Variety (April 1956)

P'SmiETY TELEVISION REVIEWS 33 Wednesday, April 25, 1956 { Tele Follow-Up Comment :: Climax The Chrysler-bankrolled “Cli¬ max” was faithful to the image of Lou Gehrig on Thursday’s (19) outing, but dug no deeper than the news accounts of his last days. Writer Mel Goldberg couldn’t re¬ duce the baseball great from leg- . end to man. Cause of his failure to make this into a drama was par* tially his own fault, but circum¬ stances were against him too. It’s tough getting feeling into a ' bi¬ ographical yarn when a scribe is allowed to use only sentimental recollections as source material. Gehrig fell hard from dominance as a Yankee slugger and began to atrophy as a result of a fatal scler¬ osis, thereby leaving room for changes in his character, but Wen- del Corey played the real-lifer as a stoic from beginning to end. Even when Corey realized that it wasn’t just a “slump” he was in but that he was seriously sick, neither the actor nor the writer in¬ fused despair into the realization. Corey took it with a brave little smile, and, from then on, he was surrounded by a sea of unhappy faces. The lines didn’t give the many emoters arranged carefully around the tv set a chance to ex¬ press any genuine self-doubt, fear or obsession. There was a sugges¬ tion that Goldberg wanted to get those emotions into his play, yet he only got as far each time before falling back on the brave smile. Jean Hagen, who played Gehrig’s spouse, had the roughest job of all. Some of her speeches were un¬ manageably sticky to read, and when she was called upon to be¬ come angry her interpretation merely made her irritated. Harry Carey Jr. was a skinny edition of lithe and rangy Yankee catcher Bill Dickey, but he was satisfactory in a role less demanding than that of either lead. Goldberg and. director Allen Reisner, who artfully handled pic¬ tures and- fades, were attempting a documentary. They carefully planted a batch of newsreel photos (with a make - believe Grantland Rice doing the commentary) at the start of the show, to establish what only could have been intended as realism; segments didn’t help, yet there was nothing wrong with them. However, once they’d estab¬ lished Corey as Gehrig, it was a mistake reverting, in the last five minutes or so of the live hour long tv stanza, to the newsreel of Lou Gehrig making his bowout speech before the deeply-moved crowd at Yankee Stadium that day. The real thing in closeup only proved that- there was a superficial resemblance^ between the. late ball star and Corey. Production of this tele program last Thursday has become the sub¬ ject of trade ihterest when, in ad¬ vance of the video exposure, Sam¬ uel Goldwyn theatened to sue if it ever went on. He. asserted, as pro¬ ducer of the theatrical feature “Pride of the Yankees,'’ his con¬ trol of rights to Gehrig’s life story. Incidentally, CBS-TV had much difficulty in transmitting “Climax,” from the Coast during “The Lou Gehrig Story.” Facilities broke down briefly ho less—rand possibly more^then seven times. The inter¬ ruptions were generally too brief to disturb the uninteresting show, but it must have rattled **the network to repeatedly run up that sdme placard, which said th6y were hav¬ ing trouble in transmission of the picture but that they would con¬ tinue the sound. - Art. This Is Your Life Dore Schary thought he was shilling Robert Taylor into Ralph Edwards’ NBC-TV lair last week (18) and it turned out “This Is Your Life, Dore Schary.” Thjit was the opener and, being boss- man of Metro, the cavalcade of personalities whose careers touched on Schary and vice versa, read like a Shrine Auditorium ben¬ efit. If the Culver City production chief was 100% unaware, and he acted like he was, it was certainly the best kept secret in the Brown Derby belt unless, of course, they too were led to believe they were personaling for Taylor, the alleged biographee until the imagine or- thicdn was turned on Schary. Besides the subject’s intimate friends and kin the parade there¬ after included, among others, two Taylors (Elizabeth as well as Rob¬ ert), Cagney, Van Johnson, Mar¬ garet O’Brien, Walter Pidgeon (who did a salute to the produc¬ tion exec from the industry), Louis Jourdan, Stewart Granger and others. There were