Variety (February 1959)

Wednesday, Febntary II, 195<* UfiKiUfiri TELEVISION REVIEWS 33 BERKELEY SQUARE Playhouse 3& I “Child o£ Our. Time," the “Play- I house 90“ adaptation of Michel del Castillo's bestselling novel, was moving, memorable television. Blessed with a brilliant adaptation by Irving Gaynor Neuman* superb direction by George Boy Hill and in extraordinary performance by Bobby Crawford, a youn^ter in his first major role, this Herbert Brod- Jan production was both inspired and inspiring. The brilliance of the production was the more remarkable because of the difficulties involved. First off, the novel, which deals with the wanderings and sufferings of a youngster through France* Spain and Germany during the war* is virtually impossible to compress into 90 minutes. It's episodic to begin with, even more so as a tele¬ vision drama.- Yet adaptor Neiman succeeds not only in achieving a sense of continuity in time and growth and development in the boy's character, but actually suc¬ ceeds in framing scenes of great emotional depth and powfer. No less a task confronted direc¬ tor HilL Faced with a series of episodes, he had to string them to¬ gether and yet succeed in the same sense of continuity and growth. Moreover, he was faced with the-} buge physical task involved in the many settfiigs and scenes, the large cast, and most important, the di¬ rection of young Crawford. In virtually every instance, Crawford had to play against another actor, and Hill had to draw scenes of deep emotional impact in each vignette. He succeeded in every instance, but specifically his direction of Crawford was superb, as was Craw¬ ford's performance, the test from* a child in many a year. The youngster has an amazing facility for registering emotion of any kind so naturally and plausibly that its realism and believabillty is almost frightening. And Crawford ran the gamut, from joy to despair, from anger to disinterest. But more importantly, he succeeded in getting^ to the very roots of his character, an innocent boy with a Will to live in spite of what the world does to him, a youngster who can find and inspire love in the midst of degradation, a fiercely in¬ dependent souL He got plenty of help from a bril¬ liant supporting east. Maximilian Schell turned in a moving per¬ formance as a German imprisoned in the concentration camp, a loving and tender man who comes to love the boy and protect him. Liliane Montevecchi was convincing as the boy's mother, a political idealist who believes her love for "hu¬ manity’’ to be greater than her love for her child mid who destroys the culmination of his five-year search for her by insisting on leaving him to an unloving father. George Dolenz, as- the father, turned in a ruthlessly cold performance which let in enough doubt as to interest the viewer in exploring the char¬ acter fnrther. In lesser , roles, Raiken Ben-Ari, Lou Jacobi, Theodore Marcuse, Marc Lawrence, Orlando Rodri¬ guez, Felipe Turich and John Wen- graf were- uniformly excellent. William Craig Smith provided' a variety of brilliantly executed sets, . and„Leard Davis’ lighting showed imagination, and care. The entire Brooklyn production team can take pride in one of television’s out¬ standing 90 minutes. - Chan. Chet Huntley NBC commentator Chet Huntley lit a hot potato last week at the conclusion of a full-hour NBC News special oh the Atlanta school integration .crisis by suggesting that tension could be eased if the National Assn, for Advancement of Colored people withdrew from the battle. Naturally, the NAACP demanded air time to present its case. It asked a full hour, but in a 30- minute follow-up to Huntley’s in¬ tegration editorial Sunday (8) the organization was handed a mere"l0 minutes. Representing the group was Roy Wilkins, its executive sec¬ retary. Ostensibly, the half-hour follow¬ up was for the benefit of the NAACP. But curiously after sev¬ eral minutes of Huntley’s intro¬ ductory remarks a Southern news¬ paper editor, was allotted 10 min¬ utes to outline‘his views on inte¬ gration. He said, among .other things, that the Supreme Court has rewritten * the Constituion and “local self government Is being tom apart .for the