Variety (October 1958)

PMtlEff 31 Wednesday* October 8, 1958 TELEVISION REVIEWS BREAKTHROUGH" (Encounter) With John Vernon, Bon Francks, Lloyd Bochner, Robert Goodier, Charles Palmer, Neil LeRoy, Jack Green, Jay Shannon, Eric Christinas, John Paris, Hedley Mattingly, Larry Reynolds, Sharon Acker, Felicity Pearce, James Edwards, Norm Bornstein, Eric Heath Supervising Producer: Esse W. Ljungh Producer-Director: Ronald Wey- Writeri Donald Jack 60 Mins., Sun., 9:30 pm. ABC-TV, via CBC, Toronto The Good Neighbor policy would call for a great big hurrah in con¬ nection with Canada’s first dra¬ matic series beame'd' to the U.S. from Toronto and seen over the ABC-TV network. But candor* com¬ pels the admission that the CBC’s initial full-hour live “Break¬ through,” while a fine try; was hardly enough to make it must viewing versus the strong competi¬ tion. Nevertheless, it will bo inter¬ esting to see what tv across the border can do with the next three in the 9:30 Sunday night skein. “Encounter,” first title in the four-show series, was a scientifie- tion space age entry centered around a court-martial charging treason against an RCAF officer for disappearing with his jet plane for five months—translated into that span of “earth time,” or five minutes elapsed in “space time.” Donald Jack turned in a script that 'was often suspenseful, but just as often confusing and verbose. And some of the camerawork was slip¬ shod, too. Canada’s foremost contribution in this so-so flying saucer opus was fronting a large cast in which the three principals in the court-mar¬ tial proceedings seemed to be de¬ voted to the sort of diction and articulation that’s a pleasure to hear. Trio consisted of John Ver¬ non, a wing commander speaking for the defense; Don Francks, the flying officer charged with treason; and most of all, Lloyd Bochner, serving as the aggressive prosecu¬ tor. Ronald-Weyman’s direction was about par for the course. “Breakthrough” is being pre¬ sented for American audiences by Showcase Productions, via a tieup with the CBC. In Canada it is pari of a series underwritten by Gen¬ eral Motors’ Canadian subsidiary. ABC used the breaks for spot com¬ mercials. Trau. THE FORD SHOW With Tennessee Ernie Ford, Georg Gobel, Top Twenty, others Producer-Director: Bob Finkel Writers: Danny Arnold, Howari Leeds Music Director: Harry Geller 30 Mins., Thors., 9:30 pm. FORD NBC-TV, from Hollywood (J. Walter Thompson) Put a couple of whole whet American country boys like Georgi Gobel and Tennessee Ernie Fort together on a show, and-the re suits are bound to be satisfying even when the grist gives way h chaff. “Li’l Bitty Buddy” guestei on "Big Buddy’s” eye-opener fo: the new season last Thursday (2 and, except in song, blended h pure harmony as a kindred spirit The boys were not exact!; nourished with the cream of gags but they weathered the famin< stoutly, especially an insipid ski about Hawaii. Some good ad lib helped partly, but mainly it wa: the happy coupling of two amiabli aoft-pedalers that held the shov aloft. Sharpest material was concen¬ trated in Ford’s warmup gambit, capped by a fine demonstration of hula hooping around the neck. Gags were up-to-date and in good taste even when they leaned to the racy side. Ford told of his fan club in Hawaii which called it¬ self, “the poi pickers,” and that pretty Well set up the motif of his sketch with Gobel later in the show. He and Gobel made capital of*the latter’s error in leaving a key prop in his dressing room. Ford’s singing group, the Top Twenty, contributed a pair of top- notch productions, one of them a parade number choreographed in geometrical patterns. Windup had Gobel and his host in^'a set of duets, both vocal and instrumental, j Ford on trombone and Gobel on guitar. ■ There’s just enough real hay¬ seed in Ford to make him a bona- fide spokesman of the grassroots and just enough caricature in his Tennessee pea picker to warm the palates of Yankee urbanites with no taste for grits and pone. Looked at either way, he’s a shrewd show¬ man with real