Variety (March 1959)

42 TELEVISION REVIEWS Wednesday, 'Much 25, 195$' P$3sie§t GREEN PASTURES (Hallmark Hall of Fame) With William Warfield, Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Earle Hyman, Frederick O’Neal, Es¬ telle Hemsley, Terry Carter, Muriel Rahn, Butterfly Mc¬ Queen, others. Executive Producer: Mildred Freed Albers P. ducer-Director: George Schae¬ fer \Vi : er: Marc Connelly 93 Mins., Mon. (23) 9:30 p.m. HALLMARK NBC-TV, from N.Y. (color) (Foote, Cone & Belding> Television’s answer—the only correct answer — to its down- graders was wrapped up in 90 j minutes of glorious viewing on [ i\:nr , _T , v \Tr»nrinv nitrht in the re- NBC-TV Monday night in the re¬ peat live performance of “Green Pastures” on Hallmark Hall of Fame. In a season that Will be remembered for incepting the pattern of reprising memorable \ live productions, this “Green | Pastures” presentation, whatever ] the merits of its initial showcas- ! Ing. must rate as one of the lumi- J nous achievements of television.; Because the majority of viewers, 17 months ago, paid dubious obesiance to the competing “Play- ' house. 90” pickup of the late Mike Todd’s Madison Square Garden clambake, and thus missed this cherished performance, a debt of f gratitude is owed to NBC and I Hallmark for this “return engage- I ment.” I What made this “Green Pas¬ tures” recreation so outstanding was the dignity and quiet charm \ ' with which the Marc Connelly 1 fable unfolded. The story of the j Bible as related to a small group i . of Sunday School children by their ( teacher, who believed with a faith as simple as theirs, as juxta¬ posed against the vivid dramatiza¬ tions—Adam & Eve, Noah. Moses, j Babylon and finally Hezdrel—was [ presented with deep love and humility. As produced and directed by Geor^ Schaefer. it moved smoothly through its many scenes ar.u ages. The spirit that per¬ meated the performers and the overall production was reverent in its everyday humor yet never became condescending or patron¬ izing. To translate such big truths as Heaven by a fish-fry, or Noah bv a smalltown preacher, or the story of Babylon by a nitery debauch, while at the same time maintaining the Biblical story, re¬ quires a fine sensitivity backed up by sheer talent—and it was brought off with a technical finesse that was stunning. The all-Negro cast was. without exception, magnificent, but prin¬ cipally it was William Warfield in the role of the Lord w’ho set the tone and the pace. His charm and warmth never for a moment slopped over into melodrama or ever bordered on the cloying or the stereotype. From his entrance at the fish-fry to the final dis¬ solve of his face into the clouds, Warfield was a humane and lovely God. It was a performance long to be remembered. Nor were any of the other prin¬ cipals Femiss in their complete understanding and sympathy. Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, as Noah; Earle Hyman, as Adam and later as Hezdrel; Frederick O’Neal, as Moses; Terry Carter, as Ga¬ briel, and Muriel Rahn, as Noah’s wife were each in turn under the spell of this simple resume of the Bible. The periodic episodes with Estelle Hemsley as the wonderful Sunday School teacher and the equally wonderful children (par¬ ticularly the little girl who seemed to have a direct pipeline . to Heaven) were the very essence ■ of his folk tale. j The same restraint and control j that was exercised in the entire j production was also evident in the ' choral accompaniments and back- j grounding. Not to have seen it! in color was a misfortune. Rose. THE BIG EAR (NBC Kaleidoscope) With Chet Huntley, Charles Van Dcren and guests Producer: Reuven Frank Director: Jack Sughrue Writer: Eliot Frankel Photographer: Thomas Priestley 60 Mins., Sun., (22), 5 p.m. NBC-TV, from N.Y. (tape) NBC News unquestionably con¬ tributed a conspicuous piece of broadcast journalism in its hour- long presentation of “The Big Ear,’ 1 a sharp and shocking study of wire¬ tapping and electronic eavesdrop¬ ping on “Kaleidoscope” Sunday 122). Excellent interviews with key figures and clear photography of gadgets and