sake of a social experiment.” Wilkins denied Huntley’s charge that the NAACP is an “extremist” organization. A review of the . NAACP’s 50-year history, 'he as¬ serted* illustrates its belief in orderly procedure. He refuted a number of other points that Hunt- ley had raised in the earlier tele¬ cast and emphasized that the “die- hards want the NAACP removed hot to speed integration but to block it” * In the few minutes remaining after Wilkins remarks, NBC News stated its position on editorializing. Such comments, it was stressed, were designed to help the public draw its own conclusions. That’s an admirable stand. However* by failing to provide Wilkins sufficient time for a rebuttal to the opinion of Thomas R. Waring, editor of the Charleston, S.C., News and Cour¬ ier* most viewers probably found the issues clouded rather than sharply defined. Wisdom of editorializing could well be subjected to further study on tiie basis of Huntley’s experi¬ ence in the integration issue. Clarifying his original statement, he said on the follow-up that he did not suggest that the NAACP should go out of business hut that it should withdraw from the school problem. His interest in making the suggestion, he added, was to facilitate the return of all children to school. There’s nothing wrong with edi-. torializing. However, any network or station should be prepared to grant affected parties ample time to express their points of view on the same subject Otherwise, it’s clear that the viewer or listener isn’t getting an impartial briefing. Gilb. Open End David Susskind’s “Open End’ show on WNTA-TV Sunday (8) didn't make headlines as it pur¬ sued the topic, “As'Others See Us.” Its participants, all correspondents reporting the U.S. to their respec¬ tive countries abroad, did however come up with some newsworthy ob¬ servations in a show that clicked along in the by now*well-estab¬ lished Susskind tradition. Samples: An Arab insisted that the busi¬ ness of the United Arab Republic wanting to drive the Israeli into the sea was all nonsense; German found that poverty in the U.S. had a certain “interesting” quality; a Britisher discovered a drift towards socialism in the U.S., and an Italian noted that the ruling class in the States are the children. Participants on the show, which at times panned out as a very in¬ telligent and forthright analysis of the .strengths and weaknesses of American foreign policy, included Patrick O’Donnovan (Britain), Rug- gerio Orlando (Italy), Peter Von Zahn (Germany), Mrs. Hanna Seemer (Israel), Henri Pierre (France) and Levon Keshishian (United Arab Republic). When¬ ever talk came around to the Mid¬ dle Eastern situation, and partic¬ ularly the relations between Israel and her Arab neighbors, the atmos¬ phere grew stifling and Keshishian delivered, a monotonous propa¬ ganda spiel in which he eauated non-support of Arab aims witn non- Americanism. Unfortunately, the subject was explored only in bits and pieces, and Mrs. Seemer seemed unable to cope with the flood of verbiage faem her Arab colleague. Later in the program she adopted a rather sharp tone generally, which failed to endear her. Best* and most amusing, speak¬ ers included Orlando and O’Don¬ novan. First hour of “Open End” now is.sponsored by Helena Rubin¬ stein. Susskind handles the breaks with skill. However, there’s a ten¬ dency to start an interesting topic, interrupt it for the plug or a sta- tionbreak, and then to completely discard it when discussion Re¬ sumes. This happened several times last Sunday. Show provided an interesting (Exchange of views on the U.S. vs. the Soviet attraction to the world, and in,its final half-hour also got around to the stimulating topic of American women and U.S. cul¬ ture generally. Susskind handled his six guests with skill, contribut¬ ing opinions of his own in a way to guide discussion into different channels. He’s unquestionably one of the top moderators on the air. Camera work on the show was unusually good. Hift. (HaRmark Hall of Fame) With John Kerr, Jeaimie Carson* Edna Best, Janet Monro Producer-Director: George Schae¬ fer Writer: John L. Balderston Adaptation: Theodore Apstein 99 Mins.; Thurs. (5)* 9:39 p.m. HALLMARK