Variety (October 1958)

34 TELEVISION REVIEWS t'SklETr OPEN END With David Susskind; Fanny Hurst, Gypsy Rose Lee, Jo Mielziner, June Havoc, William Shatner, France Nuyen, Denise Darcel, Jim Moran, David Merrick, others Producer: Jose Vega Director: Don Luftig Tues.; 11 pun. WNTA-TV, Newark Next time he has a chance to take his tv program, “Open End,” to a post-mortem theatre party, David Susskind had better. think twice. Except for maybe 15 min¬ utes of upbeat tv, which might have been stretched into perhaps three times that much under less distracting and less restrictive cir¬ cumstances, the show ran aground on a lot of repetitive and effete show biz talk. “Open End” was initiated on WNTA-TV on Tuesday (14), the same night “The Wond of Suzie Wong” premiered on Broadway. Actually, it was the occasion of a | triple premiere, since it launched tv-theatrical-moiion picture pro¬ ducer Susskind on a sideline career as video interviewer. Since the articulate Susskind had gained an industry reputation as a contro¬ versial figure, onlookers were nat¬ urally led to expect controversy. But he eschewed tough talk and begged down at once in a series of interview's with persons who, in the main, had nothing more sub¬ stantial to offer than curtness or the common bond of nervous ex¬ pectancy (drama reviews were due) and mutual admiration. It went on this way for about 45 minutes, and then Susskind struck upon William Shatner, who, though co-starred in “Suzie,” was more interested in talking about tilings beyond the prescribed sphere, and with that Susskind for the first time warmed to his job. It was a neat 10 or 15 minutes W'ith Shatner. By that time, Susskind had put his sense of humor to work, and began gent¬ ly to needle the next guest, Denise Darcel, and affably joust w r ith flack Jim Moran. However, the joyful touch disappeared when David Merrick, "Suzie’s” producer ap¬ peared, and for some reason the tv program returned to the earlier lustreless level. A basic tactical error seems to be behind the poor initial showing of “Open End,” which v : as the collaborative" inspiration of Suss¬ kind and Ted Cott. WNTA boss- man. They shunned more sub¬ stantial topics, wh'ch Susskind : proved he could handle those nights he substituted on WMCA radio for veteran interviewer Barry Gray, and favored an oDpor- tunity to capitalize on the glitter of an opening night bash. Not onlv did this expose. Susskind to overly generous amount of “every- body-is-great” blah, but when the party turned into a wake for “Wong,” Susskind <he learned too late) had put himself right in the middle of an embarassing mix-up. As the early Atkinson review came in by phone from scouts apparently stationed at the N.Y. Times, Suss¬ kind tried to summarize the cri¬ tique.* It was a terrible spot to be in w'hen he realized it was a pan, and it was even worse for the members of the “Suzie” company who happened to be on camera as' this and later reviews were repeated. In the blueprint stage, “Open Kid” was supplied by Susskind and Cott with kind of a built-in critical faculty: When the show is going slowly, then Susskind has the right to end .it as soon as he likes; when it’s going well, he can stretch it the night through (since “Open End” is the last scheduled WNTA program of the night. But unfor¬ tunately they decided to wait for the a.m. journalistic judgements. A bright and personable guy like Susskind? with a bagful of interest¬ ing things to say, should give him¬ self a better opportunity to say them. Art. JOHNNY AND JENNY MILLER SHOW Producer: Ross Roach Director: William Hare 30 Mins., Tues. 9:30 pjn. QUALITY HILL TOWERS KMBC-TV, Kansas City Television is very handy for de¬ monstrating dance steps, and Johnny and Jenny Miller are doing it -weekly with a great deal of suc¬ cess on KMBC-TV. Operators of a dancO studio here, they are a handsome young couple aptly suited for demonstrating and teach¬ ing others. They also have a night¬ ly floor show at the Empire Room in the midtown County Club Plaza, and between their studio work and doubling on tv they have a full schedule. Format has them illustrating a step or two on each show, then doing a regular ballroom dance further using the step, while a (Continued on^page^ £1) _ Playhouse 90 “The Long March” was an inter¬ esting “Playhouse 90” from the in¬ tellectual and technical stand¬ points. But it fell short of the mark as a drama on several counts, .the principal ones being a fuzzy characterization in the key role by Jack Carson and a failure to build the kind of climactic impact that the story requires. As an intellectual premise, the Roger O. Hirson adaptation of Wil¬ liam Styron’s story was provoca¬ tive. It dealt with the rebellion against the special kind of con¬ formity that characterizes the. mili¬ tary and" particularly the Marine Corps. Carson, as a reservist cap¬ tain called up for the Korean war, is a decent sympathetic type who can’t bring himself to act as-a spit -1 and-polish martinet, and he finally rebels against the by-the-book rig- I idity of the corps, personified by a toughminded battalion command¬ er, Sterling Hayden, The rebellion is centered about a forced march which