sible that these dresses just didn t have It. And It may be too much to expect anyone to double from vocals into modeling pipes in her solo bit and dancer Avon Long riffed through some fast; taps excellently. Clark' Jones^-camera-direction. for the most part, was good. Stal. Tele Sponsors SSSS Contiinied froni 1 sssil seldoni ftaVe. they heey abW to bring l^ Ii sliow ph^ t^^ production liwt, with added' ice tariffSj notably fijr ; scenery, running as high as , $4,000 addi- tionii. Swift recently foiind itself in need of a scene depicting the front porch'of iari Indiana liome. I NBC built it, but McCann-Ericksoh The Marylyn Dav, Carl Reiner i "gency execs were floored when duo deserve a good spot of their | they found they could have bought own on a variety show, without the | the entire Indiana property that drawbacks of tying together a' was represented at the same cost fashion show. costumed as the kid who drew laughs and tears with Wallace Beery./. ■ ■ Miss Green showed up well on tele, too. She did' much of her nitery turn first, th* imitations of George Arliss, et al., capped by an- other huge laugh piece with Berle in skirts as Mud Garde, sister to the Hildogarde takeoff by Miss Green. This was the highlight of the hour and It further labelled Berle as the top performer on video. As good as he and the piece was it showed Miss Green up as a sharp performer, too. For Berle didn't smother her as he has others in the same sort of situation. She stayed right with him, in fact at times seemed to'be stealing the bit herself. Calloway went over solidly, too. In his outlandish hep costume, used on stageshows, he kicked in with. the usual "St. James -Infirm^ ¥ry7'^TVBhilie~thB—Moocher'^and- edge to the role. Harry Bellaver, as the gunman, was hamstrung by cliched lines. Settings, direction and overall production were gbod for this series. worked with the other three. "Philco Television Playhouse's" version of "Cyrano de Bergerac" on NBC Sunday night (9) was a success: on all. .counts. Although slicing the two-and-a-half hour original to eo-minute size, the video play captured all of the glit- tering poetry and romantic fra- grance contained within Brian Hooker's translation of Edmond Rostand's classic. Nothing more could be asked, Jose Ferrer, in his TV debut, dressed the title role with the same sweep that marked his Broadway legit performance. Ferrer, sur- rounded by other superlative play- ers also recruited from-the Broad- way cast, was the indispensable pivot in the play's alternation' be- tween wit and pathos. Frances Held,'as Roxanne; Erne.st Graves Rose. MUSIC IN VELVET With Johnny Hill, Kermit and Gloria, Don Lindley. And Vel- veteers (16) Producer-Director: Ed Skotch 30 Mins.: Sun,. 1 p.m. . Sustaining WENR-TV, Chicago It's somewhat early in video his- tory to classify shows as "restful," but that's the word that most nearly sums up this musical. There's not a word spoken in it. Credits and song titles are super- imposed on shots of the orch or on hands plucking harp strings. Latter serve fo r transitions throughout. Deft cutting and camera work of the stage mounting, Kraft and J. Walter Thompson, Philco and Admiral have complain- ed of similar exhorbitant tariffs, I but find they're helpless in remedy- ing the. situation. : Max Liebman, whose new revue for Admiral preems Jan. 28, made overtures to open his own scenic shop in connection with the forth- coming ambitious musical produc- tion. Plan was to take on 10 scenic designers. NBC chimed in with a definite, nix, claiming that all sets must be mounted by the network. Similarly, a few of the agencies involved in the NBC productions tried to band together and open a. cooperative outside scenic house Rudy Vallec certainly evidenced his know-how and likelihood for television, judging from his first Sunday night guest-shot (2) on the Ed Sullivan "Toast of the Town" ; as Christian, and Robert Carroll, as program. Vallee was scheduled to the between-the-scenes narrator repeat last Sunday (9) on the show, but his N. Y. Latin Quarter nitery opening that night necessitated a postponement until the following week (16). Authoritative, poised and show- wise, the contrast didn't do the regular emcee Sullivan any good, although both laughed it off ef- fectively, inasmuch as both were reading from script perched on a not-too-well-camouflaged e a se 1. When one stepped on the other's lines they capitalized on it to gen- eral acceptance. Vallee wears his 20 years in show business with aplomb and complete juvenility— obliquely pointing up the full crop of hair and the lack of em- boinpoint—and was sufficiently nostalgic without being AK. In