style, and his .NBC roots still appear to have a good :frasp. - Show goes color again on Oct. 23. Let. WESTINGHOUSE DESILU PLAY¬ HOUSE (Lucy Goes To Mexico) With Lucille Ball, Deal Arnax, Maurice Chevalier, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Richard Keith, Alan Costello Exec Producer: Arnax Producer: Bert Granet Director: Jerry Thorpe 60 Mins., Mon., 10 pm, WESTINGHOUSE CBS-TV (film) ( McCdnn-Erickson ) With the demise of its longrun- ning “Studio One,” Westinghouse is standing pat with its Monday night 10 to 11 CBS-TV franchise, installing the $11,000,000 “Desilu Playhouse” package. Mainstay of the series will be 41 hours of] filmed dramas, with seven Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz comedy shows in¬ serted for the big Trendex-Nielsen push. It was, in fact, a Lucy & Desi | wing-ding that kicked off the series < Monday night (6), with Maurice Chevalier as guest star. (Actually a more realistic ap- S raisal of “Desilu Playhouse” will e forthcoming after next week’s initial drama segment. For the mo¬ ment, Westinghouse played it safe in preeming the costly series with one of tv’s alltime^ tried & true formats.) These hour comedy outings, like their half-hour (now in rerun) predecessors, are tossed off with beltline precision. It’s formula stuff, keyed to a new situation each time, but brought off with such skill, polish and unerring aware¬ ness of what tickles the risibilities of the average viewer, that the results are frequently explosive. It was Monday night.' In. this particular installment, “Lucy Goes to Mexico,” the Ricar¬ dos and the Mertzes get involved in all sorts of hilarious complica¬ tions, including a border rap of tiring to smuggle in (1) a Mexican kid, who locks himself in the trunk of the Ricardo car; (2) a 5 French¬ man (Chevalier), who inadvertent¬ ly g4ts locked in same. Thanks to a situation where Desi and Chevalier ire putting on a USO show on a flattop anchored off the coast at San Diego (which is as good and rewarding a way as any to work Chevalier into the format), the Navy comes to the rescue. But not before Lucy gets herself involved in a Tijuana bullring before a jampacked audience with the In¬ evitable zany payoff. It was, of course, all tailored to the Lucy & Desi brand of comedies and it “played” off to good returns, with Chevalier a particular asset. The 41 regular hour segments will comprise a variety of formats, including drama, melodrama, com¬ edy and even some westerns. If they approximate the professional¬ ism and skill of these Lucy & Desi installments, Westinghouse can credit itself with a good buy. Rose. DICK POWELL’S ZANE GREY THEATRE With Barbara .Stanwyck, David Janssen, Richard Shannon, Gay WUkenou, Paai Genge, Bill Qainn, Ian MacDonald, Stephen Chase, Martin Carralaga, Allan Pinson, Irene Calvlllo Producer: Hal Hudson Director: William D. Faralla Writer: Aaron Spelling 3t Mina., Thun., 9 pjn. GENERAL FOODS, JOHNSON’S WAX ’ CBS-TV (film) fBznton At Bowles) Only an unusual knock-down, dragout fight between Barbara Stanwyck and David Janssen saves this seasonal opener for “Zane Grey Theatre” from being a com¬ plete exercise ip mediocrity. It has nothing else of distinction, with Aaron Spelling’s pedestrian script a mere rehash of a .couple of thou¬ sand western - whodunit yarns. Even the heavy is telegraphed way ahead of time. Miss Stanwyck’s husband Is killed, apparently by angered ran- I chers to whom he’s refused his water, and one of the ranchers disappeared. Miss Stanwyck chases after the rancher down into Mex¬ ico, accompanied by Janssen, friend of the family. Chase is fruitless, and she returns, only to find the body of the suspected rancher, and she realizes that Janssen is the murderer. Comes the fight, she shoots Janssen, and that’s it. Director William B. Faralla’s staging of the fist, mud and rifle fight was standout but that’s about the only good, thing about this show. ..Miss Stanwyck lent a little fire to her role and was excellent in -fro fight sequence. Janssen was not very believable as the