Variety (September 1957)

36 TELEVISION REVIEWS VARIETY | TEXACO COMMAND APPEAR(Tribute to Ed Wynn) ‘With Ed Wynn, Keenan Wynn, Bea; Lillie, Jill Corey, Rod Alexan-| der, Bambi Linn, Steve Allen, Mimi Benzell, Janet Biair, Billie Burke, Jack Palance, Alfred Drake, Oscar Hammerstein 2d, Ralph Bellamy, others Producer: Ezra Stone Director; Charles Dubin Writers: Charles Gaynor, Robert; Downing Musical Director: Lehman Engel 60 Mins., Thurs, (19), 10 p.m, TEXACO NBC-TV, from New York (color) (Cunningham & Walsh) “Texaco Command Appeéarance” as the new season’s first “special attraction (and jncidental Jy the initial entry out of the: : blindness, Henry Jaffe Enterprises shop) was To speak of this documentary re a full hour tribute to one of Amer-| port as “interesting” (which ‘it is) ica’s great performers—Ed Wynn.!is somewhat to damn it with faint Enlisting the support of a dozcn or ; Praise. Respect for the derring-do and the hnology seems to “deso sterling talents and creators in! ane ne tee effusion, But trath to Tecognition of a memorable show j tell jt seldom rises much. above ELEVEN AGAINST THEICE | With Tex Gardiner, narrator Producer: Robert Emmett Ginna Writers: Ginna, Pat Trese Musical Director: Kenyon Hopkins 60 Mins.; Mon. (23), 9:30 p.m. TIMKEN ROLLER "BEARINGS NBC-TV (film) " (BBDO) There’s no avoiding the paraphrase on an awful lot of coffee in Brazil—to wit, there’s an awful lot of snow in the Antarctic. It means that the photographie background ‘|is bleaklyeye-tiringly whiter. than the white of soapy boats. ‘The sneztator has to look away. Unlike the quietly daring and vastly efficient Army-Navy technicians who.are the heroes of this Timken Televent via WBC-TV the viewer in his home has. no special glasses against snow biz career spanning 55. years and; “interesting” and therefore is not. wholly successful as ‘“entertain produced in collaboration with the American Theatre Wing (which enjoyed a 10G payoff from the, Texaco sponsor loot), “Command Appearance’ played for the most part like a musicalization of ‘This Is Your Life.” Whatever the ulti-| across the treacherous crevassed mate answer to these video shaw, field to the designated point in biz tributes, this ‘wat hardly. the! nothingness where aig eusuie fulfillment, Not that it didn t have | a ou ost an tists would es lish its moments, and some delightful The crevasses are unchartered, ones at that, for how can one score | often unobservable, caverns in the a total miss with such assorted tal snow, ents aS Bea Lillie, Rod Alexander which must be explored, calculated, “and Bambi Linn, Janet Blair, Mimi dynamited, frequently filled in with great mounds of snow pushed Benzell, Steve Allen, Alfred Drake, Oscar Hammerstein 2d, Billie over the lip of the hole by giant Burke, Keenan Wynn, Jill. Corey, bulldozers, Engineering-wise | the undertakplus others. Not to mention Ed Wynn himself, who in fact pro vided the 60-minute entry with its most. endearing and rewarding mo ments with his sideline (“Com-|that—a job—that the dimension of mand Appearance” box) commen-|heroism is rather flattened out, tary and memorabilia chitchat with | again like the snow plateau over Hammerstein, son Keenan, Drake} Which the caterpillar-treads and and Steve Allen (latter via a Coast ! the giant cargo-bearing sleds: pass. pickup). is some calculated “human inter Under the circumstances it’s: re-'est.". Producer Robert Emmett grettable that a format was not Ginna. has used a musical score evolved that could have’ utilized | 220 Special theme by Aenyon op the services of Wynn the performcourse, break ene straining er to a greater degree, for he was | work ‘under the circumstances of not only the pivotal personality} the constant white glare and, lack concerned. but far and away the| Of contrast values is surely comone who bestowed on the showcase petent and may be technically a the vi ; aS€ tour de force.. This review is nec€ vital human element, that give| essarily focussed on showmanship it its major distinction. for the parlor screen. For the samme In the course of the h +p.