techniques involved in wiretapping, etc., plus Chet Huntley’s trenchant commentaries resulted in a fascinating account of a most-disturbing aspect of the rights of privacy, the flagrant abuse of statutes and what is and is not being done to clarify the subject. That eavesdropping is a murky, messy, dirty business and that laws governing the subject are cloudy, I outmoded and contradictory was I made remarkably clear in “The Big j Ear.” = Program opened with highly ab¬ sorbing comments from James Warren, upstate telephone com¬ pany exec and lawyer, who was in¬ dicted for alerting a subscriber that law enforcement agents were about to tap his phone. Warren made it plain that he had serious reservations about wire-tapping. This was followed on “Big Ear” by remarks from Robert LaBorde, private eye, who specialized in wiretapping and who objected to present New York law which for¬ bids use of eavesdropping equip¬ ment by private dicks. Wiretap¬ ping. he maintained, was fre¬ quently necessary for people to get at the truth. Other pertinent remarks were contributed by An¬ thony Savarese Jr., Queens Assem¬ blyman and chairman of Joint Legislative Committee studying il¬ legal interception of communica¬ tions and who is seeking tighter laws limiting police uses of wire¬ tapping; William Keating, former N.Y.C. assistant d.a. and later coun¬ sel to N.Y. Anti-Crime Commis¬ sion. who said that in all his years of investigative werk he never got a lead from any. of the wire- (Continued on page 50) DEAN MARTIN SHOW With Donald O’Connor, Gisele Mac- Kenzie, Curfew Kids, David Rose orch Producer-Director: Jack Donohue Writer: Herb Baker 60 Mins., Thurs. (19), 8 p.m, TIMEX WATCHES NBC-TV, from H’wood (Doner & Peck) The first of Dean Martin’s pair of outings for Timex Watches, for all its innocubusness, came out as fodder for that fast developing fraternity known as television transphyxiates. There w’as seldom anything that could be termed a highpoint, and what was missing particularly was a point of view; even variety shows (Dinah Shore, Astaire, some others) can have of a peg on which to hang something, especially considering that an hour’s worth of a viewer’s time is involved. ;. Dean Martin is certainly easy to take, and with deceptive, low- key charm in handling a ballad or novelty song and speaking lines. Gisele MaeKenzie is always spark¬ ling and cheerful and an extra- competent singer. Donald O’Con¬ nor’s legmania is wellknown, and he is not too bad in the vocal sefe.| tion. Singly, paired or tripled, they went on and on, in a stanza without much vitality or interest; so much so that it had the dubious value of not reaching peaks or valleys. What passed as badinage between Martin and O’Connor was largely tired and strained, and what ^ was pitched as ad Jibbing really came off, lacking genuine- iSS. They played it safe on. the numbers—“Back in the Old Rou¬ tine,”] "Small Fry,” “I Wonder Why,”' “Let’s Do It,” and such as that. Miss MacKenzie was a pretty good ersatz saloon belle in “Eadie Was a Lady’ and as per nearly always in the recent past, she was aided by the Curfew Kids (4). O'Connor’s solo dance' was, of course, from his top shelf. David Rose led his orch snappily through¬ out. In one of those everbody’s-doing- it things, Martin kept,plugging his picture, “Some Came Running,” and in two instances he not only cued in the Timex commercials but pitched in with a bit of “sell.” What happens to a show if the star refuses to make with the plugs? Trait. Granada’s Accolade London, March 24. Although commercial tv col-. lared only one of the awards in a poll of British tv critics, Granada-! TV Network was named the com¬ mercial company contributing the 1 highest standard of programs dur-. ing the year. The sole commercial tv winner _was “Double Your Money” which was voted the best quiz show with audience participa-; lion. j Cliff Miehelmore and Polly El- j wes of BBC-TV’s “Tonight” pro- j Tram were named personalities of j the year, Tony Hancock was voted | best comedian, “A-Z” the best light! program and Michael Holliday the: best vocalist. Best crime series