NBC-TV, from N.Y. (color) (Foote, Cone & Betdtng) ’Berkeley Square,” a click ve¬ hicle for the late Leslie Howard some 30 years ago on Broadway and later on film, failed to make a successful transition to televi¬ sion on the NBC “Hallmark” series last Thursday night (5). Never too sturdy a craft to begin with, John L. Balderston’s play sagged on tv under the weight of a heavy-rfooted performance by John Kerr in the lead role. Kerr never managed to evoke the charm and poetry essential to the romantic fantasy. He plodded through the part of the contempo¬ rary American transported into the 18th Century with a deadly seri¬ ousness and he bumbled the occa¬ sional witticisms which the script provided,. He was clearly insuffi¬ cient for a role that absolutely de¬ manded. a finished style. A series, of polished perform¬ ances in the other top roles intensi¬ fied the deficits in the central char¬ acterization. Janet Munro* young English actress, made an impres¬ sive bow on U.S. tv as Kerr’s ro¬ mantic vis-a-vis across the bridge of centuries. She was warm, per¬ suasive* pretty and brought a touch of magic to the play. Jean- nie Carson* as the fiancee of the American* and Edna Best, as her mother, performed with the neces¬ sary historical flourish as did others in the supporting cast Production values were excel¬ lent The 18th Century was de¬ lineated in the various settings and the several time sequence shifts from the present to the past were accomplished with skillful tech¬ nique, , Herm. Person to Person Picture of the bearded one, Cuban rebel leader Fidel Castro, is a familiar one to American view¬ ers. He has participated in many electronic interviews.' Edward R. Murrow’s "Person to Person” though, caught him in a more in¬ formal setting. , For the telecast, direct from (Continued on page 48) A SOUND LIFE With Ray Moore, others Producer: Callie Huger Cameraman: Joe Fain Technical and musical co-ordina¬ tion: John Cone and Jerry Van- deventer 30 Mins^ Sun. (1) 3:39 pan. WSB-TV* Atlanta This is a dramatic insight into the world of the deaf, a realistic documentary presentation that is at once heart-warming and eye¬ opening to the uninitiate who could not possibly conceive of what goes on behind the doors pf a school for speech correction. Third in WSB-TV’s “The Road Back” documentary series (first two dealt with rehabilitation of prison¬ ers at United States Penitentiary here and Work among mentally ill at Georgia State Hospital at Mil- ledgeville), this one tugs at the heart Strings as the viewer sees how deaf children are taught to build a “sound” life in a soundless world. Cameraman Joe Fain takes viewer right into classrooms to show the , almost unbelievable methods of’teaching deaf children about sounds although they may never hear them. The infinite patience of the teachers is amazing, the results fantastic. Children learn not .only how to understand others through lip- reading, but how to communicate through normal language, with those around them, and how to make themselves understood. They do not learn signing (which limits a deaf person to communica¬ tion only with others who v sign), hut they are taught that they them¬ selves have voices and must use them.' The results are astounding: This is not a depressing program. The ebullience of the children, their brightness and pride- of ac¬ complishment, their sparkle and gayety presents an attractive pic¬ ture of charming youngsters, who, with patient teaching and under¬ standing from those around them, can lead normal sound lives. Junior League Speech School started in June, 1938* with one teacher and .50 children who had come seeking heip. Today the professional staff. numbers 25 trained teachers and clinic ; ans. Junior Leaguers contribute 12,000 hours annually and this is- valued at $1,000,000. Those who can afford to pay for service are - given the opportunity. No person who needs the Speech School’s help has ever been turned away because of inability to pay. These things were brought out In this splendid documentary, which poignantly pointed up its value at its conclusion with a deaf child enunciating in beautiful speech The Lord's prayer. A professional job in every respect, this program Is a distinct credit- to Callie Huger, WSB-TV staffer who wrote and directed Luce. THE PHIL HARRIS SHOW With Alice Faye* Dean Martin* Betty Hutton, Red Nicholas and His Five Pennies, others; John Cameron Swayze. announcer Producer-Director: Jade Donahue Writer: Herb Baker 99 Miss.