Variety (March 1959)

26 TELEVISION REVIEWS J<Kisi£ff Wednesday, March 4, JL959 HAMLET <Du Pont Show of the Month) With John Neville, Barbara Jeflord, Oliver Neville, Margaret Cour¬ tenay, John Humphry, David Dodimead, Richard Wordsworth, Joseph O’Connor, others Producer-Director: Ralph Nelson TV Adaptation: Nelson, Michael Benthall SO Mins., Tues. (24), 9:30 pjn. ‘ DU PONT CBS-TV, from N.Y. (tape) (BBDO) For all its electronic pretentions, CBS-TV was pretty hard on the Bard last week in its Du Pont Show of the Month presentation of “Hamlet” by the venerable Old Vic Co. There are few who will quarrel with the inventivene-s and the in¬ geniousness of the staging of this 90-minute- version (actually, piay- ing time only ran 73 minutes), but since the plaV’s the thing in Shake¬ speare. producer-director Ralph Nelson's accent on production was a poor substitution. No matter how dexterous a director in handling camera shots, no matter how mo¬ bile in encompassing multiple and elaborate scenes, essentially what counts is what comes off a tv screen. The battlements, court chambers, large retinues and in¬ tricate technical effects merely tend to add confusion, not depth* to 27- iiich theatre. If if.iakekpeare were writing for Ziv or Screen Gems, this quick-as- a-flash adaptation of “Hamlet” by Nelson and Michael Benthall, di¬ rector of the Old Vic. with its j -children’7 Marching “Song” "to ghosts, gore, poison, action, m-; intro the var i 0U s segments. Mor- tngue and bloodshed, pilgd on witn rows scr : pi ing, as usual, was keyed hardly a breather for the greater ; Crosby style of relaxed, but virtues or niceties of the Bard, ! completely constructed palaver, would have be:n strictly down ; The show also happened to be video’s ’58-'59 alley. s0 ]j d j n t h e performance depart- And while this short-short story ment as we ]i. On hand were Jo ol “Hamlet” may have been clearly , sta fford who was at the top cf her told, the beauty and the poetry, ; form in solo 0 f “i'll Be Seeing the depth and psychology that have ; you”-and her windup 20-minute kept Shakespeare alive through ! duet w j t h Crosby on a flock of the years were missing. The viewer.! standards. Dean Martin, unbilled was leit almost breathless by the ! an d unannounced, turned up fora speed with which the dialog was j gag j m itat on of Bing Crosbv in his rattled off. Well known gems of i sa i ad days while Garner w-as in- poetry flew by, permitting no time ; gratiatlng'in his singing and chat- for them to be savored, understood : t er assignments, or enjoyed. Moods, scenes and acts j The Crcsbv twins, Phillip and rushed by as if driven by someDennis, were used as prop boys, furies. It was “Hamlet,” from the s ingmg l- e intros and shifting the entrance of the ghost through the j Trittipo sets in a flowing transition play within a p ay to the very ! f rom number to number. Their in- bloody end. Yet what emerged on ; tegratlcn into the long Stafford- the tv screen was a truncated, i Crosbv duet via do-it-vourself con- one-dimensional digest of expertize j structions of Chinese junks, Mexi- that nearly drained the play of all ; C an sombreros, airplanes and the its greatness. • Eiffel Tew:r wrs-standout. They On or off tv, the Old Vic’s ver- a i S o joined with Crosby for a pleas- sie-n of "Hamlet” clings to a an t workout on a hit of a couple stylized reading of the lines, of years ago. “The Jones Boy.” Within the past decade or so, the- Dancers Tom Hansen and Tad Tad- atregoers have become accustomed lock turned in an attractive ^display to revitalized presentations in : of rhythm hooding, but this was the which the works cl Shakespeare a"e j most conventional turn on the spoken with a rhythm and empha- : show. Herm. sis completely s^uned to the 20th j - Century ear. If the Old Vic | LOOK UP AND LIVE method is to be retained, surely \ (‘Th's Bent Wor'd’) it would benefit from the dignity : With Slobhmi McKenna, W. H. of a slower pace and quieter man- ' Auden; Michael Lewis Richard ner. 5 Easton; hostess. Anne Fremantle The face and form of John Ne- . Writer: John Alcorn vil.e as Hamlet was certainly that .30 Min*., Sun. (J), 10:30 a.m. of the sad and troubled Prince, but. CBS-TV, from N. Y. (tape) the frenzied manner, constant : Problems facing the Christian in spinning