Variety (February 1961)

76 TELEVISION REVIEWS PStklEff Wednesday, February 8, 1961 *♦4-444444 4 *44 44 4 444 4 4 » 4444444 4 44444* M »»» Tele Follow-Up Comment 4 4444444444 444♦♦ 44 44444444 <M »- REPORT ON HONG KONG With William Holden, narrator Executive Producer: Irvin? Gitlin Producer-Writer: Stanley E. Flink §0 Mins*, Thurs. (2), 9 p.m. B. J. REYNOLDS, WHITEHALL CBS-TV (film) « Win. Esty; Bates > Any resemblance between Wil- As a frequent visitor and some¬ times resident of Hong Kong, with a deep knowledge of its myriad components. William Holden did an excellent job as narrator, with a firm grasp and a sympathetic understanding of what’s happening on the two-sided (Knowloom & Vic¬ toria) colony. There was, incident¬ ally. an interesting orient-tempoed musical score, and Wade Bingham and Fred Dietrich merit high praise for the camera work. Rose. MEET THE PROFESSOR With Dr. Harold Taylor, Henry Steele Commager Producer: Wiley Hance Director: Robert DeLaney SO Mins.; Sun., 12 (noon) ABC-TV, N.Y. (tape) An interesting talkfest about the vital ramifications of education i was held on the preem of “Meet the Professor” Sunday (5) morn¬ ing. Series by ABC K T ews Pubaffairs, done in cooperation with the Na¬ tional Education Assn, and Assn, for Higher Education, had as its first guest, historian Henry Steele Commager. Commager, very much involved with the world, in his talk with the program’s host and Amherst stu¬ dents spoke about a wide range of topics—the role of the scholar, the variety of education in the U.S., the overloading of too much edu¬ cational administration, etc. Of special interest was the sequence between Commanger and his stu¬ dents Involved in a discussion of de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America/’ The host for the series is Dr. Harold Taylor, former president of Sarah Lawrence College and a well known educator. He opened the outing with a salute to President Kennedy for tapping poet Robert Frost for his inauguration and for his use of scholars In his admini¬ stration. Horo. BOBBY DARIN Sc FRIENDS With Bob Hope, Joannfe Sommers, Billy May Orch, Jud Conlon Singers Producers-Directors-Writers: Bud Yorkin, Norman Lear 60 Mins.; Tues., 9 pm. REVLON THE FABULOUS FIVE STREETS (Expedition New York) With Myron Cohen, others Producer: Larry Johnson Director: Lou Volpicelli Writer: Matthew Andrews 30 Mins.. Tues. (7), 7 pjn. WABC-TV. N. Y. Myron Cohen, a distinguished alumni of the garment industry, has really never left that sector of the economy. His stories on Sev¬ enth Ave. foibles have filled night¬ clubs throughout the country. In this segment of WABC-TV’s “Ex- pedition—New York,” Cohen re¬ turned for a taped visit to his alma mater to provide the hosting on a survey of one of New York’s most important industries. j In a half-hour, the show covered i a lot of ground on the presentation l of “The Five Fabulous Streets” the locale of the cloak & suiters. It sloughed off the physical magni¬ tude of the indusfa^, * fact known to most, to concentrate on other aspects of the trade. Included was its appeal to youth as a career, many of its economic aspects, a talk with one of its top designers Anne Fogarty, and queries by a pair of student designers. There was also an interview with a man¬ ufacturer, a garment trade paper editor on some of the problems prevalent in mass producing a gar¬ ment which originally had its gen¬ esis In Paris. Cohen in his role ns host probed beneath the surface in his compar¬ atively brief period. Although spending little time in each, the questions and answers provided enough insight to indicate that the garment trade has changed con¬ siderably since his day with that trade. It’s now a business that en¬ tices college grads and not merely the immigrants; it’s a calling that pays extremely high rewards and by the same token has its gu-for- broke aspects. It’s now a melting pot of all the arts, and one of the most important economic attrac¬ tions in New York. Jose. THE SQUARE WORLD OF JACK PAAR With Miriam and Randy Paar, Cliff Arquette, Hans Conried, others Producers: Paar, Paul W. Keyes Director: Kirk Alexander Music: Jose Melis Orch 60 Mins., Tues, (31), 10 p.m. CREST NBC-TV, from N.Y. (live & film) (Benton & Bowles) That which Jack Paar does best —gabbing ad lib about himself and his clan—he did in a special for Procter & Gamble last week, and It made for a satisfying hour of tv. An intimate show (“Don’t mistake