Variety (December 1953)

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦< Television Followup Comment ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦■♦♦ ♦♦♦ Padercw- oy^ others (.«*orE«* Axelrod. who success falls hurdled the transition Horn dio 'I V w riling to legit with one Broadways standout smashes • < :n " riie Seven-Year Itch,’’ all about it m a kidding and flit|ill v ay on Monday night s Studio One’’ presentation. It railed‘ r, r'tir)fi ssions of a N'crv- .Man ” and it was a very tunny indeed, and given a line pro- Mmorin l? himself as tin i • t 111 lo ' told <n In a;fOi v a ous I ■ ! •» > w ith ski’s that made othi r to 1)1 “Missouri Walt/, “Minuet ’ and a _ weren't too difficult. She one flub, hut was given an- chame. Miss Truman seems an amiable citizen who dm i ion himself |i ; utiit v pe f or the "( omedy docu- n.entaiAxeliod kidded himself - and loved every moment of it. J tom the pla.vwng.ht s own per- sonal appeal anee intro to the (los- ing 1 tin -isrwfiere-I cathe in.’’ it was fast, clever and lull of chuckles anil laughter. Axelrod hit oil a wonderful idea (the interminable hour or so be- tween the final curtain on opening night of a first play and the arrival makes a likeable impression on viewers. Wuen not confined to a script, she seems to enliven a screen. Mrs Truman’s appearance came on tin* first anni show of the Harry Salter eoweivcd program, lied Henson emcees a lively show that calls for a degree of musical erudi- tion on the part of the contestants Vicki Mills di/es the vocals and Salter’s nYusical accomps are ex- cellent. Jose'. well-nigh unbearable oppression under which we live; and. after all. “there’s always been an H-bomb.” Second segment was a 10-minute film on the almost extinct Califor- nia condor, from Edward Harri- son’s ’Song of the Bird’” <UA>. which look seven years to make. It made an unusual entry with Cooke’s narration a model of inter- esting detail. Tran. of the morning papers with the director Paul Felix Jackson y of well exe- played it the right reviews) and fie, Niekelt, producer and a whole galli culed characterizations to the hilt, with just nuances. What happens in that hour pro- vides the play’s fun. There is time enough for the playwright to rise to the heights of elation in i/ing nothing less than the Prize for the literature, while at the next moment he’s in utter de.-pair wishing he were dead. The a u mate fantasies visualing the changing conviction always main- 1 dned the light touch throughout. A lot o! it was spoofing on the square. with the hindsight of one that has known nothing hut suc- cess There was a clever title drawing by William Steig and an ingenious way of caricaturing the critical trio of Atkinson. Kerr & Chapman, plus other touches that were imaginative and added to* the comedy Ait Carney rates heaps of praise for his portrayal of the playwright. While Axelrod rode wide and handsome with tin* dialog. Carney knew exactly what to do with it.j There were other, tine touches; i Jacqueline Susanii as a (labor- type late night disk jockey; Jerry hieltv as a bartender. Mramwell ; ► 1 leti hell as a producer, among others. Hose. : I I’liil Harris stepped into the ome-a-montli “All Star Revue”| slot on NBC-TV Saturday night • IMP with an okay mix of situation comedy and straight vaudeo. It was a good idea to carry the 90- minutc session with some kind of, story line tint the script was so ; fragile that it snapped in places and the show reverted to revue I form with acts popping into the *hm.v for no particular reason. \N oat story line there was re -1 voiced around a benefit show that Harris was supposed to give for a bankrupt college. On the campus, I he discovers a professor. Edward j Everett Horton, who has an un- 1 canny faculty for picking horses. With this kind of work from. Harris breaks the bookies and then has to lam to avoid their strong-arm retaliation. The elements of “Three Men on a Horse" and “Charley's Aunt" were obvious but it was all done in once-over-lightly style that no- body could take seriously. The guests on the show included F.artha Kitt. who did “Santa Baby” and a couple of Frenchified nuin- hors in her sock provocative style’ Film actress Ann Sheridan was spotted briefly as head of the bookie syndicate while Horton played in his usual comedy pedan- tic manner as the prof. Bed Nichols’ combo was also featured in a couple of musical numbers, with Harris expertly carrying the mam load with his casual handling of the scrip* and his jazzy vocal style Mrs. Phil Harris (Alice Faye also was rung in with a film clip rendition of “You'll Never Know ’’ In addition. there was a Jack Benny gave "Omnibus” one of its best shows on Sunday '30). And it may well have been the comic's topmost try on the medium since he joined it a couple of sea- sons ago via lus own 7:30 o’clock excursion of selfsame CBS-TV. It was also his longest video workout, stretching to about 50 minutes in u televersion of his l'J45 Warner film, "The Horn Blows At Midnight.” A large and skillfully chosen cast 'with a budget that was well spent and considerably above what Lucky visual-1 Strike shells out for the