heavy. Supporting stints, by Richard Shannon, Guy Wilkerson, Paul Genge and Stephen Chase, were brief but adequate. Not a very promising way to start a reason. Chan. DINAH SHORE CHEVY SHOW With Gwen Verdon, Art Carney, Burl Ives, Louis Jourdan Producer-Director: William Asher Writers: Robert Wells, Johnny Bradford, Ray Brenner, Leo Townsend Music Director: Harry Zimmerman 60 Mins.; Sunday, 9 pjn. CHEVROLET NBC-TV, from Hollywood (color) (CampbellrEwald) BING CROSBY SHOW With Dean Martin, Patti Page, Mahalia Jackson, Hanson & Tad- lock, others Producers: Bill Colleran, Sammy Cahn Director: Colleran Writer: Bill Morrow 69 Mina., Wed. (1), 9:30 p.m. IOLDSMOBELE I ABC-TV, from H’wood I (D. P. Brother) Dinah Shore got off to a smooth, fast start on her hourlong Sunday night series for Chevrolet. Al¬ ways an ingratiating performer on her own, Miss Shore was aided and abetted on the preem (5) by a strong guest lineup with turned the stanza into a consistently slick and frequently sparkling entertainment package. From the opening revivalist num¬ ber which Miss Shore delivered, to the closing burlesque on the cool bohemian set, the show main¬ tained a breezy pace. Production- wise, it was cleverly dressed up with some of the sets and costum¬ ing obviously aimed for maximum impact on the color receivers. That was particularly so. in the Miss Shore-Gwen Verdon color-response number, which, however, also-reg¬ istered strongly on the mono¬ chrome sets as well Instead of the usual one or two shots* and then off, the guests on the kickoff earned their fees with substantial assignments. Art Car¬ ney, for instance, did one nifty bit with his Ed Norton characteriza¬ tion while watching Miss Shore per¬ form on tv. He also teamed up with Louis Jourdan for a rousing minstrel-styled vocal and then both came back with the rest of the company for the final comedy sketch. [ Miss Verdon was tops in her ; numbers, with her “Occasional I Man ” song-and-dance sequence a | major highlight of the show; Jom*- dan pleased with his vocal of j “Gigi,” in an excellent production framework. Burl Ives also con¬ tributed a brace of folk songs, in¬ cluding one duet with Miss Shore. The weakest element on the show was some corny banter about Ives’ heft. On her own. Miss Shore wrapped up a couple of ballads, “When Day Is Done” and “Some¬ thing Wonderful,” in highly listen- able style. Plugs for the 1959 Chevrolet, due to be unveiled next week, had a smart peg involving subliminal looksees at the cars. It was a bright touch that also sold. Berm. BOWLING STARS With “Whispering “Joe Wilson, A1 Faragalli, Tony Lindemann Producer: Matt Niesen 39 Mins.; Sun., 4:39 pjn. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUN¬ DRY CO. ABC-TV (film) (Cunningham fc Walsh ) ABC-TV’s “Bowling Stars” re¬ turned to the air Sunday afternoon (5) after *a summer layoff with basically the same format that has kept kegler interest over the pre¬ vious years. For bowling enthusi¬ asts the. filmed series has all the necessary ingredients providing | the country’s top bowlers, sus-: pense, and added cash prizes to the winner of the three-game! matches. After a shaky start in which commentator “Whispering” Joe Wilson describes everything as the “greatest” (the sport, the partici¬ pants and the alleys) he swings into high gear with a running elu¬ cidation with his sotto voice tech¬ nique growing to a full voice as the ball heads down the alley for the. pins. Wilson goes overboard in presenting the cash awards but otherwise does a good job. ' The series to be presented is one of 26 man-to-man matches each of three games, with the winner picking up ILOOO and the loser $1 per pin. The half-hour of tv time only allows for half of the matches with the action being picked up in the middle of the second game. For the record, A1 “Lindy” Faragalli easily outpaced his opponent Tony Lindemann by 68 pins and thereby wins the right to appear again next week. Bowling has become a major fall and winter sport and should at¬ tract enough followers to tune in to watch