* Fri. (6), 8 pm. TIMEX* EDSEL NBC-TV, from Hollywood (Doner & Pick, KScE) Except for perhaps the last 12 to 15 minutes, in which a semblance of good television was achieved* the NBC-TV special last Friday (6), built around Phil Harris, was a most unspectacular event. Har¬ ris’ peculiar raucous talents always seemed to serve him well when he has been in a supporting role on video, but it was incomprehensible why Timex, Edsel and NBC should have chosen him to front a one- shot when there were three other personalities involved* including frau Alice Faye, who provided more name value and more univer¬ sal appeal. While the program did bring a charming and restrained Miss Faye out of a lengthy retirement from screen and radia and into television for the first time and also offer the exuberance of Betty Hutton and the ease and winningness of Dean Martin, it was still a minor entry. This turn of events was due in part to the pedestrian handling of the stars. They wexe called upon as much to make insignifi¬ cant, often disjointed chitchat as they were to sing, and, on the whole, the stanza was like an off- week on a regularly scheduled tv variety program. There was no apparent rhyme to the songs or jokes. It was like a poorly organ¬ ized Saturday night backyard song*] fest, in which even the jazzability of “feature” musician Red Nich¬ ols was spread thinly. However, toward the end-dis¬ counting Harris’ trite interruptions to make funny—the Misses Faye and Hutton, in reprising snatches of melodies they made famous in their old motion pictures, got across~a few minutes of nostalgic pleasantness. But like most every¬ thing else about the 60-minute pro¬ gram, this segment suffered too, because the femmes, both of whoip. are in pretty good shape as singers and as women, were not allowed to develop any one song fully. The snatches they managed to get out were tantallizing and nostalgic* but no one of them was altogether mu¬ sically rewarding. Art. WISDOM (A Conversation With Edith Ham¬ ilton) With Huntington Cairns, inter¬ viewer Production supervisor: Donald B. Hyatt Producer-Director: Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. 30 Min^., Sun. (8), % pun. NBC-TV (film) Initial program in the new series of “Wisdom” on NBC-TV (8) had Edith Hamilton, the brilliant clas¬ sical scholar in conversation with Huntington Cairns, secretary of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. This extraordinary woman, iJow in her 92nd year, was interviewed at her home in Bar Harbor, Maine. First-part of the interview, because it was set on-the edge of the water, was difficult to hear, hut the mo¬ ment Caimjs suggested they .con¬ tinue the conversation. from the porch of her home, this “Wisdom” eoisode began to glow with. Miss Hamilton’s perceptive comments on 'the Greek and Roman classical cbniization: Far more than Rome, Greece is Miss Hamilton’s joy because it was an intellectual nation, the first and roabablv-the only one in the world. Wtet.-the Greeks hated most, she told Cairns, was insolence, arro¬ gance and self-assertion. She cited Greece for being the first country fp question the right of making a m*»n a slave and she spoke of Aris¬ totle and Plato and of the latter as possessing the greatest mind in the world. With unforgettable feel>ng, she saluted Greece which she said never lost sight of the individual, the ancient Greece that never linked at human beings as masses. .“That’s what frightens me about fodav ever so much more than the Snutniks and atomic bombs,” she said. “I’m afraid we’re losing sight of the individual in the mass. Mass production does not produce a genius.” She said the individualism of the founding fathers of this country was disappearing. '“The in¬ dividual is irreplaceable and the individual man—bodies of Individ¬ ual men can do almost anything,” she said. “That’s our, hope.” She closed with the reading of Soc¬ rates 1 remarks In prison a few ho*irs before he downed the fatal po^on pod faced the unknown. Miss Hamilton wore a simple (Continued on page 48) THE THIRD COMMANDS—<T (Kaleidoscope) With Arthur Kennedy, Anne Fran¬ cis, Fay Spain* Jaha Hayt* Rich¬ ard Erdman, Strata Oa kland , Reds Tooraey* Jack Weston, titers; Charles Van Deren* test; Ben Hecht, gnest Producer: Jess Oppeste5ner Director: Jack Smigfcit Writer: Ben Hecht Music: Fred Kate 99 Mins.* Sun. (3)* 5 pja. RCA NBC-TV, from Hollywood (tape) (Kenyon & Eckhardt) The “10 Commandments” are limited numerically (you can’t even get a 13-we . cycle out of them), but if NBC producer Jess Oppen- heimer can achieve for the remain¬ ing nine the type of provocative playwrighting that went into “The Third Commandment” as shown on NBC-TV’s “Kaleidoscope” Sunday afternoon, he will sure have him¬ self a dilly of a series. In fact NBC. in showcasing this full hour teleplay as authored by Ben Hecht, was still heralding it as the “first of a proposed series” based on the Commandments. Hecht might be the ideal choice to follow through on the remaining nine. For in this, his first major writing contribution for the me¬ dium, Hecht translated “Thou shalt not take the name-of the Lord thy God in vain” into a powerful and controversial script full of brittle dialog reminiscent of “early Hecht” If fault at • all can be found it’s in the fact that this drama of Jim Mundy ax the “buffoon playing with God” merited even deeper probing and the kind of searching dilineation more suitable for 90-minute pres¬ entation. His story of the fake evangelist moved swiftly, top swiftly, the whole punctuated with biting, pungent dia’og and truisms in his probing into human emotions and conflicts. But rewarding as it was, the hour length of necessity Invited a skimpiness, particularly in the powerful ending when Mun- dy’s sudden reversal and self-ex¬ posure is net fully resolved. (In fact this ran cor^derably under an hour, considering time out for an afterpiece in which host Charles Van Doren interviewed Hecht, and the RCA commercials). In terras of tv drama, the subject of phony faith healers has been virtually untaDped. In the case of Jim Mundy, Hecht tells the story of a gag writer whose craving for the big dough provoked a show¬ down with his idealistic wife and she leaves him. He and his other drunken cronies venture into one of the, temo’es of the phony pro¬ phets and Mundy is so persuasive in haranguing the congregation that he’s finally talked into join¬ ing the Evangelist for “half the take.” But Mundy’s in for the kill. He sets himself up as a faith healer with mystic powers. In comparison his collaborator is a tinhorn and he kicks him out, tired of "split¬ ting the take with a stowaway.” Thousands of “hallelujah affi- cionados” begin to hit the trail and Mundy, relentless in his pur¬ suit, has a powerful organization going for him. It’s in the final showdown with his conscience, when Mundy sets the crowd against him by his con¬ fession, that the confines of the too-short script mitigate against its dramatic potential, for the de¬ nouement comes too quickly; the adequate probing that would pro¬ duce such thinking in the man unfulfilled. Arthur Kennedy’s portrayal of the gag writer turned evangelist was a gem, completely realizing the character of Mundy in all his phoniness. His articulation and understanding were remarkable. But he was compressed into a role that didn't permit for physical movement or action to back iip'his words. There were times when even a 30-second lapse would have lent added conviction. For that matter the entire cast was chosen with care and some sterling performances were turned in by Anne Francis as Mundy’s wife; Fay Spain. John Hoyt, Rich¬ ard Erdman, Simon Oakland and Regis Toomey. Jack Smight’s direction w4s Swift, competent and staccato-like, yet maintained this pace through¬ out, even when certain dramatic portions called for slower em¬ phasis. Fred Katz’s musical score was keyed perfectly .to the tempo of the performances. Van Doren’s interview with Hecht in dissecting the character of Mundy had little value. Hecht said it much better in his play. Rose.