| reason it is cult to evaluate ute which 5 auned our trib-| the editing of Sidney Katz and hrot wee a’ _Ccareer! Connie‘Cohn, which may well have through the “Perfect Fool” era way| made a lot more out of the footage back from 1802 to the “top actor Jaurels” of ’57, there were some than would otherwise emerge. contrived bits to re-create the the years (including his “Simple Simon” performance from the self guess, women to. their forgotten chores in the other room. The assignment task of the 11 who faced the ice was-to find and flak a safe trail over the ice sheif and emerge as Americans of whom it is easy to be proud. But there's no getting away from a certain dreariness in the scene and the task. This job is so quietly just Narrator is a Navy driver, Tex Gardiner, and he is quite effective standout Wynn attractions through | same Ziegfeld Theatre (now an NBC tint studio) trom whence in conveying his own and his colthe tv show originated. This “Si leagues’ character. mon” segment, for example, had Summing up, “11 Against The Ice” is a commendable, not a great, Janet Blair re-creating the “Love Me Or Leave Me” turm (later in documentary; an intellectually intriguing rather than emotionally moving experience.. One is proud the shaw she did the pianocycie bit with Wynn on “Tea For Two” and “Youre My Everything”). The | Hammerstein appearance was linked to his stage managerial role ! i lo. WIZARD circa 1919 when Wynn was doing| With Don Herbert, Betty Sue the “Follies” and “Shubert Gaye-| Albert, Tommy White ties” tinevitably cueing a couple of Producer: Jules Power turns from those productigns),| Director: Lynwood King while “Drake's, “Dancing In the| Writer: Don Herbert Dark” may have had nothing to do| 30 Mins.; Sun., 1 p.m... With Wynn but was inspired by fhe| NBC-TV, from New York Fred-Adele Astaire association| As there’s apparently ‘no termiwith the comic. Equally from left|nus to the physical sciences, this field came Bea Lillie's early-vintaged “March With Me” (as Britain’s tribute tou Wynn), except that this represented one of the show’s most delightful sequences. And thus through the Wynn} vaude-legit era came more memorabilia; Billie (Mrs. Flo Ziegfeld: | Burke; a re-creating of the “Ten Cents a Dance” and “Dancing On! A Ceiling” (Simple Simon”): Jill. had Mr. Wizard (Don Herbert) Corey doing the Nora Bayes “Shine. _ demonstrating magnetism in:a varOn Harvest Motn”: Steven Allen! liety of ways to his pre-teenage vis88'ing Gus Kahn's “Everybady | a-vis, Betty Sue Albert, who alterLoves A Baby” to memorialize then ates as the “assistant” with year Keenan was born; Mimi Ben-: Tommy White. Gal is bright, unzell’s “standing in” for Fritzi! precocious, and charming. HerScheff on “Kiss Me Again,” and’ bert, with plenty of ingenuity exRod \lexander-Bambi Linn updat-' plores his topie rather thoroughly ing the Astaires, ‘in the half-hour and actually gets There were some production: inte some pretty advanced stuff. niceties under Ezra Stone's helm-. ing and the tempo and pace were : ience and never treats the stanza swift. But overall one could have; like a kid’s show. wished for a more showmanlyj; think of it, is an average reaction: to a Snow *Man even on the Dartmouth campus, . Land. mileage left in it: Entering its seventh year, “Mr. Wizard” remains exemplary of fine pub affairs programming, educational in -purpose but diversionary as well, mak‘ing a game: of science with the variety of laboratory apparatus as seriously regarded playthings, ment” for the home screen. At a. it must have driven the|. sometimes bottomless pits. ing is formidable and the men: There is no humor though fhere | |THE THIN MAN (The Dollar Doodle) . 