was i “Solo For Canary” and the best j panel show “Ask Me Another.” i Both are BBC originations. | THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH With Vivien Leigh, George Devine, Margaret Rawlings, Ruth Dun¬ ning, David McCallum, Perlita Neilsori, others Director: Henry Kaplan Writer: Thornton Wilder Adaptation: Ellen Violet 9ft Mins,; Tues., 8:30 pun. Granada-TV, from Manchester By signing up Vivien Leigh , to make her tv debut, and in a role in which she made a West End hit some 13 years back, Granada-TV stirred up tremendous advance in¬ terest for a venture that, to say the least, took courage and a tremen¬ dous technical knowhow'. But just how large an audience would stay tuned to the channel was a matter for debate after the first 10 min¬ utes or so, the plain fact being that for the eggheads Wilder’s “history of mankind in strip car¬ toon” is today somewhat elephan¬ tine while for the hoi polloi the whimsical approach and neces¬ sarily stylized presentation run the risk of being baffling. For those who'did stay tuned in, the rewards were plenty as the author’s notion of thrusting ana¬ chronisms into the setting of a New Jersey family to illustrate univer¬ sal and timeless situations took firmed root. If Granada's presenta¬ tion could be faulted, it was in its overplaying of the dodge wherein Sabina (Miss Leigh) interrupts the narrative flow to explain and com¬ plain to the audience. For the rest, though, in settings and camerawork and direction and playing, this w r as a standout job. Vivien Leigh gave a delightful display, though it has to be said that the electronic eye was a mite too truthful in the scenes where, as bathing-suited Beauty Queen of Atlantic City, she vamps George Antrobus (George Devine). She is, after all, 45. Devine himself was robustly excellent, and to Ruth Dunning as his long-suffering wife —is it 500.000 years they’ve been wed?—went most of the honors for an expertly shaded performance. A long, long supporting cast couldn’t he i tulted: Margaret Rawlings and David McCallum might be picked out for special mention. Erni. THE POPE’S DAY Prepared for RAI-TV by Franco Schepis, assisted by Enzo Lppa- relli, Pino Josca, Emilio Ravel. 40 Mins.; Thurs. (19) 7:45 p.m. RAI-TV, from Rome This exceptional documentary, which shows a day in the Pontiff’s life in unprecedented detail, emerges as a vastly interesting sample of reporting naturally heightened by curiosity over the subject and the heretofore inac¬ cessibility of- much of the Vatican City to the camera lens, and makes for general interest of this 40- minute documentary even outside Catholic areas. Made with care and obvious taste and—despite ob¬ vious collaboration by the Vatican and the Pope himself—frequently prohibitive conditions, pic often provides fascinating inside glimpses not' only of the Pope’s long and tiring work day, but also of such rarely seen Vatican sites as the gardens, the archives, the Secretariat of State, and many others. • Above all, of course, the film show's what the title promises, and Pope John XXIII is seen through¬ out as an untiring, warm, human person of simple tastes, deep affec¬ tion for his family and people he has met during his lifetime, and a clear understanding of the great responsibilities and duties which keep him at work from long before daybreak until late at night. The makers of this item have seen to it that interest never falters. Re¬ portedly, arrangements have al¬ ready been made for material to be screened in France, Spain, the U.S.A., Germany, and other coun¬ tries. Kaick. THE GOLDEN CITY DIXIES Producer: G. B. Lupino 30 Mins.; Tues., 7:30 p.m: BBC-TV, from London With more precision and polish, the group of colored performers from Johannesburg that provided this nonstop song-ahd-dance; show might have come over as arrest- ingly different. As it. was, the pro¬ gram emerged as a pleasant diver¬ sion carrying one or two seeds of the sensational. For although the Golden City Dixies , is bascally a (Continued on page 50) Tele Follow-Up Comment J ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ t Playhouse 