the champions. Slotted late Sunday afternoon, sport fans can take their choice of watching the keglers or the pro football games. Sunday’s episode got a break in that the World series tilt ended five minutes before the matches got underway. American Machine & Foundry, makers of bowling equipment, has a natural on its hands and has no trouble Integrating the blurbs. More Television Reviews on Pagon 33 and 33 A couple more like this one and ABC-TV will get a reputation for having put television hack in show business; Without equivocation, the Bing Croshy special last Wed. night (1) was a delightful viewing experience from beginning to end; a strictly professional enterprise from which Oldsmobile extracted maximum mileage in a tasteful serving of some ojf the best song salesmen extant. If the product itself, the ’59 Olds, can deliver half the qualitative freewheeling performance that Crosby & Co. achieved last week, then GM*s got itself a happy division. Here was the plot: Crosby, Dean Martin, Patti Page (herself a vet Olds saleslady) and the wonderful Mahalia Jackson in a virtual hour songfest, either in solo, duet, trio or whatever which way. That’s alL For background no elaborate, over- stuffed production hut merely a simple crazy-quilt pattern of lights that made for an ingenious bit of electronic whoop-de-do and a stun¬ ning effect in keeping with the imaginative qualities of the show as a whole. -The pleasures were Varied and frequent, including one of Crosby’s top tv performances to date. In fact the Bingo and Dean Martin were having themselves a merry romp throughout, and even If Bill Morrow’s scripting wasn’t always at peak form, the ease and natural¬ ness with which the banter was tossed off more than compensated for this deficiency. The opening “What A Swell Party” set the mood and the tempo. and from then on it was pretty much of a breeze for everyone con- 1 cerned. There was Crosby’s "Swanee,” a beautiful Mahalia Jackson rendition of “Summer¬ time;” some Bing & Dean nipups, j both verbal and vocal spanning a! wide and tuneful range; some Patti Page soloing and one of those in¬ evitable Patti, Bing & Dean three- way clambakes in both a serious and satiric vein, reaching a peak of comicality in some ribbing of “We Get Letters” and kidding around with “Life I* Just A Bowl of Cherries” and a rock *n’ roll joust Then a lively Mahalia Jack- son spiritual and a kidding-on-the- square “Wait For. The Reviews’* finale. Even the fast-talking “Music Man’-tempoed Olds commercial had a clever offbeat ring. Rose. THE REAL MeCOYS (The New Car) With Walter Brennan, Kathy Nolan, Richard Crenna. Lydia Reed, Michael Winkelman, Tony Mar- tines, others Producer: Irving Pincus Director: Hy Averbaek Writer: Jack Elinoon, Chuck Stew¬ art 39 Mins., Thun., 3:30 pjn. SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PROD- ABC-TV (film) (J. Walter Thompson) “The Real McCoys,” that corn- filled, hillbilly situation comedy program Is off and running again in its second season. One of the saving graces of “Mc¬ Coy” is that it is different. . That in itself may account for the suc¬ cess of the program. The initialer carries: over from last season the * Ozark lines and the “hill” lingo and about all that is lacking is Grandpa petting the hound arid mixing up a batch of brew. Walter Brennan may be the best thing that, could have happened to this series for without him the fare would be dull at best The vet actor is the whole show, receiving little support from the rest of the cast -Brennan milks every line for What it is worth and in some cases even more for the writing of Jack Elinson and Chuck Stewart adds little. Opener deals with the clan at¬ tempts to swap in its vintage jalopy for a newer model. The thin writ¬ ing and. direction is based on Grandpa’s sentiment for the heap. Even the canned laughter didn’t help in some instances for the material was weak. But there’s always Brennan, and that’s the “real” thing about “McCoys.” While the program is on the real folksy side, Sylvania’s sales mes¬ sages