and running, both physi- ; the 20th century come in for dis- cally and verbally, were nfore ; section and analysis in “This Bent those of an emotionally disturbed | World,” a four-nart series jointly hero than that of a deeply thought- r produced by National Council ful and sensit've protagonist who : of CefhoPc Men ard CBS-TV. could deliver the famous soliloquy Overall format calls for guest stars (this, by the way, was his weakest-' to aonear with hostess Anne Fre- moment'. mantle in reading<=. dramatic Co-star Barbara Jefford as scenes a .id varied discussions. Ophelia had her good and her bad : Initial in--ial T menfc Sunday (1) moments, but overall one could 1 turned a c-itical eve on issues that have wished for a more touching ! stem from pressures toward and moving portraval.. Oliver Ne- i "world! mess and conformity.” ville was fine as King Claudius. ‘ Deemed an ilhisiration of this was He, for one, didn't seem to be i a dramatized scene from the caught up in this display of show j.Bvclvn Waugh novel, “Brideshead b z-i^-a-hurry pyrotechnics, and was j"Revisited.” BING CROSBY SHOW With Jo Stafford, James Garner, Dean Martin, Phillip & Dennis Crosby, Tom Hanson & Tad Tad- lock, Nelson Riddle Orch Producers: Bill Colleran, Sammy Calm Director: Colleran Writer: Bill Morrow Art Director: Jim Trittipo 60 Mins.; Mon. (2), 9:30 p.m. OLDSMOBILE ABC-TV, from Hollywood (D. P. Brother) Bing Crosby's second show of the season for Oldsmobile was a highly entertaining exercise in cleverness, i From Bill Morrow’s script through the special musical material by; Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heu- sen to the settings by Jim Trittipo, the stanza was sparked by a wit and an ingenuity which gave an extra edge to the lineup of names. The most striking feature of the t show was provided by Trittipo s physical framework for the musi¬ cal numbers. His use of raw lum¬ ber, saw-horses and assorted wooden jigs as backgrounds were brilliantly imaginative and_asserted themselves as a key factor in the show's impact. For example, the im¬ pressionistic hobbyhorse on which James (“Maverick”) Garner was perched while doing his oat-styled vocal definitely made this number. The Cahn-Van Heusen touch was also tangible throughout the show with their hep special material and interpolated lyrics. Standout were the “We Won’t Let You Get Away” i opener and their rewrite of the ACCENT ON LOVE With Louis Jourdan, Ginger Rog¬ ers, Marge & Gower Champion,' May & Nichols, Jayc P. Morgan, Danny Costello, Alice PearCe, Ronnie Graham, Tutti Camarata Orch, others - Producer: Joe Cates — Directors: Cates, Gower Champion Writers: Mel Brooks, Mel Tolkin 60 Mins., Sat. 9 p.m. PONTIAC NBC-TV, from New York (MacManus, John & Adams) Perry Como’s producing com¬ pany put on an outside special, “Accent on Love” that attained the quality of an intimate revue. There were moments of charm and ease with an extremely fluid pro¬ duction helping, matters along greatly. Apparently, Como's in¬ fluence pervaded tie atmosphere and the session came off like an easy Como show with perhaps more movement. There were times, though, when the production aimed too conscious¬ ly for that languid flow, but it wasn’t enough to detract from the overall quality. Tfyere were several excellent focal points. In Louis Jourdan, the proceedings took on an emcee who charmed his way through the session. He doesn’t sing too well, but it didn't par¬ ticularly matter. The other topper on the show was Ginger Rogers who came off mildly in song and dance work. She had one telephone skit, which was lightweight. Miss Rogers gave the impression that she was being saved for some major piece of busi¬ ness which might be scheduled for another show. Her promise was never realized. There were two major events on the show. The dance work of The Champions, who delighted in their interpretations of varied dance satires. They filled in ably in all departments impressing deeply with everything, they attempted. May & Nichols also came off strongly. Their topper was a tele¬ phone bit in which the lad at¬ tempted. to send a telegram. They also hit the jackpot in a dentist bit. The singers on the show, Jaye P. Alorgan and Danny Costello, were allotted comparatively small roles, but both of whom more than