suitable film clips jmd/.or titular identifications of credits of pix scripted or pro¬ duced by Schary in his career ranging from Gower St. to Culver City, and points in between. Moss Hart and Don Hartman were cut in from New York as fellow- borscht circuit alumni' who, too, had made the grade in their post- mountain resort time* novitiate. The .surprise, it must be assumed, was completely that, because no studio head, least of all one with the reputation of Schary, would deliberately have countenanced this kind of cuffo turnout. If any¬ thing, in this particular instance, he might have been the first to kill the idea. Before the Holly¬ wood parade, the Schary ante¬ cedents were warm and affection¬ ate and, if lacking in “heart” be¬ cause of the lack of. travail, it proved thajt talent will out. Schary seemingly was endowed with plen¬ ty of it, even in his swaddling days. Abel. 20th-Fox Hour Clifton Webb has been so closely associated with “Mr. Belvedere” that the doubt arises the tele-look¬ ers would accept anyone else. But in this tabloid road company of the 20th-Fox original presented last week they had to take Reginald Gardiner or leave him, to his own omniscient devices. The taking was in pure substitute form and the end result was affably pleas¬ ant if not notably achieved. Gar¬ diner made the big difference but he didn’t swing it far enough. Main liability is that Gardiner is too cold and metallic for the role that had known the droll warmth- of Webb and honesty of character. Where Webb spun his- lines, Gardiner declaims in cold disdain of all around him. There was humor in Webb’s taming of the young ’uns; with Gardiner the situations must produce their own puckish humor. Instead of his rhetorical loftiness toward the lit¬ tle shavers he might well have di¬ verted them with his train imita¬ tions and other trademarks of his professional association but fidel¬ ity to the original script was de¬ manded by - producer Sam Marx and James Kern, the director. As the breadwinner, Eddie Bracken, ordinarily a light come¬ dian, became much too serious, too, and played it straight down the middle. Margaret Hayes and ZaSu Pitts were more human and ap¬ pealing and created thetir own emotional reactions, diverse as they were.- Joseph Cotten, in raspy voice, traded .sallies with Gregory Peck to segue into clips from “Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.” which lacked selling impact because of doubtful choice of sequences. Berm. On The Carousel New York’s melting pot was the theme of Paul Tripp’s “On The Carousel” stanza Saturday morning (21) on WCBS-TV. Tripp hosted a group of school kids through a 60- minute outing in which the juves demonstrated in song, dance and palaver the various nationalities that inhabit Gotham. It was all done with taste and charm. HJghlight was the choral group from P.S. 166 in a workover of “Johnny Stranger,” a folk opera by Tripp and George Kleinsinger. The juves handled it with savvy and imagination and for the most part the voices were true and clear. In addition to the juves, the show was rounded out by a repre¬ sentative from the Italian Histori¬ cal Society who told of the discov¬ ery of New York harbor by Ver- razano, a Florentine navigator, ana a discussion of life in India by a staffer in the. India Government tourist office. Gros. Campbell Star Stage “The Campbell Star Stage” series came up with an arresting vehicle for Joan Fontaine in Col¬ lier Young's “The Shadowy Third” script, an adaptation from an Ellen Glasgow story. Although only a 30-minute stanza, RKO Pictures apparently saw a potential for a full-length feature in the work and bought the story even before the show was telecast. It remains to be seen whether Hollywood can successfully pad out this play. It was a ghost story involving the apparition of a dead child to her mother, who is treated as insane by her husband. Joan Fontaine, who is called in to nurse the wom¬ en, also sees the child and the yarn hangs upon this double illusion. Miss Fontaine tended to play the role of the nurse with a one-note facial expression of pained sweet¬ ness. John Baragray was excellent as the suavely evil husband who gets killed at the finale by slipping on a ghostly pair of roller-skates. Judith Evelyn alsc turned in a persuasive performance as the demented wife. Berm . GRACE KELLY WEDDING With David Schoenbrun Producer-director: Don Hewitt Exec Producer: David Zellmer 30 Mins.; Sat. (21), 11 p.m. MAYBELLINE CBS-TV, from N. Y. (Gordon Best) CBS must have had a toprated play around the country for the half-hour film of the prelims and main events, meaning the Grace Kelly-Prince Rainier III marriage- in-Monaco that has riveted atten¬ tion throughout the .v^orld. And Maybelline, which through the Gordon Best agency seems to be latching on to special events with a shrewd eye, could hardly have asked for a better vehicle to pro¬ mote its eye makeup. When looked at casually, this was no more than a>great big hur¬ rah of the advance festivities pre¬ ceding the April 18-19 civil and religious knot-tieing ceremonies— much like the pomp and circum¬ stance of a newsreel keyed to a regal progression—but the big plus factor that welded together the whole package was the live running commentary of David Schoenbrun. The Paris correspond¬ ent of CBS will come out of the fray with a big payoff in prestige. He arrived into town only the day before armed with the last of the film clips and went on the air pronto to give savvy punctuation to the splicing on the Riviera. Whether tongue-in-cheek, candid or making with the witticisms about the hoopla in the pocket- sized principality, Schoenbrun showed himself a sizer-upper of considerable charm and with an unerring eye for “small detail” news values, the little vignettes that add up to a full story. There were some vivid scenes, such as the near-closeups of Prince & Princess fidgetting and squirm¬ ing like any couple bound for the altar. And extremely interesting to watch were the street dancing and fiestas and the numerous galas staged around the tiny town—a burg that had upped prices at res¬ taurants and night spots to make hay with the 100,000 or so visitors against an average quota of 4,000 tourists inundating the precincts otherwise. CBS cleared some 175 stations for this wedding of weddings. It was well worth it, though the ab¬ sence of a soundtrack on the cere¬ monies and on the principals in advance of the two-day rituals was conspicuous. Trau. DOTTY MACK SHOW With Dotty Mack, Colin Male, Bob Braun Producer: Larry Peerce Director: "John Clark 30 Mins.; Sat.', 6:30 p.m. Participating ABC-TV, from Cincinnati. Dotty Mack, from Cincinnati, continues to apply a longtime nitery type turn to video—that of miming to recorded music, gener¬ ally with comedy interpolations. Disks used on this show are from the Hit Parades of current and former years. The initial show in her new series indicates that a lot of rough edges are to be ironed out, and a lot more imagination must be applied. Miss Mack, assisted by Colin Male and Bob Braun, have selected a promising assortment of platters, but the trio didn’t extend them¬ selves in trying to put fresh in¬ terpretation on the music involved. The pantomime seemed to be a routine, the humor was light and orthodox and the participants failed to point out a strong reason for this show. On the plus/side are the sets by David Fern, and the participants seem to be personable and willing to do anything for the cause. Of course, bulk of the disks selected were highly listenable, so audio side was clicko. Jose. DAVID MOORE SHOW With Moore, Clellan Card, Toby Prim, others Producer: Charles Miller Director: William Metchnik 30 Mins.: Tues. & Thurs., 8 a.m. Participating WCCO-TV, Minneapolis Along with supplying pleasing musical and other entertainment and information, this 30-minute, early-morning tv show particular¬ ly merits a back pat for its twice- a-week efforts to perform a worthy public service in the human rela¬ tions field. It does this well by seeking to obtain adoption for “special” orphan children ranging in age from one to 10 years—thi/, of course, with participating spon¬ sors’ approval and in cooperation with the Minnesota Dept, of Pub¬ lic Welfare. “Special” children are so classi¬ fied because, although otherwise normal and typical, they present age, racial backgrounds or adjust- (Continued on page 38) T CROSS-CANADA HIT PARADE With Plerette Dore, Wally Koster, Joyce Hahn, Phyllis Marshall, The Diamonds, Austin