Variety (December 1950)

34 TELEVIS10:V REVIEWS P^fiiEir ♦ 4 ♦ > ♦♦»♦»♦»♦♦ ♦ ^4 ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 4 ♦ ♦ » ♦ > ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ » » > f ♦ 4- Eddie Cantor’s stint Sunday (3) rector James McNaughton didn’t on “Colgate Comedy Hour” stole [ haye to worry about the usual de- a inarch for NBC-TV in getting signs, his stark settings and black the Christmas spirit into TV three i background added to the illusion, weeks ahead of time, with a good j Arnold toned down his stand- pavoff in entertainment values. 'ard bombasity to give an effective Cantor kicked off the Stanza with' portrayal of the ‘’stage a tune that had special holiday and neat backing by the show and Comedian kept the with a fast pace with his ‘‘Maxie the wasn’t one of his was abetted by and Jack Albert- the lyrics chorus, moving clicked turn, although it best. In it. lie Dick Van Patten son. Connie Sawyer added to whimsiealities, socking over lament of the girl who can’t; get a guy. in which she ^^uotes sup- po.sod Bureau of Statistics figures on the large , surplus of manhunt- ing dames. She also joined Gantor in a fairly amusing sketch in which they played a nearsighted couple. The skit, in which each partner blunders blindly around the room, was nicely handled; although it was overiong. It’s a familiar turn, . , , and. wa.s done (with .variations, of i course > back of the ‘’stage manager and harrator. Elizabeth Patterson and Don McKee, as the Webbs, and Charles Dingle and Dorothy Peterson, as the Gibbs, were ex- cellent. Betty Caulfield, the chief protagonist next to Arnold as the young daughter, scored with one of her best video: jobs to date and Biff McGuii'e showed unsuspected talents as her childhood sweet- ]ier beart. Supporting cast was good, get and the show carried the usual top production mountings usually as- sociated with this series. Announcer got in a short plug for Sol Lesser’s “Tarzan’.’ film series, appai'ently in return for the series getting kine.scope rights to; the property, to which,Lesser owns film rights. Plug was probably a necessity and was tossed in after the first act intermission commer- .xcu .vawavx..*., ... of place, only a couple, of months i \ usual, by Jack Haley and Betty and Jane Kean.: Les Zoris were effective in their; adagio in which the gah dressed, as i a Jeopard, attacks and fights her i male partner. The Amadis aero j troupe was nicely integrated into • the finale, a Babes in Toy land i number, in Which . they were' Dodge-sponsored “Show Time, the Snowman,“Let It Snow" and the like. A fine dance sequence was provided to the music of “Sleigh Hide" by Nadine Gae and Marc Breaux. An alternate set in the production was the interior of a cabin, through the windows of wliich could be seen the out- door scene. The “Molly Malone" sequence featured additional lyrics by Bill Goodhart and a special musical arrangement and vocal narration by Stuart Churchill. It was a dramatic expansion bn the theme of the sohgi and Was graced by a fine performance by Gloria Mudell as Molly. The other numbers on the show were either straight vocal Works sung in front of the orchestra, or simple productions around a pop song. In these the Glee Club, pai.sy Bernier, Joe Marine, Jane Wilson. Leonard Kranendonk and Joanne Wheatley , did fine jobs* Some excellent lerising was evi- dent in the televising of the work of the twin piano team of Virginia and Living.ston Gearhaii:. with the camera catching the ..two' siniulta- neou.sly from a number of unusual positions. . “Billy Rose la.st Tuesday suspense tale, ei'ful impact fthere wasn’t Show" oh ABG-TV (28) offered a sock It achieved a pow- not from violence a single gory scene), USA^’ stanza ort . ABC-TV Sunday (3) evening was an entertaining layout comprising Variegated ele- ments, highlighted by a brief scene from Clifford Odets’ “Country Girl," with Uta Hagen and Paul gariiod a.s downs. ' That toyland | Kelly appearing in one of the cli- j tions and the excellent timing of routine had appeal and yoiing j Ii^actic scenes of their legit hit. its denouement. June Keegan helped put it over Vinton Freedley, program’s “host," ] wil l! a Yule .song. . did the “sjmopsis" commentary on I Joe Bushkin^ the composer- the Odets story, to give the cap-i pianist, backed Cantor slickly at j sule scene a more meaningful im-! tire keyboard in “Dust Off That ' Pact. - | Old Piano" and “Ballin’ the Jack.’ I Otherwise the show was paced One commercial cutely used ani-' ^oi* maximum variety values, With i mated cartoons of Cantor with his i Veronica Lake as guest emcee. Ray j Middleton vOcalled his “Girl That,: I Marry" from his “Annie Get . Your Gun" musical, backgrounded ' by some cowpoke lookers. Buddy : Lester contributed some zahyisms that might have stepped out of brother Jerry’s “Broadway Open i but from elTcctive characteriza- Yarn Concerned a mild-man- nered Belgian (played by Roinney Brent) who was arrested fpr hav- ing murdered six young women. He was trapped by Leo G. Carroll, who neatly portrayed the detec- WecliieBflayf Deceii^iber 6, 1950 show on shocker. SURVIVAL UNDER ATOMIC ATTACK With Gapt, Robert Burden, Guthrie F. Crowe, Neil Dalton, Capt. Ar- thur E. Kimberling; Pete French, narrator; Ray Shelton, announcer Producer: Dorcas Ruthenburg Writer-director: Pete Katz 30 Mins., Saturday, 9 p.m. Sustaining WHAS-TV, Louisville This is a public service TV that could have been a Based on the premise, “What would you do in the event of an atom bomb attack on . Louisville?,’’ producers took care to point up that purpose of the show was to urge viewers to take time right now to consider the atom bomb and survival of the citizens. So an- nouncer Ray; Shelton emphasized that “This is just a program-—but there could be a bomber carrying equivalent of 20.000 tons of TNT on its way to Louisville right now." Teeoff had sound effects, and superimposed film clib of an atomic explosion, showing roughiy how ah atom bomb explosion over Louisville, considered a key indus- trial center, would have looked—^ if there had been an explosion. Camera then cut to Pete French, narrator, talking from the WHAS transmitter at Eastwood, Ky. .Sim- ulated French's description of the bombing to the outside world, and to those people In Louisville area that had . portable radios. Then followed a recital of the precau- tions to be taken in the area. The narration was intensely realistic, and station reported that some calls came in inquiring if such a thing had really happened. From a map of the greatel* Louis- ville area on the wall, French gave his simulated picture of the situa tion. RCA COLOR REVIEW (‘Color Carousel’) With Jeanne Warner, Inga Run- void, Mary Jane Hayes, Botte Bradley, Ann Anderson, Lillian Taylun, Pat McGowan. Producer: Vance Halleck Narrator: Ray Michael Supervising Engineer:^ Joseph Col- lege WNBW-NBC: Washington, D. C. Latest demonstration of the im- proved RCA tri-color tube shows definitely that the final decision in the color sweepstakes is not yet in. That the big company is still in there punching, and still a power to be reckoned with, was conclusively proven in its Wash- ington studios Tuesday (5). Productibnwise, NBC, profiting from past errors, left nothing to chance. Though carefully labelled as “not in the entertainment field,’’ the show used in the D C, tests was a well-coordinated, skill- fully planned and highly polished presentation. Explanation of .RC A engineer Dr. Engstrom that enter- tainment had been deliberately shunned in order to avoid distract^- ing viewers from, the color issue, was not completely satisfactory. Succe.ssion of everyday objects presented resulted in a deliberate, comparatively static picture, omit- ting demonstration of the system under the more rigid requirements of fast motion, as requiied by such activities as terping. It wais in the show itself that NBC literally tossed the book at the assemblage. Usiiig a carousel with a revolving circus miotif as Describing the extent of the i f if damage and . casualties, he esti-! mated that about three-quarters of; and unit format v as a square mile had been virtually five daughters shampooing with and Halo. wife Ida wiped oiit, eight square miles of tiVO Tho cnoooS'lw 1 moderate damage, and another four i Walter S^n p avin^ moderate damage, i waicev nampaen. piaying a ceie French estimated light damage had achieved via a hep continuity handled in straight, almosf docu- mentary style by WNBW staffer Michael. Accent