Hayden or¬ ders for the end of a two-day field problem. Carson, after arguing futilely against the 36-mile march and its climactic scaling of the ridge, finally does a turnabout flip and vows he and his company will finish it to a man. When Hayden finally rules against scaling the ridge because of the danger land¬ slides, Carson has become so fa¬ natical about it that he goes ahead on his own, causing th.e death of one of his men and a subsequent court-martial for himself. Production was technically in¬ teresting because it combined live production, a little film and a lot of pre-taping done on location— probably the first dramatic location taping ever done for a network show. To a great .extent, the loca¬ tion work was unsatisfactory and explains the inability of director Delbert Mann to build to that strong climax. Pictures of the hardships of the march were sug¬ gestive rather than forceful in por¬ traying the grueling horror of the march, and the 13-hour period was flashed through too quickly to properly develop the change Carson from rebel to hysterical fa¬ natic. The buildup was just too sketchy to justify the change in character, and the outdoor reelage impressionistic rather than de¬ tailed, which didn’t help the impact either. Carson’s performance was some respects a puzzling one. His rendition of the good-guy officer was fine, but he didn’t quite bring the breakup off convincingly. -Per¬ haps it Nvas largely due to the script, with the too-quick transi¬ tion. Perhaps also to the effect Of a pair of sub-plots woven through the story, particularly the relation¬ ship between him and his French wife, a model who plainly doesn’t give a darn about him. In stacking the cards too carefully, the script made too much of a case, and the conviction was lacking. But Carson worked hard at his role, and in its physical aspects, at least, turning in a whale of a job. It was in the key scenes, however, that either he or the script or the direction missed- Hayden gave one of his tough, purposeful portrayals as the martinet; Rod Taylor was forceful as Carson’s exec officer, tom between his play-it-by-the- rules personality and his admira¬ tion of Carson; Mona Freeman was good in a somewhat irrelevant role as Taylor’s girlfriend; Jacqueline Beer carried off the role of Car- son’s wife nicely. James Congden as the private who gets killed was good, as were Shirley Knight, Jas¬ on Wingreen, Harvey Stevens and Fletcher Allen in minor roles. With the proper care and time that filming allows, “The Long March” might have made a good motion - picture—in fact, producer Fred Coe borrowed a screen treat¬ ment that Robert Alan Aurthur had prepared for United Artists. But within the limitation and con¬ fines of the live production, and with too much time allotted the minor subplots and not enough the grueling climax, “The Long March” didn’t quite come off as a •tv’erl"' Chan „ Encounter “The Flower in the Rock” was the rather obscure title of this Canadian Broadcasting Corp. show in the “Encounter” series, fed to ABC-TV “live” from Toronto, Well acted, it had about it an Unreal air that spoiled the required illusion and robbed it of emotional impact. Best thing about it was Frances Hyland, a very attractive actress who managed to convey a feeling of her trials and tribulations with¬ out going overboard on the maud- .jllin side,, The Jq^gpJi told about a stem British industri¬ alist who sent his fun-loving son and daughter-in-law to farm in Canada. Son turned into a drunk¬ ard plotting revenge on the father, being rude to the neighbors and getting to hate his wife. Being told in flashback, story had the son — played by Joseph Shaw—murdered by the wife, with her friend Douglas Rain, taking the rap until, in the end, he was told Miss Hyland had died and admitted the murder. Show overplayed, which was largely due to overemphasis in the, script. Miss Hyland, who has an expressive face, was touching in the role of the tortured and long- suffering wife. Ivor Barry played the stern industrialist-father, op¬ posed to his son’s marriage and contemptuous of his weakness. Douglas Rain, looking very much like a young John Mills, portrayed Miss Hyland’s friend, the implica¬ tion being he fell in love with her. William Needles was okay as the local constable. Paul Almond produced the show and directed it.without much imag¬ ination or real sense for suspense. The Schull script was too con¬ cerned with establishing its char¬ acters to maintain dramatic unity. Hift. Perry Como Show This show failed to use two of its guest stars, Gretchen Wyler and Ralph Bellamy, to maximum ad¬ vantage on last Saturday night’s (13) NBC-TV stanza. Bellamy did a one-minute hit from his “Sunrise at Campobello” legiter after being used as a shill through the first half of the show to introduce the other guests. Some of the byplay between Como and Bellamy, while the latter was making up, was on the cute side and was not in tune with the F.D.R, personality Bel¬ lamy was to play. Miss Wyler was completely wasted in a “Sleeping Beauty” ballet parody. As a straight song session, how¬ ever, this show remains tops. Como is still plugging both sides of his latest RCA Victor