Variety (May 1958)

f'AstiEYr 47 Wednesday, May 21, 1958 TV-FILMS Variett'# toeefciy chart, based on. ratings furnished by. American Research Bu- : feature period and share of audience, since these factors reflect the effectiveness reau’s latest reports on feature films and their competition covers 120 cities. Each of the feature and audience composition, i.e., a late show at 11:15 p.m, would hardly week, the five, top-rated features in a particular city will be rotated. have any children:, viewers, but its share of audience may reflect dominance in that Factors which would assist distributors, agencies, stations and advertisers in time period. In the cities where stations sell their feature programming on a multi determining the effectiveness of a feature show in a specific market have been stripped bams utilising the same theatrical throughout the week a total rating for the included in this Variety chart. Listed below is such pertinent information regarding total number of showings for the week is given, the total rating not taking into account features as their stars, release, year, original production company and the present the duplicated homes factor. Barring unscheduled switches in titles the listed features distributor included wherever possible Along with the title. Attention should be paid for the particularly rated theatrical filmed show are as accurate as could be ascer- to such factors as the time and: day, the high and low . ratings for the measured tained from a multiplicity of station and other data. Foreign TV Reviews S5S5555S Continued; from; pace' 43 • ssssssss each character to such an ' extent that they almost drowned out the rest of the "cast. Blit as the play developed the actors settled down to hit 'the right note. Production and settings were good. - Bary. could touch the superb technique of these veteran performers. Nor did anything Maxin produce have the production value of the film clips. However, for Berlin fans, the. r show was a feast of nostalgia; Star¬ ting with a medley from “Annie Get Your Gun,’* the show paraded “Marie from Sunny Italy,” “I Love a Piano,”.“My Wife’s. Gone to the Country,” Alexander’s. Ragtime Band,” /‘When 1 Lost You,” “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody,”. “What’ll I Do?,” “Remember,” “Always,” “Blue Skies,” “How Deep is. the Ocean,” “Top Hat, ’ “Cheek to Cheek,” “Easter. Pa¬ rade,” “Tropical Heatwave,’’ “Love¬ ly Day Tomorrow/’ “This is the Army,” “Stage Door Canteen,” a “Call Me Madam” mixture, winding up with a medley from “Holiday Inn.” There could be no grumbles about the number and variety of the songs chosen, but there was little to indicate that Berlin has invariably been one Jump, ahead of most of his rivals in assessing public taste; ; * David Hughes emerged best among the Various vocalists, who included Marion Keene, Ronnie Carroll and Morton . Fraser’s. Har¬ monica Gang. Tommy Linden’s . choreography and the . orchestra conducted By Eric Robinson con-: tributed excellently to a mammoth, task, but: Audley Southcott’s des¬ igns were- over-fussy.■= Producer Ernest Maxin did his level best in. difficult circumstances, but David Whitaker’s commentary was unin¬ spired and corny. In short, thanks largely to Berlin’s own action, a well deserved tribute to a well lcved composer went sadly flat and the tribute would have been more entertaining had . it been ‘cut in half.' Or, better still, left to sound radio. # Rich. HANGING JUDGE With Raymond Massey, John Robin¬ son, David . Markham, Julian . Somers, John Cairney, Margaret Anderson, Gordon Gardner, Harry Hutchinson, Becket Bould, Leslie French, Reginald Smith, James Raglan, Tom Macauley, Deering Wells, others Producer: George More O’Ferrall Writer: Raymond Massey i TV adaptation: Whitfield Cook, Raymond Massey. 75 Mins:, Sun., 9:35 p.m. ABC-TV, from Birmingham. .. A prime aim of ABC-TV’s ambi¬ tious drama department is to bring; w.k. foreign talent and. plays: to British screens. : One of these im¬ ports was Raymond Massey in the dual role of actor and playwright. His play, “Hanging Judge,.” though not a vehicle for audience identifi¬ cation with its improbable charac¬ ters, was set et a racy tempo, , and achieved such good performances, that, it made. Massey’s trip worth¬ while. A major part in achieving the favorable result went to John Robinson, as Sir Francis Brittain, the judge. Massey, himself, gave a masterful and convincing perform-, ance as Sir George Sidney,. the newspaper owner. : Plot, concerning the almost bru¬ tal judge with a strong conviction that the English 4aw is infallible until he finally gets, caught up in it himself on a wrongful charge of murder, was well developed. Strong personalities of both