was on power of color per'se, with plugs brated defense attorney, who with | Keer^Dorted'as f^r aw^"as cidit'«ie RCA brand omitted. a slick dramatic tour de force got I i Following the announced “mod the coujetroom and the jurors to Jimmy Durante remains one of i the most refreshing and durable! enterlainer.s of this day. His sec-1 ond display in the Motorola Wed- ne.sday night series on N]^ gave . further credence to the Schnoz’s 1 claim that he’s “got a million of i ’em” It will probably take j months of showings before Du-1 rante's catalog is exhausted. ! Durante’s second show had at^ least one inspirational moment.; The bit with the Wagnerian so-1 prano Helen Traubel was one of { the major delights of the video season. Contrast between the two personalities was sufficient to cause 1 chuckles, but when Miss Traubel i did a Durante with the original, it was a highpoint of a show that had in itself many sequences of sheer enjoyment. The second program couldn’t have the impact of the initial show inasmuch as Durante’s appear- ance was long anticipated and in- cluded the pick of a distinguished catalog of comedy. But even with- out the contrast of the two stanzas, the second can stand on its own as a prime collection of Duranti- ana. The Beak was on for at least 50 minutes of the hour stanza, without wearing out his welcome. As long as Durante elects to per- form for that length of time, en- tertainment values are assured. Aside from a bit with Miss Trau- bel. the other major highlight was the nitery scene with his peren- nial aides, singer-strutter Eddie Jackson and drummer A1 Roth. This sequence had the madhouse pace that has always been Du- rante’s. forte. Trick-voiced Gandy Gandido did the “Pussy Cat Song’’with Durante ^ for good results, The ribbing com-1 mereials and the general produc- 1 tion tenor also had good video ’ values. . . I House’’ late night vidio madcaps : (save for the age-old show biz con- ' troversy as to “which one came ! first?”), and Brenda Forbes re- I prised the Dega “Ballerina" i brought to life in a charming ren- dition of “Born For This." look at the door for one of the defendant’s victims to enter. 'The fact that they looked, he argued, proved that there was a “reason- his client’s guilt therefore vote to ABC-TV’s Pulitz’er .Prize house" reverted to the. original technique of staging TJiprnton Wilder’s “Our Town" on a stage without scenery Friday night (1). With an excellent cast headed by filin actor Edward Arnold and witli exccptionalTy good production and direction by Edgar Peterson oyer and Frank Telford,, the show ; Last emerged as fine, adult entertaih- ment. stilling the playwright’s moral as subtly but also as effec- tively as Frank Craven and the original Broadway-cast did. With only a couple of trellises and'some odd chairs, and tables for props, the cast neatly "worked in pantomime with the dialog to indi- cate the action. Even more im- portant. though, was the imagina- tive camera work provided -by Pelersoii and Telford* Use of over- head shots, split-screen, dis.solves, etc,, eliminated the need for sots and made the show as much aii appreciated experience for viewers as the Broadway producflon was CBS-TV’s “Somerset Maugham Theatre" staged a neatly-cortceivcd version of one of the author’s classic short 'stories, “String of Beads," Wednesday, night (29). Even though both th'e climax and anti-climax were telegraphed in the original yarn, adapter Don Ettlinger managed to work up a script that sustained viewer inter- est for the full half-hour when combined with some good thesping by an accomplished cast. Produc- tion credits, including some attrac- tive sets, were good but the cam- era work at times was slipshod. Gwen Anderson topped the ca.st as the orphaned governess who owned the string of pearls that caused all the trouble, and scored with her thesping. John Van Dreelen made for a good heel, out to marry her only for her money, and Tonio Selwart registered strongly as the suave jewel expert, Anna Lee and Booth Coleman con- tributed fine work as a haughty British Tory couple, although Coleman^ caricatured his role at times. Maugham’s intro and closing re- marks on the series, incidentally, are now being carried on film, which was lensed