7 With Peter Lawford, Phyllis Kirk, Natalie Norwick, John Mitchum, Grant Richards, Ken Lynch, others Exec Producer: Samuel Marx | Producer: Edmund Beloin Director: Bernard Girard Writers: Phil Davis, Charles Hoffman 30 Mins.; Fri, 9:30 p.m. . COLGATE-PALMOLIVE -—— tp but not excited—which, come to NBC-TV longtimer still has-a lot of. ‘can get away with this kind of one Opener for the new live series. He nevers talks down to his aud-! bottle bellringer. As per custom, Ralph Levy is in. the director’s. chair: (also exec proShow .this term is being pre-| ducer), Hilliard Marks is producer, | moments. ‘with fun but good enough to hol NBC-TV (film) (Ted Bates) . Metro TV, in ‘its first telefilm entry, gets away from the grim school of whodunits and private eyes, so fully repped on tv this. season. “Thin Man”. series, based on Metro’s vintage pix starring William Poweil and Myrna Loy, | has the assets of a light touch, as embodied in Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk. Nonetheless, it was a disappointirg entry from such a bluechipper as Metro. It neither had the dimensions, uniqueness, nor quality ta stamp it above and beyond other tv series, ingredients which, for example, Walt Disney in his field brought to the medium ‘when his outfit crossed the fence. Scripting of Phil Davis and Charles Hoffman in the preém episode kept things hopping at a good pace, with a lot of plot wrinkles. But the yocks were obvious and the. central characters—if the viewer did not remember the “Thin Man” of yore—were not well established. Another weakness was the reliance on narration to bring the story forward, a device which ‘watered down the proceedings. | Story concerned a blackmail ruse by: nefarious operators of a Greenwich Village: jazz hangout.'The fail character was a rich young, society dame, competently played by Nata ‘lie Norwick, who had to. turn to shoplifting. for the payoff of keeping a hoax murder quiet. Peter ‘Lawford as the retired sleuth and | ‘his: wife, comely Phyllis Kirk, the dilettante Park Avenue detectives, came off pretty well, if not overcliched, in the limitations of the script. The episode was well mounted, with production values good. The dog Asta had a few cute oro. JACK BENNY PROGRAM | With Dennis Day, Don Wilson, Mel Blanc, others; ‘music director, Mahion Merrick. Exec Producer Director; Ralph Levy Producer: Hilliard Marks Writers: Sam Perrin, George Balzer, Al Gordon, Hal Goldman 30 Mins,, Sun., 7:30 p.m. AMERICAN TOBACCO co, CBS-TV, from H’wood (BBDO)} Despite .the rumors, the television season doesn’t get started until the old pros return. Now the battle has been joined, with Jack| Benny (alternating with “Bachelor Father”) fighting it out against NBC's “Sally” and ABC's “Maverick." Westerns, situation come dies, whodunits and whathaveyou | come and go, but Benny looks to be going on. forever—in the most durable format of all, classy ,comedy in. which age (39 or thereaboitts) eannot wither or custom (seven years. in tv alone) stale his infinite. variety. Sunday's. (22) show was not a preem-de-la-creme, but even a fair to middlin' Benny is better than all the hurrahs in the ads when they don’t prove out on the home screens. ‘ ‘Benny’s magnum opus had a _|lotta laughs built in, this woven around. his insistence on dropping lof the middle’ commercial for Lucky Strike, with Don Wilson fuming while rigged out in a calypsa costume to dramatize his gorgeous avoirdupois. Only a Benny note joke extended to most of the show. ‘From the realistie point of view, the shenanigans served to give Lucky Strike a boost—and Benny’s series has always had a load of sponsor identification, with and ‘without trickery,: (Tareyton Cigs gets the end-plug). — In addition to the standup stuff and chitchat, there was Dennis Day. bursting into song (“Around the World”) and an “imported” act getting lushed up by degrees while sampling the liquids from ‘musical bottles” to get them down to playing size. Latter session was an okay. romp, not especially sparkling the audience. Mel Blanc was the meshing of the various elements.’ sented in cooperation with New;and Mahlon Merrick lays down the Wynn was grateful in acknowledg-’ York U. with Dr. Morris H. ing the honor, but he deserved .Shamos of the school as advisor. something better, Rose. Les, ‘musical beat—these and the four writers. fortify the “old pro” lineup. “ Trau. Roy. Glenn, -jgic Service have provided the ‘| American telefilm series produced fand Laome Chance. Wednesday, September 25, 1957 Oss With Hon Randell, Lionel Murton, Linda Brook, Patrick Holt, Laome Chance Producer: Jules Buck Director: Peter Maxwell Writer: Paul Dudiey 30 Mins.; Sat., 7:30 p.m, ATV, from London (film) The files of the Office of Strate -[_ THE RESTLESS GUN (Duel at Lockwood) With John Payne, Vic Morrow, others Exec Producer: John Payne Producer: Dayid Dortort ‘Director: James Neilson Wr:ters: David Dortort, Frank Burk 30 Mins.; Mon., 8 p.m. WARNER-LAMBERT background for this new Anglo There’s been such an influx of westerns, it’s hard to tell them apart. This one has John Payne, a vet performer, who does right well with his role, a fast man with the gun on the side of the angels who —in his own words—ain’t a “}illin’ man.’ On basis of preem, “Restless Gun’ will be in the adult western niche. The initial episode “Duel at Lockwood” had that psychological twist, depending on that new fangdangled school of thought that’s supposed to lend insight into char‘acter, carring a story forward neatly timed for that 30-minute slot. But even with the benefit of Freud, it was hard to swallow the character and situations in “Duel at Lockwood,” penned by David Dortort from a story by Frank Burk, Portrayed. was a mean, young cuss, played by Vic Morrow, so mean that just out of sport he shoots the clothespins out of the hands of his stoical, grayhaired ‘grandmaw while. she's hangin’ out the family wash. Well, that mean young ’un has a hankering to out| duel the most renowned gunslinger in town, that Payne fellow, playing Vint Bonner of a nearby ranch, ‘the strong, silent sype who. seldom comes to town. After a lot of hocus ‘pocus, involving the sheriff, the grandmaw (who says her grandson never really had a dad or mom to bring him up, but he’s so bad that she wants him dead) and a near duel that never came off, the finale occurred at 8:25 with Payne and Morrow walking down the street for that “moment of truth.” Shots rang’ out and mean Morrow clutched his hand, blood drippin’, turning to his grandmaw waitin’ in in Britain by Flamingo Films in association with Incorporated Television Program Co, The fact that they rank ‘as British quota gives them an-important standing in their domestic market; by their dramatic and factual content they are worthy of serious attention in the U. S. (Program premiers in this country on ABC-TV tomorrow [Thurs.].) The series, scripted by Paul Dudley, has Ron Randall starred as a member of the OSS. They were filmed at a London studio with locations’ in various parts of Europe as demanded by the stories, Each item in the skein has a hasis in actual wartime history; where necessary, however, the story outline has been dramatized to achieve the maximum possible inpact.. New series teed off on the ATV commercial network at a key 7:30 p.m. viewing hour with “Operation Fracture,” the story of how the| OSS investigated serious leaks of information to the enemy, Apparently, the Nazis developed a_notso-subtle way of getting Allied airmen to talk. Injured aircrews, particularly those who were found, unconscious, were taken into a hospital room decorated with the Stars and Stripes and a portrait of the late President Roosevelt and led to believe by perfect English-speak-. ing doctors and orderlies that they had been returned to a friendly base. Ron Randell, as an OSS man, Was sent to occupied Germany to find out how the Nazis operated. He had the instruments with which to make himself unconscious and a built-in radio transmitter in the}a wagon, crying in her bo bosom e heel of his boot. A friendly Nazi] the child he really 1 is. ms hospital orderly made his task that vnc Horo. much easier, but the information he got was transmitted under the nose of the Nazi commander. Slick production; a taut story M SQUAD With Lee Marvin, Bruce Gordon, Morris Ankrum, Henry Brandon, line and strong dramatic values| Ann Barton, Ken Lynch, Peter were the keynotes of the initialler Broceo, Tyler McDey, Paul in the new series. Ron Randall'as| Hahn, David Hossman, John Mitchum Producer: John