pennv- Nobcl pincher s own starring berth*, with Bennq’s xoeko timing and emoting never better, put over a perform- ance that sparkled with laughs, wit. humor and down-to-earth good sense stemming from a surefire script. Benny, as the angel sent down 1o earth to destroy the wicked planet, was onscreen most of the way . but handpicked cast helped him devel- op his film flop lo the precise in- gredients needed to make it a win- ning entertainment piece on TV. The basic humor arrived right at the beginning via Lester Mathews' portrayal of tin* Chief of the Office of Small Planets, plus looker Doro- thy Malone's sensitive, lusbly ro- mantic performance as the chief's secretary. In the forepart, a good deal of '•inventiveness was pegged around Benny’s ineptitude as a horn player in Ludwig von Beethoven's 'Frank 'Jaquet' 10.000-man Ethereal Melo- ' (Icons—with “the sweetest music I the other side of heaven” and where the hall is so big “it takes the drummer two days to get to his seat.” Of course, the horn-blowing funster, after observing the plights and struggles and hopes of people | on earth, persuaded the chief to Sophie Tin ker and Joe E. Lewis, made Sunday's <391 ‘‘Toast oi the Town” on CBS-TV one of tin* more outstanding of the recent Ed Sulli- van-hosted sessions They were headliners in an otherwise nicely balanced and well-paced show'. Miss Tucker, still basking in the limelight surrounding her Golden Jubilee in show business, waxed perhaps a little overly sentimental and nostalgic, confining her stint largely to recitation and winding with “Some of These Days” after showing the original sheet copy of the song. She could have done some more singing, but her recita- tive style is still powerful and surefire, and it was socked over effectively. Lewis was on hardly long enough to warm up. but was still tops best creation called “Rosie’s Nosie Needs Shortnin’.” used to Lewis in his customary nitery confines might have been disappointed over the shortness of his stint 'although it was as long as any guest appearance on the show, Lewis is best in large doses), hut there’s no disputing his effec- tiveness in video. TV could use a lot more of him. On the act portion of the show’. Julius LaRosa was back and im- pressed with two songs, both nice- ly framed in good production num- bers. Youngster appears to have gained some poise. He's an asset to the show as a performer in bis own right. Comic dance team of the Albius scored strongly with their slapstick carbons of ball- roomers. while the aero act. the i Six Krielanis, was cut short in its closing spot by lack of time and was able to do only one stunt, a four high with bottom man i perched on a bicycle and the two | femmes balanced on each side of ! the hike. j Remainder of the show’ was de- I voted to Sullivan's intros of per- sonalities. on and ofT stage. The I columnist has made an art of the and composer Harold Arlen. Miss Russell dresses up the production excellently and can warble expres- sively. Arlen at the piano drew H orn his distinguished list of com- positions for lus own songfest and with Sinatra. Miss Russell and Cantor backed by a comparatively large Negro choir essayed "Stormy Weather." Net effect was good. Cantor’s major contribution was “Maxie the Taxi,” this week's epi- sode being based on rather a weak gag. In concert with Brian Don- levy there was a promising sketch showing twin Cantors as a wild- west badman and a milquetoast. After a good start, the bit resolved into a linish that dissipated its earlier good start. Sole act with a good degree of action was that of the Debonairs. This is a clever dance act which spoofs the mechanical age. The lads showed up fine. Jose. scrap the “Judgment Day Over- integrated commercial, so it was a ture” in a classic end-up scene that ! natural for him to enriched television and gave Benny himself new stature as a dramatic actor while retaining his masterful position as a split-second comic who submerges himself within a script and manages to inspire everyone around him, be they his regulars 'none of whom were cast in “Horn") or hired thespers. Benny Rubin drew’ a short but CBS-TV’s “Camera Three” Sat- urday afternoon program has un- dertaken a big assignment in its series of four programs of dra- matic readings to help in the study of Shakespeare. Last week’s <28) inilialcr utilized excerpts from “Richard II” to illustrate the weak- with his expurgated material, I nesses of both the man and the of which was a new Eli Hass king, and it achieved a nice blend- Little : ing of the dramatic and the ana- Those i lytical. Prof. Francis Fergusson. of Rutgers Univ., highlighted his interpretive remarks with clear and simple commentary, while James Macandrew proved a pro- vocative moderator. The readings, as dramatized by Michael Kane, Robert Blackburn and Christopher Plummer, were effective, if not letter perfect. The balance maintained between the dramatic and the discussion part of the program contributed greatly to the enjoyment of this 45 min- utes with Shakespeare. Not too many excerpts were attempted, so that Prof, Fergusson could make his points. Unfortunately, not enough time was