shortly after his arrival in the U, S, Maggi Mc- Nellis continues to do a standout job as progranv hostess and the Tintair commercials middle plug bn Gloria DeHa ven, in fact, probably one^ef the most effective able, doubt" of and they must acquit. However, with only two minutes left on the airer, one of the judges -—acted admirably by Ivan Simp- son — at first \vas tantalizingly incoherent but finally pulled out the clincher: the defendant him- self hadn’t looked toward the door, and thereby betrayed his knowl- edge that the victim was dead. It was a neat piece of produc- tion by Jed Harris. Unfortunatelv,' stanza ran a bit too long and full cast credits weren’t screened. I Gilbert and Sullivan’s : eretta, “Trial By Jury,’’ ! sented by. “Nash Airflyte on CBS-TV Thursday made a pleasant offering. first op- was pre- Theatre" (30) and This is not one of the best in the G&S catalog, but it came over with a I feeling of gayety and, because it is I hot as familiar as the “Mikado" i or “H.M.S.: Pinafore," it had a ; frevSh appeal. As produced by Marc Daniels. ! “Triai” was short on plot, being ; merely the vocal antics in a court- ! room where a girl is suing her \ sweetheart for breach-of-promise. f But it made an amusing satire of I the British judicial system as the jurors swooned over Patricia- Mori- miles from center pf the blast—or a total damage area of nearly 200 square miles. Estimates of killed and wounded were given as well over 60,000 in the initial blast, to say nothing of the missing and dead unreported. Then followed instructions on procedure for those in the radioactive areas. Cameras then on a panel hold- ing a meeting which had taken place to prepare against an atomic attack. Meeting might have in- cluded Capt. Robert Burdon, Chief Drillmaster of the Louisville Fire Department, an expert on chemical .warfare; State Police Commis- sioner. Guthrie Crow'e; Neil Dal- ton, Louisville co-ordinator of Civilian Defense in WW 2, and Capt. Arthur E. Kimberling, Di- rector of Civil Defense Unit. Panel discussed first plans which might have been drawn to meet the pos- i sibility of an atom bomb attack. I Summing up, Dalton told the panoJ . its main job was to recommend to ' the city concrete steps to be taken , to prepare for an atomic bomb at- I tack. He used charts and a map to ! point up the discussion. French then came back pn screen to a.ssure viewers that an atom bomb' had not hit Louisville, and he hoped it never would, but summed up that to be forwarned is to be forearmed, and told some of the thipgs to do to help protect the citizen and his family. Technical data was compiled by Charles Johnson, , . , special art w'ork son, w'ho charmingly sang the role ; by . Willia^ White. Assisting in di of the plaintiff. Ralph Rig^s was' action were Robert PH — l 1 • 1 . A ’J* ^ • t t ■ 4 M • m ^ d ^ _ .. _ delightful as the judge, in a man- ner reminiscent. of Bobbv Clark’s shenanigans on the bench, as: he w’oocd the jilted la.ss and finallv took her as his bride. Donald Clark Was neat as the fickle de- fendant W'ho would gladly “many 5 are good That ■ ' V i wuuju giauiy many film, j in tact, doel! a. tunefui,.ll Pilkington and Michael London. First of a series, WHAS-TV will cany other .shows on the subject, going into detail on survival. under atomic attack: Peter Katz as scriptcr- director can take a bow- for. this one. Wied. if frothy, farce. As host-emcee 'wil- selling jobs on TV with its excel-' integrated nicely lent dissolve work smopth prpduction. and genmalSr; coincdic atmosphere. A!wa 5 's a sur^ bet to deliver taste- ful productions; of popular music favorites, Fred Waring has carried his reputation into television. Sunday’s (3) edition pf his CBS-TV shpwwas one of the bet- ter segments In the series, which is to say it was tops for musical entertainment. Standout features of the show were two productions numbers, one of the folk spng, “Molly Malone" and the other a sequence of win- ter songs in one setting. Latter was one of the finest production jobs yet seen ort teevee. Based on an idea from “Pardon 'Our Frenchsequence centered around a snowman set in a country back- ground, with snow falling and cov- ering the ground. Various mem- bers NBG’s “Your Show of Show's" maintains ah