disk release, “Mandolins In'The Moonlight” and “Love Makes The. World Go Round,” both nifty soiTgs which he delivered among others in standout style with an assist from the Ray Charles chorus. Eydie Gorme also scored big with her rousing “John¬ ny One-Note” number after ballad- ing “Hello, Young Lovers.” For the younger set, Robin Luke, a current jukebox fave .from Hawaii, did his “Suzie Darling” hit in pleasing style. The final quarter-hour was a showcase for songwriter Jule Styne’s Catalog. A medley of a dozen or so of his songs were de¬ livered by Como and guests in a brightly produced routine.. Plugs for the various sponsors, including RCA Whirlpool, Kleenex and Chemstrand, were liberally scattered throughout. Herm. Eddie Fisher Almost everything that runs on wheels waS given a melodic spin on last Tuesday night’s . Eddie Fisher Burbank gambol to roll up the whole ball of wax. As a peg to keep the story line moving it served its purpose but the skein snapped too often for a smooth runoff.. Only Fisher’s singing and the comicalities of Red Buttons rose above the imaginative lack in staging and the dearth of material to- enliven the laugh line. The show’s pace at times sped so fast as to border on production bedlam. At the finish it became a complete shambles when Jerry Lewis broke up Fisher and every¬ one else by his physical contortions that even had. him rolling on the floor. Fisher tried to salvage some¬ thing out of the close-off but Lewis was not to be denied the red- lighted camera. Confusion was so rampant that Fisher had trouble reading the cue cards and those who put the show together can blame Lewis for being denied their, credits in the closing crawl. Pro¬ fessional courtesy to the star of the show went out the window. The audience screamed at Lewis’ break-up antics to the total dis¬ regard of Fisher, who seemed an¬ noyed at such unsporting intrusion. It was perhaps one of the noisi¬ est shows of the young season, con¬ siderably abetted by guestar Betty Hutton, who was raucously vocal and too intimately attentive to Fisher. The smooching and break¬ ups were overdone. Through it all Fisher tried to keep the show on keel bmt made port only after a rough voyage. He bore down on his songs and made them a musical de¬ light but it wasn’t enough to bal¬ ance off the other disturbing fac- i tors. Buttons didn’t have much to do in the German U-boat bit and it foundered because of over-length. I The writers took the easy way out on the young comic, fighting for a comeback, and revived his *‘ho ho, hee hee” hopping around. His dialect impressions touched off the stoow’s best laughs but this was a studio audience that even ap¬ plauded the commercials. With the right kind . of material, Buttons could get'back in the electronic running. If the show didn’t stand off the competition of' westerns the fault can’t be laid to Fisher. Producer George Englund, directors Englund and Grey Lockwood and writers Ken Englund and Bobby O’Brien didn’t whip up much of a show. They should have pulled the cam¬ era away from Lewis and focus on Fisher to save the show from com¬ plete collapse. Production was shoddy and uninspired. Helm. Ed Sullivan Show Ed Sullivan’s demonstration on behalf of Kodak failed to get off the ground despite the general wealth of talent involved. The samplings provided by most of the acts weren’t sufficient to ingrati¬ ate, there was a spot or two of which the less said about the bet¬ ter. The major development on this show was by magico Marvin Roy who manipulated lighted electric bulbs with entertaining and mysti¬ fying results. He’s a new factor on the tele circuits and this demon¬ stration should open many new avenues of employment to him. Tony Martin also got a full in¬ ning and therefore came off better than most turns with two tunes and a clary interlude. Another big factor was Jack E. Leonard whose remarks on various and sundry subjects didn’t hit all the time, but there were some lines that left the customers reeling. A moment of charm and nostal¬ gia was by Benny Fields & Blos¬ som Seeley, in their one number, “Rosie” with some handsome pro¬ duction in back of them. Also in the man and wife category Xavier Cugat & Abbe Lane did okay in the song and batoning field. There were some sundry items such as Leonard & Leonard, Negro tapsters who opened okay and Ben¬ nett & Patterson who did a highly | unfunny bit. Dolores Vargas & Batista passed muster in a brief flamenco bit with the male pro¬ viding guitar accomps. Roger "Wil¬ liams in his two spots at the piano didn’t have his usual zing. .A very unnecessary bit was the showing of a sequence from “Roots of Heaven.” There wasn’t time for the full presentation and that which was shown didn’t makq sense. Jose. RATE THE RECORDS With Bob Brown, guests 60 Mins., Sat.; 6 p.m. WNTA-TV, Newark This show is for the teenagers. For those in the studio audience it’s a combination discussion and dance session. The kids make with the footwork "while records are being played and also comment on vari¬ ous turntable offerings which are in the current pop-groove. • A guest panel is also on hand to discuss the merits of various recordings. On last Saturday’s (18) show, the panel comprised singers Tommy Edwards and Lou Monte, who shared.the rating spot with a different teenager for each of the records to be judged. The juves appeared to enjoy themselves and the plug value for the various disks spotted is tremen¬ dous. Also, the guest artists get the full promotion treatment, in¬ cluding the spotlighting of their own recordings. Besides voicing their opinion on certain platters, the youngsters are also given an opportunity to ask questions of the guesters. The rat¬ ing gimmick, incidentally, ties in with the system used by a trade publication in its evaluation of rec¬ ords. Edwards and Monte handled themselves well, while Bob Brown emceed pleasantly. Jess . Wednesday, October 22, 195S THE UNCLE AL SHOW With A1 Lewis, Wands Lewis, Janet Greene, Larry Smith Producer: A1 Lewis Director: Mike Tangi Writer: A1 Lewis 60 Mins.; Sat., 11 a.m.. PARTICIPATING ABC-Ty, from Cincinnati A1 Lewis, the “Uncle Al” of this three-ring moppet show, sure has a busy time of it. So does everyona else on the hour-long outing, in? eluding the small fry who are on camera for the entire length of the program. What the show appears to be lacking is some focus, some pauses to catch your breath and experi¬ ence what’s going on. But young¬ sters, from the ages of two to seven for whom the show is aimed, may feel differently. They have inexhaustible energy and some¬ times care little about rhyme and reason. Net is picking up the outing from WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, where it appears to he a local regular. On Saturday’s (18) episode. Uncle Al, sporting a snappy strawhat and playing the accordion, sang many moppet songs, led the on stage kids in some dancing and shennanigans. He was assisted by Wanda Lewis, as Captain Windy, and Janet Greene, as Cinderella. Both made nice contributions. I^arry Smith worked the wide assortment of puppets. The kids at the on-stage party made fetching pictures, ‘as they danced, sang and carried on. It should have warmed them up for that afternoon nap. They must have had a tiring hour. Horo. FOR THE PEOPLE With Leon Pearson Producer: Ben Hudelson Director: Dan Peters 30 Mins.; Sun., 11:30 a.m. WRCA-TV, from New York The half-million aliens in the Gotham area are the potential viewers of this new and important public Service series of 10 pro¬ grams on American history. Un¬ doubtedly a potential American citizen, determined to get his cit¬ izenship papers, could learn from watching “For the People” but the going would indeed be rugged. Leon Pearson is the narrator of the program but thus far his visual aids and the tenor of his remarks have certainly not been geared to the comprehension level of many applicants for citizenship. “For the People,” as caught on the preem show, appears to be pitched on too high a language level. The basic facts of American history, in this instance, should be reduced to more elementary story telling and in a vocabulary capable of under¬ standing among the less literate seeking aid toward naturalization. What Pearson had to say about the American colonies, the Boston Tea Party, the origins of the Decla¬ ration of Independence, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Tom Paine, Abraham Lincoln, et al, was im¬ portant but it was couched too loftily. If Pearson will come down in his sentence structure, “For the Peo¬ ple” will undoubtedly reach far more citizens-to-be. Rans. Rexall Dickering NBC Rexall, via BBD&O, is negotiat¬ ing for a one-hour filmed special featuring Frances Langford and flock of other performers over NBC-TV sometime next April. If deal jells, there’ll be options on other Langford productions made by Charles Wick. Initial production also has Bob Hope, Hugh O’Brien, Julie London, Ed¬ gar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and George Sanders. YOUNG AUDIENCES With The Contemporary Brass Quintet; David Randolph, host Director: Anthony Farrar 60 Mins., Sun., 4 p m. WCBS-TV, N. Y. First of six concerts designed to create an interest in good music on the part of school children be¬ gan Sunday afternoon (19) via WCBS-TV, N. Y., and the hour- long production can be termed a resounding success on the basis.of the studio audience’s reaction. Comprising fifth and sixth graders, the studio guests beat time with the mqsic, asked questions and showed a genuine interest in what makes the Contemporary Brass Quintet tick. All six concerts are being pro¬ duced by Young Audiences Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing youngsters into contact with good music, played by/ pro¬ fessional musicians. Kickoff pro¬ gram had members of the Quintet explaining use and operation “ _ _ of their respective brass instruments. _ _ _ | “They’re not hard to play at all,” Frances Langford Spec [ y0 u e ^^. it.” On the whole it was an infor¬ mative, lively session. Next week string instruments will be ex¬ plained. Concert series is being presented ' jointly by WCBS-TV and Young Audiences Inc. in association with the New York City Board of Edu¬ cation. At show’s windup host David Randolph made a polite pitch for public contributions to help YAI continue its cultural pro-* •v W-