Larkin Director: Bernard Girard Writer: Joel Mureott 30 Mins., Fri., 9 p AMERICAN 'TOBACCO, HAZEL BISHOP NBC-TV. (film) (SSC&B, Raymond. Spector) With no less than four mystery shows scheduled for NBC-TV on Friday, nights, it was inevitable that at least ‘one should’ fall into the ‘Dragnet”-‘Lineup” genre, That’s “M Squad,” the Revue Productions. (MCA) package starring Lee Marvin Chicago police the OSS agent sent to investigate the leaks gave a performance of distinct authority and understanding. He was firm and determined without even being brash. Other ‘key paris were filled by Lionel Murton, Linda Brook, Patrick Holt yro. THE MILLIONAIRE With Jeff Morrow, Carolyn Jones, Marie Brown, Howard Wendell, . Russ Thorson; Marvin Miller, Producer: Don Fedderson Director: Gerald Mayer Writer: Muriel Roy Bolton lieutenant, As of the moment (with COLGARRn PALMOLLVE ony mene or S t a os see .’ a a” Ss CBS-TV (film) to be seen), quad” shapes up as the best of the NBC mysterioso entries, despite its familiar pattern. That’s not especially saying a lot, since familiarity can~breed contempt. But “M Squad” makes no bones about being a straight action entry—it even leavyes.out any pretense at stylization a la “Dragnet.” Object is to tell the story of 2 crime and its solution, and the opening show did that without any |lost motion. It was a competentlyproduced, fast-moving . half-hour. without .any particular gloss of brilliance but with. okay story values nicely executed. Lee Marvin is an asset. He looks the part of a tough cop (perhaps more so than any of the. other tv policemen), and he’s a good actor who gives the role an aif of author-ity. Sole fault with Marvin in the opener was a tendency to speak his narration too fast, so that part of it seemed jumbled. Supporting cast was good, particularly Ann Barton, who scored as a mother who's called on to identify her husband and child, killed in an auto acci ent One thing is missing. “Dragnet” has its style, and “Lineup” has San Francisco. Though the Chicago authorities haven’t given the show their blessing, ‘M Squad” could do (Ted Bates) “The “Millionaire” has always been. nothing more than a filmed half-hour anthology, yet with an identifiable hook week in and week out that is sometimes stretched thin but that always gets the CBS-TV stanza a sharp rating return. There doesn’t seem to be any good reason why the program cannot. continue reigning supreme Wednesdays at 9, unless “Ozzie & Harriet” on ABC-TV or “Kraft” on NBC-TY, both of them the same competition as last season, do something unusual to hypo interest. Despite its advantage over the other two, “The Millionaire” is not always the best drama. Though slick in production and usually in. writing, the storyline on the premiere performance was insufficient and the tiein with the millionaire theme (a billionaire gives away a million every episode to someone, not so much out of charity as to see how it will affect his life)/’was absolutely superfluous. Virile Jeff Morrow, as a yellow journalist, was given $1,000,000 to buy out his employers and run his paper as he saw fit. But apparently he had been running it as he saw fit for years and thus ruined the lives of many innocent men, — Carolyn Jones, alternately petulant and wholesome, was the girl|o reporter, who secretly harbored hatred for her boss and finally conected him with an unsolved murder through her sleuthing, thereby. turning the tables on Morrow. Whatever incited Morrow to his} compulsive ways was hardly explained in the Muriel Roy Bolton ‘script. Too bad that mediocrity has the paradoxical power to rule supreme. more recognizable Chi locales, The on-location photography, though good, could have betn done anywhere. Production values throughout ‘are good, and Bernard Girard, an old “Dragnet” hand, directed the opener tautly. “M Squad” is hardly a sterling contribution to the new season, byt Within its own context, it’s a-we turned-out entry. As for its future, it has the unhappy task of facing Frank Sinatra on Friday nights. rn, ‘| with some distinguishing mark like: