Variety (December 1953)

Wnlnnday, December 2, 1953 pass the PTA lest, but as enter- tainment it barely makes the grade. Life has its heavies, so it seems only natural to expect that a tele- pic purporting to illustrate a slab of life should have some, too. Wanda Hendrix is the little girl in the big city tN.Y.) who tries to take her life, because she’s out of a job for two weeks. (This gal doesn’t have much patience*. Wil- liam Campbell, escaping from the cops, makes a timely entrance into her room and rescues her. When she hears he swiped a hunk of jewelry, she nobly returns it to the cops, to save him from a career of crime. And when the gendarmes put the guy in jail, she goes to the wealthy dame from whom it was stolen and gives her a sobby pitch to save her man. This the dame does, telling the police it was just -ome paste that he*took, anyway. Twinkling, sire assures the youth he’ll probably get oil on probation Stef performances are given bv Wanda Hendrix and Campbell in the leads, and Esther Dale and Walter Sande in lesser roles. Hoy Kellino's direction is too leisurely, although this may have been due to the script by John R Roberts and Josephine Conway. I)uku. er budgets and additional shooting time. If Telemeter proves work- able. this means that the pictures we make would be seen at home by millions of people. Certainly with the home market assured, Hollywood could then raise budg- ets and make pictures for as much as $8.000.000." Continued from pace 30 because of principle, and later s orifices principle for political expediency, only to be rebuffed by the people. Scripter Nash's delinea- tion of the focal character is not t, o well drawn, and consequently it does not hold interest, is spotty instead. Kay Collins’ portrayal of Web- ster is, of necessity, uneven since tin material given him is not too t, nvincing. nor is the direction i .,i ticularly good. Ann Doran. John Hamilton, Carl Benton Reid and I .iul Harvey are okay in support. Daku. Bermuda TV Fix foil! i Hill'd from page 31 J The film. NBC said, will be flipped from Bermuda "via the courier plane to be provided by tin White House for use by all net- work*-" In addition, the web will slop (outage to N V. direct via coiiinu rcial aircraft, similar to the ( BS setup. What it all amounted to was that CBS managed to be first with the announcement on its Big Three coverage, giving the un- intended impression, as a result, that it would be at) all-CBS affair as far as the I*-f> 1 is concerned. 'Columbia’s official release on the subject dated List Wednesday '2. r >* did not mention the White House plane > CftS Radio's --pot coverage will be by Howard K Smith tin from London!. David Sehoenhrun <Par- is*. Eric Sevareid and Cleorgc Her- man * Washington) and Edward 1* Morgan *N.Y.>. DOUBLE BET • Ford Theatre) Hollywood. Filmed by Screen Clems lor Foul Deal- r ,v (J. Walter Thompson). Producer, iivmn Starr; direr tor. Frederick Str- , o. in; teleplay. Karen Dr-Wolf based on f t, ( y by Dorian anrl Miriam Weiler;,cam- era. Charles Lawton; film editor, Kichaid t ..ml. Cast: Laraine Day, Richard Kr;.tn. Marsha Hunt. Kay Montgomery. Vickie Churchill. Cathy Bradley. Kevin Corcoran, |i, ur n McCann. Christopher van Scovk. Jonathan van Scoyk. NBC-TV. Running tune. 30 MINS. (A LETTER TO SANTA) Levoy Breakdown Continued from pare .10 different priors. An overwhelming vote was given to the belief that Hollywood's part in video will ex- pand rapidly, with consensus be- ing that the best creative sources are the networks, followed closely by indie packagers. Levoy started his samplings in 1 j»4H and they’ve been conducted j as a nonprofit survey. On the con- tention that there’s no "boxoffice" j fn TV lit' gleans opinions from the j i,wi..ct.y iiself—a d managers for sponsors, execs ot ad agencies, and | station program directors. Thus it | does not draw upon the consumer 1 audience itself, but from the buy- ing echelons. Included in the j poll, however, wen* TV editors "in order to approximate a public re- action tor comparative purposes.” Poll returns originally accented live