male leads brought out the last drop of NAN MERRIMAN With Gerald Moore 20 Mins., Tues., 10:50 p.m.: BBC-TV, from London One of the long standing aims of BBC-TV has been to present leading classical musicians and singers of the world to its public. In this 20-minute recital, the pro¬ grammers went a; long way towards furthering this ambition by bring¬ ing American mezzo-soprano Nan Merriman- to the screen. Introduced by. Gerald Moore, who accompanied the singer at the piano. Miss Mer¬ riman : sang several songs with Spanish and French origins. •Sets were simple and production, straightforward, both of .. which proved to right for presenting the recital. Moore’s matter-of-fact in-, troductions nicely punctuated each number. Bary: CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY With Gordon Heath, Kenneth Spencer, Laurence Payne, Errol John, Lionel Ngakane, Orlando Martins, Ian Fleming, Peter Howell, Claude Collier, Antony Wagner, Kenneth Midwood, Jim¬ my Lloyd, Charles Stapley, Wal¬ ter Horsbrugh, Enid Hewitt, J. Grant Anderson,. Frank older, Michael SaundHers Director: Josephine Douglas Writer: Felicia Komai (adapted by JosOphine Douglas) 90 Mins., Wed.* 8:30 p.m. Associated-Rediffusion from Lon¬ don . Josephine Douglas’ adaptation of Felicia Komafs play from the novel,. “Cry The Beloved Country,” prove d so diluted that the original¬ ly. strong emancipation theme was almost completely lost in a stilted offering, Miss Douglas also han¬ dled the direction, and here again, the. result was paceless and uncon¬ vincing, The production was flabby, mainly because the guts of the story was missing, and despite sev¬ eral workmanlike performances, an unconvincing supporting . cast pulled the play even further into the doldrums. : One highlight was the dignified performance by Gordon Heath as the Rev. Stephen Kumalo, Who went from his hick settlement to the big city in search of his son only to find him convicted of murder. The final, almost hippy ending, de¬ signed to warm the heart, was drawn out and failed to - attain the ; desired result. This dramatized j version, which was performed in r the ehurch at St. Martin’s in the: Field, London, several years ago.: called for two narrators — orte; black, the other white. These j chores went respectively to Ken¬ neth Spencer and Lawrence Payne j who tried commendably hard to j brong out the meaning behind the ! flowery prose, Bary. Chelsea at Eight Sandy Wilson, author of the long- running London show, “The Boy Friend,” has written a new musi¬ cal comedy entitled, “Oh Henry,” j "based ori “The Private Lives -of ! Henry; VIII.” . So far he hasn’t; found a backer for the show, so j Granada TV took the unprecedent- j ed .step of airing a 15-niinute ‘ potted version of the piece.and in-; vited viewers to record their opin- ’ ions of the work. The extract was ; beamed during "Chelsea At Eight” <13) with a competent cast headed; by Keith Michell However, al-j though the tunes were... tuneful enough and the humor suitably lusty, it was virtually impossible to make judgment on the entire play front -such a. brief "Showing; Purpose of the stunt was obviously to permit Wilson’s, work to be pre¬ viewed by impresarios. Glib American comic Alan King, who in the previous program of the series had the climax of his rou¬ tine cut short because of a timing mixup, more than got his “re¬ venge” for. the blunder. Before the show title was screened. King fin¬ ished the routine from exactly where lie had been previously cut short. He explained: “Granada owed me a minute.” Entry was good for lotsa yocks. Later in the offering! the comic again scored heftily with some pointed gags' about the current state of the mu¬ sic business and the recent crop of songsters—especially Elvis Presley. He vocalized himself as the show closer on “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands,” with the Granadiers. Jose Iturbi. making his commer¬ cial tv debut, demonstrated his pianistic aptitude, but overdid the showmanship with a cumbersome gimmick- by asking the audience to bear with him smoking his pipe as he flayed. He explained that it helped him to relax. From Paris’ Left Bank, where they , operate a club, came folk singers Gordon Heath and Lee Pay- ant; To help create atmosphere, a club setting was provided and the singers sang, a couple of songs from perches- atop step ladders. They provided’ their own guitar accom¬ paniments which proved to be the most musical part of the Routine; Emcee Bernard Braden was much improved and cut a lot of his pre¬ viously overlong gab. The Grana¬ diers continued to register as the tops with a Couple of fine singing- terping interludes. Musical , sup¬ port from the Peter Knight oreh was faultness Bary.