Variety (May 1957)

Wednesday, May 15, 1957 PtSSWFf TELEVISION REVIEWS 45 Foreign TYReyiewj the lady ratlings on parade With Sophie Tucker, Anne Shel¬ ton, Jill ^ Summer*, Ann; Finn*-1 fan# >1*411* G»jre, Bertha WH- mot/Mt* Barrie* Maudie Ed- wardkJor Ganjou, .Gladys Hay, JoafcHvrter, Marianne Lincoln, Trixi* Mason, Sunny Borers, Do* rite Chester, Doris Hare, Phyllis Holden, Charmian Innes, Paddle O'Neil* Marjorie Pointer, Claire Ruahe, Haxel Wilson, Vie- Biscoe, Steve Raoe orch, others. Director: Douglas Horn Staged hy Marjorie Ristorl Designed by Henry Federer 60 Mins., T%urs., 9 p.m. AssociatedritediFfusion, from Lon- don ; Without the terrific finale to this shofr, supplied by Sophie Tucker and Anne Shelton; who teamed up, teamed up, apparently spontane¬ ously, it would have been 60 min¬ utes of mediocre’ entertainment. The ; ladies of this show biz order were making Uheir fourth tv ap¬ pearance presented by Jack Hylton on this program, and though they tried their hardest, their efforts neyer amounted to pinch. Ragged chorus lines, old gags and dated sketches marred gallant attempts to make the show click. After finishing .her solo spot, Miss Shelton stayed before the cameras to pay tribute to and in¬ troduce* Miss Tucker. She was about to leave the platform when Miss’Tueker appeared, grabbed her arm and ordered her to join in on “Some Of These Days." The ren¬ dering was the hottest and most moving performance the number’s probably eveb had. Still holding the British songstress’ arm, Miss Tucker went straight into “Alex¬ ander’s Ragtime Band," again in¬ sisting that -it ^should be performed as a ’duet;, At its conclusion, the live audfence came closer to raising the roof ; with applause. Miss Tucker was full of bounce and vit¬ ality. She took part in several sketches during the- show, and on one occasion, joined the chorus line for some high kicks. Miss Shelton,’s solo spot was the second brightest of the program. Her treatment, of calypso-styled “Seven Stages Of Man" was socko. And on her other number, “Absent Friends/ 1 she sang with great feel¬ ing, The accompanying orchestra, conducted by Steve Race, handled its job niefely. Bar]/. FART OF A FAMILY (World In Action) With Edgar Mclnnes Producer: Natl. .Film Board of Canada 30 Mins.; Thurs., 10:30 p.m. CBC-TV (film) One of the first jobs John Grier¬ son did when lie was appointed Canada’s government film commis¬ sioner and head of the National Film Board in 1939 was to institute a film series called “World In Ac¬ tion," with Stuart Legge produc¬ ing. This, title has been revived'by NFB in a new telefilm series preemed on the Canadian Broad¬ casting Corp. web for a 13-week run. Op.ener, titled “Part of a Fam¬ ily,” had as narrator Edgar Mc¬ lnnes, president of the Canadian Institute on International Affairs, and used a loosely edited collection of film clips in .a 'fast scan of the Commonwealth of Nations. Stanza was hopped up a little with the use of. native' narrators in the various national sequences, plus native music, and did no more than glance at the nine different nations of the British Commonwealth as a stage-setter for the coming items. Mclnnes^ while providing the se¬ ries „with a spot of prestige, does an okay job of narration between sequences bht is far from a clicko tv gabber. Stfilt was as fascinating as most travelogs are and its pur¬ pose gave it more meaning than the usuhl film trip, but the 10:30 ‘ p.m. time slot is supposedly too late for moppets who could use this type of material in ,their studies. Gorm. Disney’s Brit. Mick-Pix London, ‘ May 7. Walt Disney British Films will start,this month on a telefilm series for the “Mickey Mouse Club Pro¬ gram"; on ABC-TY. Alan Jaggs has returned to London from Holly¬ wood to coordinate production. The hew series, entitled “Clint and Mac," will star" two youths, one American and the other. British, but no casting has yet been made. The skein will be mainly filmed against London landmarks with minimum of studio interiors. DATE WITH THE ANGELS With Betty White, BUI Williams, John Gallaudet, Ann Staunton, ’ other# Producer: Don Feddereon Director: James V. Kern Writer: George Tibbal 30 Min#., Fri.. 10 p.m» PLYMOUTH AUTOS ABC-TV (film) . . {Grant Advertising) Betty White and Dill Williams team iip -as mister and miSsUs. in this hew 1 situation comedy series, which in the main falls into: the formula groove, racing to keep the laughter in the soundtrack in con- . sonance with the gags. Despite the formula approach, the half-hour skein, judging from the initialer, has some fetching, moments. Both Betty White and Bill Williams are vet entertainers- and they perform well together. “The Randall Dinner Party" also, has a dream sequence whiefr shows some intuitive feel of the situation which strikes a credible, funny note. If other /episodes follow through with something different, the skein> bares watching. Other¬ wise, it will be one athong many, hardly distinguishable from stere¬ otype. . , Producer Don Fedderson has tried • something to simulate a “live - ” performance. Miss White comes out onstage for a shprt in¬ tro to the episode,,and in the clos¬ ing, the entire cast of over 40 takes a bow. If nothing else, this gimmick helps to make the laugh¬ ter in the track less artificial. At times, especially ' in the opening moments, ,the laughter seems in¬ congruous. Initial episode deals with the young married couple whose sur¬ name is Angel (hence the title), being invited to a party given by a wealth^ family way above the social status of insurance agent: Mr. Angel. There.are the usual situations of .what, dress to wear, the party wolf, the Unconcerned husband/the social errors of the have-nots. They are carried off at a fast clip under the direction of James' V. Kern. But n healthy chunk of the segment is # dream sequence, with Miss., White having a fantasy of beihgthe social equal to those at the party, of having: a madly jealous husband, andjiow things would be then. That por¬ tion comes off quite well. 'Horo. CITY AND REGIONAL PLAN-; ' NING . With Harriet Adams, Commission¬ er Edward T* Dickinson, others 30 Mins.: Sat/ 6 p.m, MOHAWK - HUDSON COUNCIL ON EDUCATIONAL TV WCDA-TV, Albany First program in a series, iwdejr sponsorship of Russel). Sage Col¬ lege (Troy and Albany) and Mp- hawk-Hudson Council on Educa¬ tional Television, on* the .highly important subject of community and regional planning, featured State Commerce Commissioner Ed¬ ward T. Dickinson. He discussed the subject, in its broad and spe¬ cific aspects, with Harriet Adams, of the college faculty. "The articulate commissioner, who has enjoyed national and. in¬ ternational experience in a variety of important banking, industrial and governmental positions before, during aiid' since World War II, ap¬ peared to be speaking without notes—in answers to Miss Adams’ interrogations and in a running commentary (the latter, frequently against a background of maps and blownup photographs). Miss Adams n worked, ..sometimes too obviously,' from cards. The half-hour held interest and- information for intelligent, se¬ rious-minded viewers, although it could in no sense, be considered “popular" video. Tighter organiza¬ tion, and fluenter, sharper ques¬ tioning would have been desirable; should be insured/for future tele¬ casts. Series also needs a stronger technical backup than was evident on the premiere. Other State, area and New York City officials and planning authori¬ ties are scheduled to. guest. • Jaco. Welpott’s GE to WKY Oklahoma City, May 14. Raymond W. Welpott has re¬ signed i as station manager of WRGB, the General Electric"outlet in Schenectady, to join WKY and, WKY-TV here as station manager. He’ll fill the vacancy created by the death of Hoyt Andres last month. • * ’ Welpott had been with GE since 1928, and was assistant to the man¬ ager of WGY and WRQB from 1946 to 1955, when he, assumed the management, of WRGB. Manchester, N. ft— Palmer Payne, formerly a member of the announcing staff at WFEA here, has been named news editor of WGIR, another Manchester station. WAAM EXPERIMENTAL WORK* SHOP With Karl Harshbarger, Joe Low- dei\ Margaret Silverman 30 Mins.; Sat., 4 p.m. Sustaining WAAM-TV Baltimore ‘*Hide" is the first of a proposed series of half-hour original dramas, to be done by the WAA^C Experi¬ mental Workshop, formed with th.e gbal of providing a training ground for persons “interested in acting and production in tv." ’ With such a premise, the Work¬ shop doesn’t invite : close scrutiny, blit even by amateur standards, “Hide", was not too strong and was amateurishly aoted. .Written toy Gordon Kelly, “Hide" attempted to present the picture of a minor business tycoon who places cash above consideration and who, after becoming inyolved in a-shady business deal, is indicted for fraud, etc., etc. In addition to familiar dialog, the leading figures were foggy. The acting, by collegiate standards (the players Were conscripted from local colleges and universities), was just adequate with only Margaret Sil¬ verman showing a fair share of talent. However, this is a “training ground,” and too much couldn’t be expected. Camerawork and sound,- thqugh, were closer to a profes¬ sional level. MRS. AMERICA PAGEANT With Bill Bents, contestants, others Producer: Ed Nugent Director; Mickey Trcnncr 60 Mins,; Saturday (11), 10:30 p.m. Cb-OP ABC-TV, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The climax of the 1957 Mrs. America Pageant, carried over ABC-TV from its origin in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last Saturday (11) night, was'a bore. And, to make matters worse, the audio failed to carry through to New York for about' 1 the first 20 ihinutqs of the hour. By the time the sound was in working order, the lineup of con¬ testants still in the running had shrunk to about 15. The field was later harrowed down to six and then to win, place and show posi¬ tions. Film clips of the competi¬ tion in domestic skills/ that preceded the' finals were shown, buC did little to enhance the pro¬ gram’s stature. - Bill Bems emceed the affair ade¬ quately, while the gals, for the .most part, didn’t show up as lookers on the tv screen, interviews of the six finalists by Berns also failed to stir up interest. Guest pro perfor¬ mers were intermittently spotted in song & dance offerings for okay re¬ lief/ . The show was sponsored in New York by Hoffman Beverage, through Grey ad agency. Jess. TV Follow-Up Comment i - ■ ’ Continued from page 44 has been around. She has an ul¬ terior. motive in submitting to N 'these public inquisitions since she'S drumming up interest for her recent literary effort, the autobio¬ graphical “Gypsy." Unfortunately, Miss Lee spent a lot of time,, defending "the bur¬ lesque patronage. She more or less thought they • seemed to be fun- iQving individuals, with hardly a leer in their makeup. The panel on. .this show com¬ prised author Al.. Morgan, Mary Margaret • McBride and the N. Y. Post sports columnist Jimmy Can¬ non. All- of .them ’ seemed.to let their subject off mildly, and there Was a concentration on entertain¬ ment; values irt the questioning, as against the search for depth that has made some of the interviews on this show geiris in the broad¬ casting catalog. Jose. . Shower of Stars Jack Benny’s “one joke humor" is still remarkably durable. In nothing more than an extension of his own alternate-week half-hour, the, self-effacing comedian - re¬ mained his casual.best.on his last ChrysIer-^Shower of Stars" for the. season. Into his usual mixture of standUp comedies.. and skits, he cleverly wound some excellent guest support-r-Van Johnson, Vin¬ cent Price, Yvonne DeCarlo, Geor¬ gia Gibbs and the rich-voiced calypsotist Jean. Durand. Benny’s writers capitalized on the fact that the. Thursday (9) hour on CBS-TV was Johnson’s first live video appearance by building a good portion of • the show’s early humor around his reticence hi ap¬ pearing before the cameras. An unbilled Vincent Price slipped intb the dialog and got his best laughs by showing off a pair of chubby knees. Production numbers on “Shower of Stars” were smartly accom¬ plished. Thrush Georgia Gibbs, who was fine in her first rendition, “Sunny Side of the Street," though falling down in her other number, a country & western routine, was aided considerably by some eye¬ pleasing dance support./ The same visual quality was maintained in Miss DeCarlo’s brief production appearance, when she and show stalwarts^ Mel’ Blanc and Artie Auerbach, worked over a song about a “tasty little hot dog-" Best bit of routining , on the entire hour was given in support of Negro bari¬ tone Dur'and, who did one rousing calypso styling; he had some hip- shaking terpsichorean aid. . From the Durand piece, Benny, Johnson, Price and Miss DeCarlo segued straightaway into a spoof on those “intrigue in the. tropics” tales. Largely slapstick, backed by jokes soaked in preservative, it w^s nonetheless, a rewarding 10 minutes or so, because of Benny’s ability to pace matters so well/ Reginald Gardiner turned pitch¬ man for the Chrysler four-wheel-, ers, sharing the duties laboriously with permanent host Bill Lundigan and latter’s... female t counterpart, Mary Costa. ’ Art. Lux Video Theatre Although this Lux presentation on NBC-TV last week was an origi¬ nal, it had the air of a Class B pic as the melodrama strained credul¬ ity. “Stand-In For Murder,” San¬ ford Barnett’s adaptation of a Rich¬ ard McDonagh story, concerned the misadventures of a tubercular bar¬ room pianist, Dewey Martin, in a small Mississippi town. When Mar¬ tin’s trampish ex-rg.f., Laurie Mitcheill, was found dead after a seeming hit-and-run accident, the dissolute scion of the local. first family, Tom Drake, Was convicted. But widower Martin, told he had only six months to live, struck a deal with Drake’s father, Lewis Martin, to confess to the crime in exchange for a $150,000 .stake for his infant, daughter. But 'advanced medical treatment in prison saved* Martin’s life, and during, a curious Mississippi penal practice of fur¬ loughing long-term prisoners once h year, he reneged on the deal. By the time., successive confessions died down, it was dragged, clean out of leftfield that Mae. Clarke, Drake’s mother, was the real.cul¬ prit, deliberately running . down Miss Mitchell to save the family honor. ' The. cast registered best, in the early situation-setting sequences, but seemed increasingly discou¬ raged as the hour crept along. Bonita Granville, as Drake’s sister in love . with Martin, was addition¬ ally hampered by a slipping south¬ ern accent. Otherwise^ she and Martin were capable enough, with¬ in script limitfe, as was Drake. In support. Miss Mitchell^ Lewis Mar¬ tin, Herbert' Lytton, Forrest Lewis, Betty Hanna and Voltaire Perkins were okay.. Miss Clarke was wasted jn practically a speechless role. Director Norman Morgan kept the actors in camera range, but certainly, didn’t add dramatic di¬ mensions to this foolishness. fCove. Marge & Gower Champion Show Heroes of Sunday’s (12) “Marge and Gower Champion Show" on CBS-TV were guest Mary McCarty and two writers, Joe Connelly and Robert Mosher. Miss McCarty was the perfect comedienne, a mistress of timing and inflection, and ver¬ satile too. And Connelly and Mosher, regulars for the 7:30-8 live showcase, made it largely because they know how to get around the obvious limitations of their stars and still make it an all-around at¬ tractive half-hour. Neither Champion is particularly adept at reading dialog, but espe¬ cially Marge, as she proved on the previous shows in this new CBS series. The scribes did an early switch from the straight live situa¬ tion comedy on which the show is mostly built and worked cleverly into a spoof of the ’20’s remin¬ iscent of “The Boy Friend," a Broadway hit a couple of years back. The clipped, artificial dialog called for in the script was a nice cushion against flubs. Miss McCarty, who was inte¬ grated into the storyline—what there was of it—began hot with a song on a broken-town guitar and never let up steam. Dancing by the Champions, together and sepa¬ rately, was (natch) dandy on Sun¬ day’s skip-week outing. Jack La- Rue, in briefly as a tough-guy show backer,- and Jack • Whiting, tv fa¬ ther to Marge, held up their ends nicely. Art. MR. BROADWAY With Garry Moore, narrator) .Mickey Rooney, Gloria Do Ha¬ ven, James Dunn, Eddie Foy Jr., June Havoc, Roberta Sherwood, Bobby Mariano, Patricia Mari¬ ano, Walter Kinsella, Amy Free¬ man, Paul Sparer, Bernard Len- row, Henry Lascoe, Robert Ellen- stein, Dick Button, Dwight Mar- field, .David. Malen, Paul