programming by a wide mar- | gin. but with a "perceptible’ trend : iron) the start toward vidpix. Sub- i stantial opinion indicated that the ! situation comedy is bring over- worked to TV’s detriment. exposure : rent,ruled from pare 31 j series, or the Liberate series in | the syndicated field. But with such names as Ed J Gardner and Ella Raines 'set for | syndication by Motion Pictures for I Television in "Duffy's Tavern" ami "Janet Dean. R.N.") and Ida Lu- pino 'in "Holiday TV" series which j Collier Young is producing tor Co- met Films* moving exclusively into jthe syndication field, the question is bound to crop up again and again. What may develop, some syndicators believe, is a situation parallel to that of a few years back, when the major film studios nixed tele appearances by its eon- tractees. on the grounds that they were helping to aid a competitive medium. Likewise, the syndicators feel strongly that they’re in com- petition with the networks, and - they may impose similar bans on their stars. FRESH START (Sehlitz Playhouse of Stars) Hollywood. Filmed by Meridian Pivtui*-* for Schlit/. J M tluter, MuikImh Pic tures; riirecjtor, lu \ Kt-llino; tele-play, John H. Roberts end Josephine Conway; camera. Russ Hai supervising editor, Georne Amy; film • •liter. Joseph Gluck: sound, Fred Lau; mt director, Seryre Kri/man. Cast Wanda Hendrix, William Camp I'll. Esther Dale. Walter Sande. Robert l.iillin. Shirley N. O'Hara. John I.arrh. Inn Graham. Juanita Mooie. CBS TV. luinniny time, 30 MINS. A saccharine story which has its fimch telegraphed early in the footage. “Fresh Start" is mildly diverting stuff with weak founda- tions. Everybody in the vidpic is a very nice character, even the lliief. A story peopled entirely with sugar-and-spiee specimens may Hollywood. Dec. 1. It was a week of $1,000,000 suits going out the window. Phil Rapp railed off his against NBC and Peter Potter let CBS off the legal hook. Kach had sued for a million clams. Rapp took a short payoff and Potter called it square when KNXT-CBS removed the exclusiv- ity so liis ABC TV show could come into town. # Rapp had charged that NIK's summer TV Yr, "Saturday Night Revue." damaged ttie sales poten- tial of "The Hu kri sons" by allow- ing Eddie Koy Jr. to "imitate and burlesque" his characters. Accom- panying the payoff was the net’s agreement not to do any more take- offs on "The Bix." Potter sued when the CBS station, over which he telecasts, put on another show of similar design to his called “Platter Panel." It continues and Potter is now seen or heard on three stations in L. A. Recorded by specimens BARBARA KAREN and DICKIE DE BELLA He doesn't see Uie possibility of the major studios Taking over tele- pix under present circumstances. “Too many stars want to own something if they go into tele- vision. If the majors do decide to produce telefilms they'll have t<> develop twin stars. Personally. 1 don't think the majors are mentally geared for it." Emphasizing budgetary restric- tions in TV films. Powell said. “Advertisers tell us they've spent all they can on budgets, so we are limited as to quality. . The net- works gave us a good rooking when they told how much they were losing last year and conse- quently raised their rates on time. Now time costs so much that the sponsor must divert more of his budgetary allocation to time and less to production. But the net- works are making big money. Barring entry of subscription TV. Powell feels that video ha* reached its peak. Telemeter, he said, offer* a vast potential. ' Holly- JOHNNY GUARNIERI ORCHESTRA 1111 Second Avenue Bet. 58th and S9th Sts. New York Special Material By MILT FRANCIS OpporTune RECORDS 440 EAST 23rd STREET Ntw York, N. Y. NEW ROCHELLE Wykoqyl Section A GEM If ycu love beauty, you'll love THIS NEW RANCH TYPE HOME on V? i(. pit. with gorgeous trees. Distinctive plan assures quiet in bedrooms separated from entertaining area. All large rms. li». Rn*. with flrepl l|«. Dtn. R<". larg* Kitchen with fining area.; 3 »«- Smuts btrirmt: 2 lull bth<: 3 ctal plstlrr wall*. Eapantian attic for 2 igarcaua