allotted for a de- tailed study. At best it intrigued the viewer into reading the bal- ance of the play both for t’ ° pla.v- | goer’s delight in Shakespeare and i for the insight that these plays of the Kings provide into the conflict ! of that age and the inner conflicts of man. The simple staging was effective, just a bare stage, a ladder and a stool, stimulating the imagination rather than limiting the scope of the readings. The production was skillful in achieving a relaxed and enjoyable living room atmosphere rather than the stilted classroom aura. Next week: “Hamlet.” Rose. taking their domesticity too seri- ously, forever parading their home life, baby problems, etc., as an- tithesis to being also “career” women, but whatever the audience reflexes it wasn’t as virile a semes- ter. A fault also may be lie in the fact that the “problems” are too deadpan-on-t lie-level; some- how when it's frivolous and the battle of the s£x.es is on a frank razor’s edge approach the end-re- sults are better. Nonetheless it is a bright half-hour in the early Saturday evening semester and undoubtedly a good buy for Ex- Lax for the cost dollar investment and audience-interest. Abel. Ed. Fitzgerald vet trouper from ’way back, got away from the hot AM mike over which he and Pegeen (Mrs. Fitzgerald) work out every a m. over ABC. and clicked .with a savvy character role as the economic misfit who turns up periodically in “Mama’s” life. Fitzgerald “saved my life 25 years ago.” says Judson Laird (husband of "Mama” Peggy Wood), and ap- parently the combination pitch- man-medicineman-promoter turns up every so often with a hard-luck tale and some new gimmick, in- variably with embarrassing re- sults. Per usual. Miss Wood plays “Mama” to the hilt, as the wholesome Svenska worrier over her nice San Francisco brood. Carol Irwin’s production, also per usual, is topnotch. But this past Friday’s CBS semester was domi- nantly the Mr. & Mrs. male half's show, both as the focal plot point and by canny performance of his role—that of an ingratiating semi- con man. Abel. introduce the winners of the Pan-American Road Race in a plug for the new Lincoln. Also on a sports binge, he uncov- ered the new Collier's All-Ameri- can eleven, with all the winners in person to receive their awards. Both segments were supplemented by some excellent film footage Sullivan also brought on the Navy goat as an opener, and later got some of his studio aud to take Eddie Cantor has been taking it fairly easy,for the past vear or so consequently, he’s become a enviable assignment as the hackie f urm sheeV Vci chaaufTcuring JB to his particular bows, with Dr. Ralph Bunche, who mission, and he socked over this was hilled for the show, merely role. Everyone, whether bit player ; standing and nodding from his seat i or in multi-sided role, was in there for a moment. Chau. pitching; Hallene Hill as an elderly TV jackpot winner (with quite a takeoff cm such monied shenani- i gansi; Martin Dean and Harry Shearer as shoeshine boys; Lee ^ _ l^illar. -who was having trouble 1 show biz notables on his presenta- ' remains. She's charming and with his girlfriend; John Vosper as , tions. Sunday’s «29) talent collec- ' winsome and knows how to milk a and virtually an emcee for a fot of Janet Gaynor got the stage-old buildup for her teledebut on CBS- TV's “Medallion Theatre” Saturday 1 28>. Show’ opened with Miss Gay- nor seated at a desk with her back to the camera. The camera then panned to her hands and returned to her back to follow her as she got up and wal’ied across stage. Then, as the music reached a cres- cendo. the former film star turned around slowly to be caught full- face by the tele-eye. Everything after that was anti-climactic. Needless to say. a lot of the stuff that made her a Hollywood biggie hotel c lerk; plus Jeff Donnell. Paul Wooten, Lou Lubin, Rolf Sedan, Beverly Washburn. Ann Doran, Rusty Morris and Roy Rowan. Top credits go to Hugh Wedlock, How- ard Snyder anil Leonard Gersh for their script, with editing by Leo Davis; and to Benny’s producer- director. Ralph Levy, and his maes- tro. Mahlon Merric k. “Omnibus" emcee-host Ailstair Cooke had a field day on the show in the prologs and afterpieces with Benny in orthodox deflating of the latter. The Ford Foundation pro- gram was firsting on the Coast. .■ , - — - collec- *1°” °. n J C , oI « ate Comedy Hour” on NBC had him presiding on a show that included both Frank Sinatra and Eddie fisher along with other acts. Booking of that kind presents a problem. Here are two top pop singers, either one of whom can and has carried a show. They had to be spaced so that there wouldn’t be too obvious a conflict and sim- ilarity of presentation. As far as spotting was concerned, each did well. Fisher, opening the show, distinguished himself with a rather lengthy song-recital that included “Oh My Papa” “With These teary role. And that’s just what they gave her. The teleplay. “Dear Cynthia.” was right out of the suds-opera school. Play told of a devoted wife who has received news that her hus- band had been killed in a plane crash. Before taking off, however, the spouse had penned a note to his