fact the passing double-decade, ac- cented by songs now gone in memory, was tribute to the "Vaga^ "Studio One," the dramatic work- shop series which the CBS-AM staff rounded into one of the: most adult on the air, has become even more successful in its . television version under the excellent pro- duction supervision of Worthington Miner. For the fifth in the TV series last Sunday (9) night. Miner presented an adaptation of Millen- Brand's w.k. novel, "The Outward Room," via a superb adaptation by Joseph Liss. The/quality of the i production, direction and acting combined to point up emphatically that tele can handle the best In drama: at least as well as any other medium. —Mi ner—took—the, jqpporluiiiiy, _fin Sunday night's show t6 • corisoli-"^ date several: of the production techniques he's innovated in the series. Integration of film clips with the live pei'formance, often coming with rapid-fire cuts, ran with split-second precision and the use of a pre-recorded disk for star Ruth Ford's introspective thinking . aided immeasurably: in pointing up the dramatic impact of the play's: phychological motif. That roof scene, with the clouds moving slowly across: the screen in the background, was equally good. Cast was standout. Miss Ford, as the psychoneurotic; was realistic throughout the difficult portrayal and Bramwell Fletcher, as her doc- - tor, turned in a neat'performance in .his comparatively short scenes.- John Forsythe, as the young ma- chinist who helped Miss Ford'to recovery, gave an excellent reading to his lines, and Joe Silver and Lotte Stavisky, as his young me Deiween-(ne-scenes narrator, ^ joined with Ferrer to make this tE^^Jf^'^.^J^ S!^ supporting ofTering a top video medley of grace and eloquence. Producer-director Fred Coe once again framed the dramatic ele- ments to the needs of the TV screen. The, long and intricate opening duel sequence was bril- liantly executed. The imaginative .settings, some fully furnished and others only suggested, and the light effects, especially the stark black and white sculpturing of the war camp scene; contributed heavily in creating a rounded ■ dramatic illu- sion. . Between-tlie-act plugs, using a familiar formula on this' airer, resurrected the ghost of Stradavari, the violin-maker, to sing the praises of Philco sets. "We, The PedpleV^ isimulcast bh CBS still has only: a miI4 Impact as video, fare dest>ite an attempt to hypo the program, by shifting the emcees from week to week. On the TV screen, the .Sti'aight in* terview ty|)e of program is too* static and becomes doubly so when some of the participants are shown reading from scripts. Last Tues- day's shoW (4) rated better than average due to the guest Appear- ances of opera singer Ezib Pihza and actbr Paul Henreid and the personable emeeelng by Bennett eerf, - Random House head. Both Pihza and Henreid delivered solid ^ , . „ , Silvers gave viewers a bits, the former doing a solp oh an bond Lover and the manner in | burlesqued autobiography on his I old American ballad and the latter which the years rested lightly on i."Arrow Show" Thursday (6) night I giving an effectively schmamy *■ on the NBC-TV web, with bur-i recitation of Poe's "Annabelle roles. Difficult camera direction, under the capable supervi.sion of Paul Nickell, ran off without a hitch. — -- - him. Vallee made this show off-bal- ance, dominating it so well as to make the clcslng -quartet. The Ravens, and the intervening stage- box heckling by Pat C. Flick, thoroughly antl-cllmactlc. Sullivan continues "casting" his audiences with such personalities as gridders. lesque naturally getting the chief emphasis. Any blue material) of course, was completely deleted, but what remained still emerged as the best Silvers has done in the series yet. That "Flugel Street" I'outlne, with Silvers and Joey Faye play- ing straight men to Jack Diamond Lee." The others, culled from odd columns qf. news, varied' from a 90-year old marathon walker to a legendary British spy. A more.' dramatic format for presenting these human''interest facets is ur- gently required. golfers and boxers, a holdover i must have brought forth ple'asanf from the emcee-columnlst's back-1 nostalgia for some of the viewers ground, as sports writer,' and ofiand yocks from those who had for the mounting of productions, prevent monotony in lenslng the « f'fOO » ""i^^ "ceiling" for mch. Shots are skillfully synchro- ^± the. P™grams mvolved This, too, however, was rejected, it's reported. , the agehcie^ and clients contend that, with the incteasing series of dramatic, bigtlme:: vaudeo pteseiita- tidns coming before the NBC video caniftras ,the network is no longer