aren’t. Bankroller needs some zip in the plugs to get across .the message. Bern, JACKIE GLEASON SHOW With Buddy Haekett; Ray Bloch orch; Jack Lescoulie, announcer: others Producer: Stanley Poss Director: Frank Satenstein Writers: Marvin Man, Walter Stone, Howard Tedder 30 Mins,, FrL, 8:30 pjn. LEVER BROS., PHARMACEU¬ TICAL CBS-TV, from J&Y. . * (JWT, Parkson) CBS can be sued for breach of promise. In weeklong teaser ads in the dailies it promised a “brand new” Jackie Gleason show, but the comic ’who showed up last Friday night in the kickoff of his “new” live half-hour series on the network took up precisely where he had left off a few season back —even before his “Honeymoon- ers” film series. In short, this was an abbreviated version of the old Jacke Gleason hour-long format that long since had played itself out as a Saturday night entry— even down to such auxiliary de¬ tails as the beautiful dolls divid¬ ing up a sentence among them in breathlessly heralding the second coming of Gleason. There was Reggie Van Gleason 3d of old, with all the familiar comedic tricks and mannerisms— only this time in a new setting as he’s put through the third degree in being investigated by a D.C, committee for business misman¬ agement. Perhaps under the more inviting circumstances of bristling lines, or had a clever and witty situation prevailed, one could have said “It’s nice having Reggie back.” But Friday’s initial rein¬ carnation was under less reward¬ ing conditions in which the com¬ edian was obliged to put up with a nondescript script/ Again in his role of Fenwick, ttffe back-of-the- store schmo who’s put through some frantic paces hy his boss) it bad been done with considerable more finesse and comedy results in the past. In place of Art Carney, Gleason now has the services of Buddy Haekett, who in his own right is a funny man. But even as second banana, Haekett rated a better shake from the scripting depart¬ ment There was little enough for him to do. Gleason, like many another com¬ ic who has been through the tv wars, is a man of considerable and genuine talents. It’s just unfortu¬ nate that there aren’t that many new ideas or fresh formats to go around. This time up Gleason is plug¬ ging Stripe toothpaste (for Lever Bros.) and Geritol (for Pharma¬ ceuticals). And who should show up for the Stripe sell hut that in¬ destructible they-said-it-couldn’t- happen Jack Lescoulie. He cer¬ tainly gets around. Rose. THE ANN SOTHERN SHOW With Ernest Trtiex, Ana Tyrrell, Jack Mullaney, Jacques Scott, Beta Shaw, Connie Stevens, Jimmy Hayes, Harry Chesire, EMa Allman, Ralph Dumke Producer: Arthur Hoffee (for Desilu) Director: Oscar Rudolph Writers: Robert Weiskopf, Robert Schiller 39 Mins., Mon., 9:39 p.m. GENERAL FOODS CBS-TV (film) (Benton £ Bowles) Smart bet to hold Monday at 9;30 for CBS-TV is the new Ann So them situation comedy. She Is an actress of charm, and blessed with a superlative Sense of timing and a uniformly excellent bunch of loons in support. Miss Sothem’s new stanza was a first night click. Writers Robert Weiskopf and Robert Schiller weren't as inter¬ ested in plot as they were in giving the actors a chance to mug or make with a punch line. Yet while the story, what there was of one, was a mite on the saccharine side, the actors were provided characteriza¬ tions that were nieely drawn, with the result that their zaniness was ‘ palatable. Miss Sothern, as Katy O’Conner, assistant manager of a posh metro¬ politan hotel, was busy in the initialer trying to find a place in the crowded hotel for two sets of newlyleds. She was alternately helped and hindered by Ernest Truex, as a slightly addled but credible hotel manager, and by Ann Tyrrell, who was as funny a roommate as ever a bachelor heroine on television ever had. Jack Mullaney, as an amateur psychologist bellhop, Jacques Scott as a desk clerk, Ralph Dumke as a drunk, Reta Shaw as Truex’x battle-ax wife and Connie Stevens, Jimmy Hayes, Harry Chesire and Elvia Allman as various newylds were tops. An all-round good performance. . . nc. . Art