90 (Part II) In Part n of Ernest Heming¬ way’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as presented on CBS-TV’s “Play¬ house 90,” producer Fred Coe achieved far and away the neatest technical feat of the year—re¬ creating the Spanish Civil War within the confines of the live tele¬ vision studio. If some of it came off as a papier-mache battle, there were, nonetheless, scenes that were quite awesome in their realism, achieving a scope and dimension as to trick the eye and belie-the studio confines. But this second installment of A. E. Hotchner’s three-hour adap¬ tation of “Bell” merely reaffirmed what was so evident in Part I—that having literally blown their top in achieving such outlandish and ex¬ pensive technical trickery, the pur¬ pose served in attempting such an ambitious work is illusory. The scenes in which, for example, Hem¬ ingway’s American soldier is secur¬ ing the dynamite and scaling the wooden beams of the bridge, achieved a stunning believability in their fullscale, large-as-life camera treatment. But this would be followed by a scene requiring similar breadth and scope that barely concealed the hemmed-in, four-wall origination. There are some grandscale lit¬ erary creations that are more visu¬ ally translatable in large screen theatre form. Here they can enjoy the panoramic sweep and contin¬ uity that the writer intended. Hemingway’s “Bell” certainly falls into that category. For all the courage of CBS and “Playhouse 90” (and they rate tall accolades for the effort), this was telescoped warfare. As in the first installment, there were many moving moments, with the individual performances at all times better than the whole. This was particularly so of Maria Schell, who was truly -the Maria of Hem¬ ingway’s intent. When she’s acting, neither the phrasing nor the story is ever pretentious or unreal. The performance of Jason Robards Jr. grew in the second installment and in his scenes with Maria and at the death of the old man Anselmo he probed the very depths of emotion. To paraphrase Hemingway, all life and love and living must be squeezed into two days. This much was realized in the detailing of the love story. But the bigger prob¬ lems of life, the battle for Spanish freedom, the anti-Fascist crusade, were just touched upon skimpily and the actual physical horrors of war played by tin soldiers. And unfortunately the commer¬ cial breaks were entirely too many for any play to maintain its dra¬ matic tension. Rose. Small World Sunday’s (22) egghead circuit seemed to concern itself with humor. Leonard Bernstein gave a dissertation of humor in music, and “Small World” followed up with the spoken and written versions of humor as it affects the theatre. Three fertile minds got together on the latter project with Edward R. Murrow moderating. Noel Cow¬ ard spoke from Jamaica; James Thurber from his suite at the Algonquin Hotel, N.Y., and Siobhan McKenna gabbed from her home in Dublin. These three filled the air with bite, sapient observations, and some bright analyses of the- state of wit in the theatre. At times they verged on controversy. There was a period near the end of the show, when the nationalistic tempers of Coward and Miss McKenna started to show. That’s when the IRA got into the picture, but it was too far into the show to get up steam. Per¬ haps this will be continued next week, since this is a two-part bill. There was one episode that wasn’t picked up and needed some airing. For example, in the opinion of these three, Charles Chaplin was included in the top three Jn the world of comedy. Yet his early films have virtually been forced off the air. Also commented upon was the sad state of political satire, as Thurber noted since “the black days of McCarthy.” One item of great regret to the viewers must have been the por¬ tion of the discussion wherein Thurber pointed out that he has been blind for the past 18 years, and therefore couldn’t be authori¬ tative on Marilyn Monroe, who seems to have put humor into the current conception of sex. One wonders what his contribution would be on this, subject, not ycl fully