frau that he had fallen for another woman. The wife received the letter but had given it to a friend to read since she didn’t want to freshen any memories. Rest of the plot line revolved ! around the friend's attempts to keep the news of hubby's roving Paddy Chayefsky, who’s attained considerable stature as a dramatic writer for TV. enhanced that stature Sunday '29) on NBG-TV's “Phileo Television Theatre” with another winner, an adult and mov- ing study of the near-breakup of a marriage. “The Sixth Year” was a fine piece of writing, and via the expert direction of Arthur Penn, fine performances by a quartet of players and the all-around fine production of Fred Coe & Co., it was translated into one of the sea- son's top video dramas. Kim Stanley pulled off one of the best of recent dramatic per- formances. as the wife whose hus- band is reduced to cowardice and neuroticism after seven months without work after being bounced from his ad agency job. With Warren Stevens delivering a finely- wrought portrayal of the wayward husband, situation was delineated sharply and acidly. When Kath- leen Comegys, as her dominating mother, tries to get her to trod down on Stevens, John McGovern, her father who’s gone through the same thing and who succumbed to his wife's wiles, makes an im- passioned plea that sends her back to hubby and a relatively happy ending. Miss Comegys and Mc- Govern scored in their roles, and the quartet was backed with good support in minor roles by Vivian Nathan, Will Hare and Ruth Hope. Chayefsky’s skill lies not only in setting a realistic situation and true-to-life characters in that sit- uation, but in providing every-day, human touches to his story. Thus, for example. Miss Stanley’s wild outburst after quietly asking Stevens if he wanted to go to the movies was a piece of art in itself. Play was full of those little nuances of the commonplace that gave it a striking sense of impact and drive. Chan. and others associated with heart from the mourning frau. She sc is s W R< P. 7 < I. >1 j tg arc-1 NH -T\ • 3 $’ <iren. Ti . • : r i a 1 keel ■«P an; : —Ar.a ’ads Hi; > I Adolph' N ati i'-TViS, S.'l < ill. i d Soap. Tissues, s Mr.it 1 Rank. Truman cb dropped in, on - S e That l .i.r 3d ;»..nc enough to get for f \Ft.K For Korean Chi!- Mi * Truman, got the max;- innings on that shove being o name w k. tunes starting s pen re and Globe Tlieat re-Eliza- bethan liimx The CSC educator is on KN\r. Ln< Armeies with hi^ favorite viibjeet and incidentally drew a Svlvania award this week Tile cour'-e. he said, is lor “adult delinquents who never leave holm.” being freighted down by addictus tolevideo” Here's a grade-A showman who rates a na- tional audience-. especially if he can expand on such items as of Shakespeare's c\ owns' ply relief for 'the glory who sup- “the tensions ami him. Net effect was excellent. Sin- atra similarly scored toward finale when he joined Harold Arlen at the piano for a songalog of tlie typo that drew raptures during his pa. stints. He’s as potent a singer as ever and he tan wrap up an audience virtually at will.* However, the gimmick to tie up the hooking of both these singers was lacking. Sinatra and Fisher with Cantor in-between tried a few Weak sides of dialog that was in- effectual One of the amazing fea- tures of this show was the extreme l\ dutiful audience. They applaud- ed anything. This show, as was evident from the booking, went overboard on singing In addition to these top popsters, there was Connie Russell does this successfully, even when the other woman arrives and the playlet winds with everyone mis- ty-eyed. Vicki Cummings and Margaret Phillips were okay as the friend and the other woman, respectively. Dialog and direction were in keep- ing with the tear-jerking atmos- phere. Gros. Prof. Houston Peterson of Rut- gers U. is no stranger as the male proponent on “Leave It to the Girls” 'ABC' but somehow, after what Art Ford, the personable deejay of WNEW <\. Y.) did to the glam babes the Saturday night be- fore. the past weekend's session was relatively nice-Nellie. It may- be also that the s a, femmes are As its third offering on ABC-TV last week, the United States Steel Hour presented “Tin Wedding,” a glamorized, hour-long version of what is commonly dished up in 15- minute slices as “soap opera” in daytime radio. By its very nature, the show suffered in comparison to its predecessors—and particu- larly the notable ”P. O. W.” initialer—but there was entertain- ment in it and in spots it had good dramatic movement. Scripted by Hagar Wilde and Judson O'Donnell. “Tin Wedding” never really got off the ground or away from the conversational un- •derbrush. It went over ground that TV has gone over, in various shapes and forms, more often than one cares to remember, and the fact that Eddie Albert and Phyllis ! Thaxter cost ai red w as—surpris- ingly—of little help. Albert has performed with dis- tinction on TV in the past, but as the erring husband in “Tin Wed- ding” he seemed oddly miscast. Miss Thaxter, in an unthankful role, looked pretty and properly [ broken up when the occasion de- manded, but she managed to come 1 (Continued on page 49)