passed muster. One of the surprise features' of this show was the calibre of the commercials. Alice Pearce took one of them, address¬ ing a class of expectant Pontiac owners. Other had Ronnie Graham f assuming the identity of a car. I Both were cleverly written and : ably executed. Jose. completely at ease with Shake- si. . .inea. Yncre have been b. . • Queen Gertrudes than tl^at p:- r..yed by Margaret Courtenay, v. 10 at best v \s adequate. Joseph O Conor’s Polonus was quite dif¬ ferent from that customarily por¬ trayed. His was more the serious This rxeernt was admirably acted by S'obhan McKenna; Mich¬ ael Lewis and Richard Easton. Miss McKenna portrayed a wealthy Englishwoman, brought up in a Catholic family, who weds a Prot¬ estant ard later acquires a painter as a lover. Her brother refuses to elder than lhe pompous fool. John ; k r * n S fiancee to his sister s Humphry did full justice to the ; home since she is living nr sm role of Laertes. Du Pont’s insistence on the hard sell commercial (sandwiched be¬ tween four acts) hardly helped matters. Certainly on the occasion oi a “Hamlet,” an institutional type message would have been more in keeping. Rose. Beachler to WBC Pittsburgh, March 3. Eddie Beachler, oiie of town’s top reporters and for the last 22 years a star newshawk for Press, has re¬ signed from Scripps-Howard daily to go with Westinghouse Broadcast¬ ing here. He'll divide his time between KDKA-TV and KDKA radio, serv¬ ing on the dual editorial board as coordinator of special program¬ ming. and his intended is a woman of “s^ri-t Catholic principles.” With the scene concluded, Airs. Fremant’e and poet W. H. Auden discussed some of the implications in the Waugh novel. Unfortunate¬ ly, however, the excerpt suffered by being taken out of context and the specific implications were somewhat cloudy. Discussion by Mrs. Fremantle and Auden - was too brief to throw much light on the situation or clarify the intended points. Balmee of the half-hour airer was devoted to Auden’s lengthy recitation of “Homage to Clio,” one of his own poems. Unquestion¬ ably the inaugural episode of “This Bent World"’ was on a lofty, liter¬ ary p T anc. The impression, how¬ ever, is inescanatde that it's a bit- too ethereal IV.- .Sunday morning viewing on CBS-TV’s “Look Up And Live” series. . Gilh. AT RANDOM With Irv Kupcinet, Jerry Lewis, Theodore Eikel, Sally Rand, Lisa * Kirk, Ex-King Peter of Jugo¬ slavia, Dr. Thomas Baffis ’.Producer: George Ramsby Director: Phil Ruskin i 220 Mins., Sat., 12 m. PARTICIPATING WBBM-TV, Chicago f Not for a long time on Chi chan¬ nels has there been a local effort as alive and intellectually provoca¬ tive as Irv Kupcinet's new conversa¬ tion piece on WBBM-TV promises to be. Patterned somewhat after David Susskind’s WNTA opus, j “Open End,” the show' aspires to ! be a serious powwow, in a house- ; party atmosphere, of articulate : people from vital areas of life, j Like the Gotham show, it begins ; directly after the late feature film and runs on indefinitely into the- morning. But unlike “Open End,” the programs do not begin with - a theme but with an assembly of personalities, and the gambit of conversation switches until the presence of all members of the koffee klatch is justified. First show (14) ran three and half hours; the second (21) 10 minutes longer. In the latter case the show seemed to plod on without reason accept to beat its previous longevity rec¬ ord. This is in violation of the show biz axiom. Quit while you’re ahead, and the impact of the show was dulled by it. Mediocre tv formats can get off lightly, but anything'that theatens to be real quality invites captious¬ ness. Fact is the first two outings ol “At Random” have been exciting because they have promised ex¬ cellence to come, not because they have fulfilled any prior promise. From here on the show' is in danger of running aground if it does not take cognizance of some apparent misconceptions: (1) That show b:z personalities often Tike to talk, and do talk, but are not necessarily intelligently conversant; (2) that there is a vast different between an interview and spontaneous conversation, and that direct probing has had its day on local tv; and (3) a protracted show is not necessarily better than a shorter one. Re the latter