explored. Thurber, in his blindness still seems more aware of the state of the world than many of his 20-20 contemporaries. His contributions, as well as those of the others, was a lofty point in this current era of conversational entertainment. Jose. Ed Sullivan Show Ed Sullivan has been on. a bicy¬ cle for the past couple of weeks coming through on film from Ire¬ land a week .ago (15) and from Portugal last Sunday (22) on CBS- TV. It’s a natural for his Eastman Kodak sponsors, who can build their plugs around the local scenery, but it also makes for off¬ beat viewing via a blending of vari- ety show and .travelog. ’ For the Portugal program, tied in with a local carnival in Lisbon, Sullivan rounded up Maurice Chevalier, the Ames Bros., Jacque¬ line McKeever, Richard (“Mr. Pastry”) Hearne and assorted other dancers and singers. Chevalier, as “King of the Carnival,” scored with “This Is My Lucky Day,” “Valen¬ tina” and a.French song; the Ames boys did “It Only Happens When I Dance With You” and “Petticoats of Portugal,” for effective harmony results, and Miss McKeever hit a high mark when “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “April In Portugal.” The laugh portio'n was niftily doled out by Hearne in familiar routines concerning a “passing out party” and ballroom- ology. For local color, Sullivan went to the docks, a winery, a bullring, a local cafe, a church which all added up to a solid pitch for tourist trade. Gros. Naked City Sw ; itch in leads in “Naked City” was carried off with good cops- and-robbers finesse and finality in Tuesday’s (17) episode “The Bumper,” ABC-TV. 9:30 to 10 p.m. Killed off in a highly dramatic scene was the mild-mannered run¬ ning lead John Mclntire (Lt. Dan Muldoon of the series). Taking his place in the N.Y. detective bu¬ reau was Horace McMahon. Mc¬ lntire, in real life, it seemed, wanted to retire and producers de¬ cided to kill him off in mid-season, highly unusual for a skein—but the role of a cop in any sphere can be mighty dangerous. |How does McMahon shape up as the replacement? McMahon, in feature films has played on both sides of the law, alternating as the “heavy” hood and the tough cop. So he isn’t as easy to type. But that scowl of his and that tough manner hiding a good, law-abiding heart goes a long way in making him vgry effective. No doubt about it, he’s a pro. “The Bumper” episode was a good half-hour outing. “Naked City” series with its heavy and telling N.Y. location shooting re¬ mains one of the better cops-and- robbers skeins now riding the air¬ ways. Teleplay by Sterling Sil- liphant carried a number of wal- lops. The remainder of the cast was okay. Jazz motif alsQ lent its musical helping hand. Horo. Leonard Bernstein Winding up this season’s round of musical appreciation session for Lincoln Motors on CBS-TV Sunday afternoon (22), Leonard Bernstein presented another stimulating par- lay of w r ords and music in conjunc¬ tion with the N.Y. Philharmonic symph. Subject for the stanza was humor in music and Bernstein ex¬ plored it w r ith various illustrations from the classical catalog. As an offbeat extra, he distin¬ guished between parody and satire in music by presenting Betty Com- den and Adolph Green in an amus¬ ing operatic takeoff from the musi¬ cal, “On The Town,” which was, incidentally, written by Bernstein, Cornden & Green. As he has done on previous shows, Bernstein framed his lecture, as a prelude to one major musical presentation, in this case, Richard Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel,” which ran for about 20 minutes as the finale - Rerm. Pat Boone Show Shari Lewis is a dish who sings well, dances adequately, gives a fair accounting of herself as a ven¬ triloquist and who is dressed up as a package which is pert and per¬ sonable. This she demonstra-ed when, as a guest last Thursday (19) on the Pat Boone ABC-TV’er she was given an opportunity to get in the act a bit more than most video guests do. As a matter of fact, the program served as a ki n d of net¬ work “previow” f^” M ; ss Lewis, ivho is quitting WRCA-TV, N. Y„ (Continued on page 50)