even level of enter- tainment. The mature comedy ; and sapient production provides a brand of entertainment, ihere s only one flaw. Discount- ing reprises of some top comedy spots from- previous stanzas, there’s a tendency to stick to the format' so closely that a viewer frequently gets the idea he’s seen all this before. Teamirig of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca remains one of the bright spots In video* The duo, joint- ly and sejparately, can brighten up’ most any bit of comedy ma- terial. The exposition of cliches remains an amusing bit and their pantomime of an evening at home similarly hits a laugh jackpot. In- dividual comedy bits were reprises. Cae.sar did his by now familiar of the chorus and featured . . , A. '^4 ^cast came out and sang numbers Ithe life of an Infant, while Merman, Miss Trunian, Swanson^ McBride Cited Ethel Merman, Gloria Swanson, i Mary Margaret McBride and Mar ! I garet Truman were named as “out- I standing women of the year" in their respective fields of legit, films, radio and music in the an nual Associated Pre. J poll of tJ. S* women newspaper editors. Author- ess Pearl S. Buck, was tabbed out- standing w p m a n iii the field pf literature for her article, “The Child Who Never Grew," dealing with her own daughter* Tennis star Gussie Moran was cited as the out- standing woman sports figure. Perle Mesta, American Minister to Luxembourg, was hamed “Wo- man of thje Year," Incidentally, the part played by Miss Merman in the current Broadway production of “Call Me Madam’’ is fashioned Following the announced ern living" theme, show' delved first into decorative and color pos- sibilities of food. A ham, complete witli fruit and vegetable trim- mings, was show'U, with brown- haired Jeanne Yarner handling the blurbs and adding eye interest. Baskets of fruit and vegetables separately displayed gave evidence of the authenpity of color and tex- ture, while gal’s pale green dress lent additional contrast. A suc^ cession of familiar household pack- ages—breakfa.st food, soaps,’^ and even the model’s package of ciga- rettes, suggested commercial pos- sibilities of tinted TV. A trek into the realm of “M’Lady" next gave opportunitj^ for an array of fabrics and fash- ions, again stressing texture im- proventent in the system, as well as fidelity of color. Mary Jane Hayes not only handled the com- mentary of this portion, but she, too, was part of the color pattern in costume and background. Windup accented the Christmas scene, again capitalizing on variety and effect of color in the displays. Beside the Yuletide wreaths and background motif. Bette Bradley displayed a series of bright toys, which showed up particularly well and appealingly on the screen. Michael appeared in this portion, doubling as model in a bright plaid jacket, and announcer. Musi- cal background throughout was gay and light, in keeping with the merry-go-round motif. Except for the absence of fast motion, show' offered variety in types apd color of objects, well de- signed to anticipate questions and to combat skepticism. Cdlorw'ise. results lived up ; to, narrator Michaersv promise of an “Adventure in Color." There can be no question that RCA has met its bw'rt challenge of improvement on seven basic points. The image seen Tuesday in ; the WNBW studios were brighter,, more. failh- ful in color, truer to life iri.tbxture, brighter and sharper, than in pa.st. Most marked improvement was in the reds and blues, thanks to the hew pho.splvers ih the tube. Reds were not only clearer, but the tinge cast by this strong coloiv has been noticably reduced. Receptiph was consistent with- out additional hahdlihg beyond the initial tuning in.‘ On the debit side, the green fringe which has plagued the RCA system is still apparent, thoffgh to less extent. Turning to the irieviUble com- parison with CBS color, It must be stated that the gap between the two systems has narrowed down to the point where absolutely ac- curate comparison cannot be made from 'memory, RCA color still seems to this reviewer to lack the warmth, and the effect of depth of the rival systeih. It all stacked up however, in production and col- or, as acceptable in any home. i» 3-t*.K 4 ♦ # Jt * ir *.4 k #*1,1 * 3,4 4 I «J iff ■mi