Mazur- sky,, Dill Mulllkin, David Do Haven, Charles Baxter, Tom Gorman, others; Art Linkletter, Bob Crosby, commercial an¬ nouncers Exec.. Producer: Paul Feigay Director: Sidney Lumet Writers: Sami & Bella Spewack Musical Director: George Bassman Choreography: Peter Gennaro 90 Mins., Sat. (11), 9 p.m. SWIFT & CO. NBC-TV. from New Y.ork (color) ( McCann-Erickson ) Sam & Bella Spewack, whose literate librettos have graced Broadway for years, turned their talents to television for the first time in “Mr. Broadway/’ a telebiog of George M. Cohan presented as jhe second of two Swift & Co. color specs on NBC-TV. Unfortu¬ nately, their /talents and television didn’t jell, for “Mr. Broadway" came off as a sketchy, trite and ponderous effort. Most of the blame must accrue to the book. First of all/ in cover¬ ing Cohan’s life span, the Spe- wacks necessarily left great gaps in their story, and in concentrating to a large extent on his earlier days as one of the Four Cohans, they left only a series of montages and brief references to his pro¬ ducer-writer-actor days/ Beyond this, a combination flashback-pre¬ sent tense technique tended to be confusing. Secondly, in attempting to do some characterization, they ran into greater difficulty. Cohairs personality, of course, was never an easy one to pin down. But also faced with the problem of develop-, ing a characterization while fight¬ ing the clock to get across a pano¬ rama of his life, the Spewacks found themselves creating some¬ thing of a stereotype—the brash, aggressive, even arrogant young pusher who undterneath it- all has a heart of gold. • It just so happens that this stere¬ otype is the selfsame one which Mickey Rooney has been playing for most of his adult acting career. So that the casting of Rooney as Cohan, already an offbeat one from the physical standpoint, was doubly unfortunate because Rooney com¬ pounded the script’s stereotype and the script compounded Roon¬ ey’s. In short, it wasn’t Rooney playing Cohan but Rooney playing Rooney playing dozens of charac¬ ters from his past films. To top it all, while concentrating on the devotion among the Four Cohans, the biog touched on little else in Cohan’s personal life, in¬ cluding his marriages. Thus, the script created little in the way of motivation, conflict or any' other device to sustain interest over the long span. The final act, in fact, was little more than a series of vignettes covering his career from the first World War through his latterday serious acting career, and resembled a television crawl .speed¬ ed up to 1 get all the credits *in be¬ fore the show goes off the air. With this to work with, neither cast nor director could d.o too well. Rooney, in trying to make the most of his role, kept resorting to type and whether it was a scene of con¬ fusion, frustration or tenderness, it^as strictly from Rooneyville. Gloria. De Haveq had a few good moments as Josie Cohan, while Roberta Sherwood seemed somer what stilted as Mrs. Jerry Cohan (in her two numbers, she essayed a Gay ’90s style .of singing which just isn’t her forte and didn’t come off very well). James Dunn and Eddie Foy Jr. had the best mo¬ ments of the show as the elder Cohan and Joe Summerhalter, the stagehand-tUrned-actor and Cohan’s longtime friend. June Havoc’s ex¬ tensive talents were wasted on a counle of quickie musical numbers. The best moments of the show, actually, were in its touches of authenticity — Cohan’s frustration at having to open a vaude bill, a nicely stagqd fight in the balcony of Behman’s in Brooklyn, and some expertly-drawn scenes of backstage life. The musical numbers were well staged by choreographer Peter Gennaro and director Sidney Lu¬ met, but in looking for little-known Cohan music and selecting three numbers (“The Shoes That Hurt," “An Old Guy Like Me" and “Life Is Like a Musical Comedv"), musi¬ cal director George Bassman de- emphasized Cohan’s better-known numbers and left the impression of an undistinguished score. as a whole. Swift did up its commer¬ cial moments' proud with some highly appetizing color displays and with the services sf Art Link- letter, Bob Crosby sod Garry Moore. Chan.