tooled up to meet the expanding commitments for turning out scenic | facilities. As result, ah enormous] amount Of overtime •^is involved nized, with the camera panning among musicians during 'en.semble work, then cutting for closeups of those accented by the Scores Inter- play of camera and music is gen- erally smooth and precise. Stand- ards in relaxed tempo are the main fare. Strings and woodwinds dominate the orch. On show viewed Johnny Hill biintoned three songs in good if restrained, style Kermit and and it's this factor, perhaps more and barefoot Haitian weaving to drums. Only musician spotlighted was George Barnes, who worked over a show tune expertly on amp- lified guitar. All in all, "Music in Velvet" stacks up as good standard video entertainment. Through imagina- tive presentation, it provides re- buttal to some who have'argued that orchs are too static for "fuU- length tele programming., • .: in the spiraled Costs; Some are squawking o^er the fact that, in their estimation, NBC should be rendering the scenic work as a service on a non-profit basis. But instead It becomes an over-rights cost-plus operation, which is passed on to the client. And by the time the agency adds on'its own 15% ftncluding the over- rights) the bankroUer has plenty Jo yap about. course such diverse names as Sid' ney Blaefcmer, Anita Colby and Arthur Murray. Last Sunday's (9) bill was stand- ard "Toast" fare, enhanced by a triple showcasing of the new school comics—Harvey Stone (doing a re- peat), Georgie Kaye and Frank Fontaine (the latter a particular smash with a reprise of his sweep- stakes winner bit.) Luise Rainer, in her first time up in video, pro- vided an effective dramatic inter- lude with a re-enactment of her Anna Held telephonic sequence from "The Great Ziegfeld" pic, and revealing a magnetic TV charm in some supplemental cur- tain chitchat with the "Toast" emcee. Neat, showmanly trick leading up the Rainer bit was a series of Patricia Bright-Frank ipntaine impersonation vignettes ot top pix personalities (Hepburn, Cary Grant, Edward G, Robinson, etc.) m w.k. pix telephonic sequences. '. Benny, A & A Continued from page 27 never seeji it before. Its success on TV proves further how the new medium can use this old m'aterial Mr-m r. v. , i to advantage. " * ■ man WiUiam S. Pa ley .snared the Silvers' .takeoff on a typical 1comedy shows from the rival hurley line was standout, as was, NBC web. Question of how they'll Iht IhL?^ !'n^i.f,ni°i''°fi; ^|be used in TV is expected to be skits^al'okav bu^ot So tX '''^''''^ ^'^^ burlesqui par' Program"'has° it fLu'^Z.''''''''°'\ "hv proved slowly since its preem, but T'^"^ Stanton s reportedly ready it's difficult to put the finger on ^° S*^^ with the an.swers. New exactly what causes its sometimes: studies have been in operation for static - quality, especially in view some time, but their formal kickoff Milton Berle had himself a ball "S**'" on his Texaco show (NBC) with guest names Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper, Mitzi Green and Cab Calloway, latter working as a single. Situation par- ticularly fitted Berle in so far as Coogan and Cooper were con- cerned. Neither has an act in the strict sense of the word, so one was wl}ippe4 up. IJi^Juf oily, it depicted pf Silvers' talents; Production mountings were good. Show uses hurley's blackout techniques well, adapting It to TV has reportedly been delayed to lend further emphasis to the clinic. Talks, panel discussions and demonstrations at the aff'air will to cut from one skit to another.' spotlight the theme that tele is a Comiviorcials. were neatly ban-' going business now, but sales vee- T uny wlT. ^".'••i^'^^u^''/?''^-' P<=e William C. Gitlingcr will still TrinlPts Tpmnip T«v t^e Mack. center his talk on the point that luplets. Temple Texas and the "we're still spllinc AM'' nlscus- rest of the cast, should eventually ■ sinL%r» In hi il^ f.; qToS merge into a unit with Silvers that i c^tZ „lL^^r r v^^uth will boost the show's Hooper to Y^^P^.^ J-Y"" ^Y,*?L*^ what was griginally expected of it. hurg, engineering veejice William I Lodge, program chief Charles "AMiirK VtttAitt" -^Y-A^^^^ir^A „ u„» i Underbill, news and special events: ter-fha^rSVeS"^^^ A. CheLl^ slalions TV Sunday night (9) but still sLws I''^'^1°?^ ^^'^P''^ J- ^^^Ji^^}'^' doctor and some gangsters that was manager of WMAR-TV (Baltimore); interesting but never quite came I Fort Industries prez George B. alive. Partly it was due to a form-! Storer, and WCAU-TV ipiiiladel- less plot and partly to inadequate 1 phia) program chief G. Bcnnelt ttfespjng ,,l|y spme ot. tlie, pli^ers.jl f^af^n jsjijl, ali;o |pq^, > u