Willis, dancers, orch Producer: Stan Harris Writer: John Aylesworth Musical Director: Bert Niosi 30 Mins.; Wed., 9 p.m. ROYAL INSTANT PUDDING, CHASE & SANBORN CBS-TV, from Toronto ( MacLaren) Probably the highest budgeted and most popular weekly musical series on the Canadian Broadcast¬ ing Corp. roster, “Cross-Canada Hit Parade” proves that viewer-listener taste in this country on pops dif¬ fers somewhat from their U.S. confreres, this choice based on the weekly survey logs of trans-Canada deejays. However, current topper for North America is “Poor People of Paris,” this sung in the original French version by Pierette Dore, Parisian guestar and buxom blond, who has lately been appearing in some of the smart rooms across the U.S., plus French-Canadian top niteries here. Production finale for the husky¬ voiced chanteuse was bad in its finale nightclub setting, particular¬ ly in the so-called support of a group of habituees in a Paris bistro where, at least, the customers are out for receivable entertainment and not drearily inhibited. Miss Dore gave out on song-styling to the edification of her listener- viewers, even if her setting and support refused to jell. However, rest of bill was okay. Wally Koster registered big in “Hot Diggity" (No. 7 in Canada’s hit parade), for a sweatered, mixed chorus of peanut eaters in the baseball bleachers; with Koster later back in “Great Pretender” (No, 8) for a ventriloquist bit. with male dummy on knee as target for the voicing of heart-yearnings, but Koster wisely not attempting to control his lip movements for dum¬ my interludes. His “I’ll be Home” (No. 10), for a hitch-hiker routine, was Koster’s best on a switch from pathos to comedy when he’s picked up by a beautiful blond in a car, with the “old gal” forgotten. Femme star of the regulars is Joyce Hahn, diminutive French- Canadian with brunet bangs, who flies up here and back to Montreal after her weekly chores. Miss Hahn sang “No, Not Much” (No. 3), this for a neat lyric, scenic switch to a white-coated doctor’s office for a checkup; and later back for “Lisbon Antigua” (No. 4),. with a back¬ ground of hand-slapping dancers (8) for a net-drying fishermen's village setting. The Diamonds, male quartet, also scored in their “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” (No. 2) in modern costume for long-held falsetto effects that are over on a new style of song-styling. Phyllis Marshall had a produc¬ tion number, a revival of 1946, “Chiquita Banana,” this for elabo¬ rate head-dress and ruffled costum¬ ing of the colored songstress and her background of Latin-American dancers, the four girls also for similar costumes and the four boys in beachcomber getup for that crouching routine symbolic of thp Caribbean dance style. Four Dia¬ monds came back for a bouncy hymn treatment of “Church' Bells May Ring,” with Mercury Records foursome whamming this over as the most likely pop fave prediction of Canada’s jockeys. Choreography by The Lunds was outstanding on imagination and technique, with neat background¬ ing of Bert Niosi’s 21-piece orch. Austin Willis acts as amiable emcee and the duo-sponsors work in a dramatized and short commercial apiece that doesn’t obtrude, even though the sponsors are paying a hefty shot for this 25-station tv trans-Canada lineup, in for 26 weeks. Alternate sponsor is Fri- gidaire. McStay. IE WAY th Frederick Valk, Robert Cun¬ ningham, Ursula Lyn, others oducer-director: Paul Heard *iters: Heard, Herbert Luft, Mal- irin Wald, Jarvis Couillard half-hours stributed by: Radio and Film Commission of the Methodist Church ABC-TV, N. Y. The Methodist Church turns out adventure story in “The Way,” skein Of 13 gratis telefilms. Show cries its moral too, and the eachiness doesn’t get terribly t of hand, as it sometimes has other religioso films. Vidfilm s been shown on WABC-TV, Y., for the past two months, and other tv stations for as long or tiger. There are, however, cer- in outlets that haven’t started eir 13-week runs. The Methodist lurch has it inked by 80 stations id expects another 120 to sign ifore'the initial group of pix have n their course, Stanza viewed via WABC-TV st Saturday afternoon was called Vhat Price Freedom.” Carrying uch of the camerawork to loca- REPORT FROM AFRICA—I (See