point, when the parti ei'aats in “Open End” have exhausted their particu- (Continued on page 42) Tele Follow-Up Comment i ♦ ♦ » ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦++ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦»»♦♦♦♦♦♦4+4 4444444 444444 44 Omnibus (Saroyan) William Saroyan has written a new television play which was pre¬ sented on Sunday’s (1) “Omnibus” on NBC-TV, called “Ah Sweet Mystery of'Mrs. Murphy.” It had nothing to do with Mrs. Murphy, but rather her husband, a wise, Rerceptive 47-year-old doctor, and their son, a groping and bewildered 19-year-old. It wasn’t a play so much as a father-son conversation and about the only thing Saroyan- esque about it was the title. Actu¬ ally it was an intelligently and .‘interestingly written two-act, 45- minute let’s-talk-it-out between : two exceptionally gifted perform¬ ers—Hugh Griffith as the father and George Grizzard as the son, .premised on a “bfe is seldom what it seems” theme. There's no action, as such. The boy is convinced that he hates nis i party-loving mother and that his [father hates her as well but has been too resigned through the years to do anything about it. The father insists he loves his wife; is imore concerned about what’s dis¬ turbing the boy. The latter, in¬ duced by drink, finally spills—to him life is meaningless, he can only hate, not love. The father :n ihis wisdom effects the sought-for change in the boy. Fadeout: papa i actually loves mama. ! It’s that simple, yet has been dialogued by Saroyan with clarity and human understanding. True, when some deeper truisms were voiced, they were seldom probed. Some profound beliefs were stated almost out of context but dropped without further integration. But for what it was, “Sweet Mystery” made absorbing conversation. Both Griffith and Grizzard cap¬ tured the essence and feel of the two-man portrait and, as usual, ihe “Omnibus” staff, including William Graham as director, gave it a sharply etched presentation. To round out the hour, there was a filmed demonstration of the study of optical illusion with Dr. Hadley' Cantril of the Perceptive Demonstration Center in Prince¬ ton, N.J. Rose. Ellery Queen A new “Ellery Queen” made its debut Friday (27) night over NBC- TV. Production for the one-hour private eye series has been shifted from the west to the east coast. In a ^mid-season change a new pro¬ ducer. Alan Neuman, has been as¬ signed to the taped series, and tak¬ ing over in the title role as Ellery Queen in ♦Lee Philips. First outing “Shadow of the Past,” ah original teleplay by Sam Dann, bit off more than it could chew. It posed an awful morJl dilemma: Is a goaded former Nazi concentration prison inmate justi¬ fied in killing his former Nazi overseer. That it didn’t come off as a first- rate mystery drama can be ascribed to two reasons (1> the element of mystery was not there (the viewer knew who committed the Crime and that he would be apprehended) (2) the writing didn’t match .the magnitude of the theme. Nevertheless, the stanza had many good moments. Unlike other private eye series, the Dann script was engaged with life, throwing characters on the screen who didn’t bear the imprint of being conceived from a swimming pool lounge chair. *The vignettes of N.Y. East Side life had sparkle and humor. As Ellery Queen, Lee Philips appeared to underplay the writer- detective role. He could use more theatrical command for greater interest. As the former Nazi pris¬ oner who commits the murder, "George Voscovec was excellent, winning the audience’s sympathy throughout; Lili Darvas, as his con¬ scious "stricken wife, was good; Georgann Johnson, as Ellery Queen’s musically-talented girl friend, was Okay. Joan Lazer as a stuttering youngster, was fine in a bit role. Supporting cast was com¬ petent. Direction by Ira Cirker caught the moral dilemma of the play, and the jazz motif, composed by Ezra Laderman, helped in the mood department. Horo. 2flth Century There was something disturbing, almost frightening, about the pic¬ ture that emerged Sunday (1) as CBS-TV’s Twentieth Century se¬ ries presented part one in its filmed study, “Generation Without A Cause.” Show, like all such “in¬ tellectual” enterprises securely tucked away in a late Sunday afternoon, was a revealing docu¬ mentary on the attitudes of today’s college youths. Most of. the program was filmed On the campus of Rutgers Univ. in New Jersey. It produced an overall impression of alert, stimulating yoUng people, deeply worried about present-day-conformism, the search for security and material well-being, the willingness to equate individualism with eccen- tricism. ^ Yet, precisely because the boys and girls on the show didn’t seem to conform to' the very patterns which they deplored, it was at times difficult to go along with the implied notion, that they were the exceptions; nor were they really presented as that. Yet, taking their observations at face value, the impression that emerged was. certainly not a flat¬ tering one. In fact, between the students ar.d the professors, to¬ day’s college youth, with its accent on security and marriage, was de¬ picted as a generation not only without a cause, but also without hope. If the picture painted on this show was only approximately true, there is indeed good reason to worry about the future. A small segment of the program was given over to the "beat" gen¬ eration, which hangs out in smoky cellars listening to progressive jazz. Very little attempt was made to penetrate beyond the atmos¬ phere, and one was left to suspect that the show just ran out of time. There was a good deal of merit in director Henwar Rodakeiwicz’s policy of letting the young people speak for themselves. The discus¬ sions sounded spontaneous and they made their points without laboring them. There was some¬ thing- touching and desperate about the boy who said that; being a senior and not pinned to a girl, he was considered something of a freak, and the other student who observed that it was easier to con¬ form “because it seems at times as if ff’s just you. against 175,000,000 otfier Americans.” Apart from the youngsters on the show', who certainly seemed sufficiently concerned about this “generation w-ithout a cause,” the picture of the careful young Amer¬ ican, steering clear of controversy and dedicated to playing it safe, was one to rouse concern in* every thinking adult. This was the gist of brief remarks of Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas who ap¬ peared briefly. Program was ably written by Elliott BakfiF-'ind produced with ! understanding and a certain cour¬ age by Stephen Fleischman. Show maintained the generally high quality of this series in the past. Hift. You Asked for It The 30 minutes “You Asked for It” devoted last Sunday (1) to “Backstage Broadway” was senti¬ mental and superficial, yet slick and in a limited w T ay should have been interesting to the general viewer. It was one of the rare times—it may in fact have been the only time—network video en¬ gaged in any kind of photographic backstage once-over. Slickness of this particular ABC- TV stanza was technical—in the tight editing and, considering the general level of this program, in the clever writing. Clarity of the photography and the clean editing made something out of a montage of flickering Broadway marquees, billboards and hurtling taxis that in some w r ays removed this familiar scene from the ordinary. The- posies were meant for the behind-the-scenes folks, so the program, amid perhaps too much fanfare by stars like Robert Pres¬ ton, Vivian Blaine, Gypsy Rose Lee, Joseph Schildkraut and a gratui¬ tous appearance from Hollywood by Eddie Cantor (the latter mostly present for drawing pou'er and not seriously to contribute to the show), interview'ed stage manager Robert Downing, w ardrobe mistress Bessie McMahon, prop man Sam Roseman, stage maid Clara Patter¬ son and make-up man Eddie Senz. Host Jack Smith asked them a series of questions, which -didn’t add greatly to anyone’s store of Broadway lore or insight, but which did give kind of a glittering flavor and glamor to this backstage coterie. They all had a chance to ccnsider such things' as tempera¬ mental stars, their “proudest” moments in the theatre, the good old days, pet peeves, favorite stars and their capsule attitudes toward the crix. Downing, obviously the most articulate, was also the most cam¬ era-conscious among these back- stagers. An actor of yore, he touched his speeches with calcu¬ lated ingratiation, and achieved the heights of thealricalness with his (Continued bn page 38)