It Now) With Edward R. Murrow, Alex* ander Kendrick, others Producers: Murrow, Fred , W. Friendly Cameraman: William McClure 60 Mins.; Mon. (23), 10 p.m. SHULTON CBS-TV (film) yj (Wesley Associates) Ed Murrow and Fred Friendly have again brought to tv a remark¬ able, vivid picture of a continent in conflict. “Report From Africa" is thertirst of a two-parter lensed over the last sixmonth by William McClure working as teammate of reporter Alexander Kendrick. It was considered important enough to give “Studio One” a vacation for the night; it was all of that as Murrow & Co. fought their way through underbrush and official hostility—particularly in the Union of South Africa—to focus on the right for freedom among peoples on the Gold Coast, Kenya, Liberia, the Belgian Congo, Rhodesia and hell . bent - for - Apartheid South Africa. The reformation movement is alive everywhere on a continent of 200,000.000 pop. and with resources that stagger the imagination. It’s a colonial grabbag that may be diminishing from here in as the African document by “See It Now” gets noised around the world, as did the show's South African film about a year ago which drew bitter criticism from Premier Johannes Strijdom when prints of the film were distributed in the United Kingdom, causing him to snub “See It Now” on its return visit. There were striking interviews with heads of state, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah at Accra, capital of the Gold Coast, along with an opposing view from H. R. Amponsah, who has characterized the Prime Min¬ ister as a dictator; British Gov. Gen. Sir Evelyn Baring of Kenya, some compelling shots of repentant Mau Maus confessing their sins and a vis-a-vis with aggie minister Michel Blundell, who is in line for the premiership should Kenya gain independence from Britain; Wil¬ liam V. S. Tubnjari of Liberia, the U.S. slave-founded country that looks and acts like America, with a scene of a Russian official glad¬ handing the populace in an at¬ tempt to win them over against the fact that Firestone Rubber runs the world’s largest rubber planta¬ tion and accounts for about half of the nation’s income; Deputy Premier Sir Roy Welensky of Rho¬ desia, who is opposing the racial separation policy of Strijdom; the Rev. Trevor Huddleston, returning to England after carrying the ban¬ ners valiantly for the blacks of the Union of S.A.. highlighted in this section of the film by the opposi¬ tion “Black Sash” white women who punch away at Strijdom at every turn bv gallantly lining up to form a wall of silent opposition;- and a report on the Belgian Congo from the premier. A Viewer trying to absorb such a vast canvas was sometimes be- buddled when officials and the “little people” aimed to define the “coloreds” vs. the “natives” classi¬ fication which has been throwing South Africa into a turmoil, but this is minor criticism against the tremendous backdron of peoples and places shown in “Report From Africa.” It was a classic of electronic re¬ portage, taking courage and tall gumshoeing to accomplish, with credit to McClure and Kendrick for their on-the-spot coverage, to the film editors who made a cohe¬ sive narrative out of a top TNT global subject, and to Murrow & Friendly for masterminding the whole into successful fruition. Part II will be presented May 17, when the among the countries on view w’ll be Algeria, L’bva, Evypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda. Trau. tion in Germany. Half-hour dealt with the experiences of a young American executive who acci¬ dental^ walked across the Curtain into East Germany. He met a German girl, whose display of courage promoted him to come b^clc a"d tell the true story in the U.S. True or not. the story wasn’t very probable, though the exotic locale helped compensate for a weak plot, and the oddity of find¬ ing a church body bankrolling an intriguer was fascinating. The gal, played bv German actress Ursula Lyn. stood un to the Commjes because she didn’t like their policy of hate. A strongly religious char¬ acter. she refused to return to safety in the West with the Ameri¬ can, essayed weakly by Robert K. Cunningham, in order to prosely¬ tize. It was a “Foreign Intrigue," only with that oldtime religion ai piece de resistance. Arl,