this for a spectacular,” he cau¬ tioned early), and fittingly so, it amounted to a session of home movies narrated by a lay world- traveler—but happily by a witty one. “ * Decidedly it was Paar’s com¬ mentary that succeeded, because for the most part the film clips were neither entertaining nor enlightening. Except for Cliff Arquette’s occasional whismy in jhis Charley Weaver guise, and a j sequence in which Paar simulated a matador in Spain, the celluloid wasn’t much better than the usual j “here’s what we saw” 8 mm. record that 'ordinary tourists make. The film was amateurishly shot, and glimpses of the Coliseum, the Trevy Fountain and assorted other conventional points of interest aren’t momentous on'tv anymore. Over a shot of Monaco’s tiny army on drill, Paar cracked, “NBC’s sales staff is bigger than that.” And he explained a hat j floating on a-Venetian canal as a “gondolier gone to lunch.” The lines were wittier in context, of course, and typical of the seeming¬ ly top-of-the-head commentary that made the routine tourism reward¬ ing. All was lost, for instance, if the show had to depend for humor on scenes of Paar wearing a'bowler in England, riding a camel in North Africa, or mimicking Communist soldiers in East Berlin with his Chaplinesque walk. The serious moments, brief in¬ terviews with such political figures as Willy Brandt and Fidel Castro, tended to point up Paar’s thematic line that “laughter is the common language of the free world,” and were entirely justified. But a tape repeat of now-President Kennedy being interviewed by Paar during the campaign period was entirely pointless and even in poor taste. It seemed to suggest that Paar was claiming some credit for helping him get in. Les. NUMBER PLEASE With Bud Collyer, emcee; guest contestants; Ralph Paul an¬ nouncer. Producer: Jean Kopelman Asso. Prods: Helen Marcus, Bill .Barr Director: Donald Bohl 30 Mins., Mon.-thur-FrL, 12:30 pm. PARTICIPATING ABC-TV, from N.Y. In “Number Please” ABC-TV has come up with a convenient i way of filling out time between j commercials. For half-hour, mid¬ day Goodson-Todman package has no less than six participating spon- 1 sors and plugs for their products : are tossed in at relentless inter-; vals. What little suspense is gen- jerated by this guessing game is rapidly dissipated by the blurb Interruptions. • ■ The game is simplicity Itself, Two contestants face a board whose top has a row of numbers. Under the numbers are blank spaces. When a contestant selects a numeral a letter is exposed in the blank space beneath it. When all the letter spaces are filled, the name of a prise is spelled out. However, the contestant who Identifies the prise before all the letters are revealed wins the loot. On Wednesday’s (1) edition of this cross-the-broad outing a Lancaster, Pa., housewife won a Sohmer baby grand piano and five music les¬ sons. Several' other players won varied prizes. If a contestant re¬ mains undefeted he gets additional loot plus a ?500 check. Withal, “Number Please” is a run-of-the-mill quiszer. Bud Col¬ lyer, who’s been piloting these things for years, provides a mech¬ anical gloss in shepherding the contestants and introing the plugs. It's difficult to See why any viewer would make a point of tuning in on the show although some chan¬ nel switchers may stick with It foF a time to satisfy possible curioslay. Participating sponsors include Jello, Red Ball Vans, Johnson & Johnson’s first aid cream, Double- mint gum. Mum deodorant and Reynolds Wrap. Gilb. John Crosby Show Those enfants terribles among the critics of motion pictures, have lost their sting. This was made clear on the “John Crosby Show,” the discussion stanza on WNEW- TV in which the quoted name col¬ umnist goads his guest panelists into what presumably is blueprint¬ ed as lively, perhaps even stimulat¬ ing, conversation. The Sunday night (5) offering, which had New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, producer Otto Preminger, dramat¬ ist George Axelrod and playwright (among other things) Ben Hecht participating in the gabfest, dem¬ onstrated almost painfully that would-be devastating attacks upon films are not necessarily so devas¬ tating any more. Theatrical features are still vul¬ nerable, of course, but now only on an individual basis. The nature of the business of making films has been enormously changed in recent years; mass production is no long¬ er, and thus the too-often result of mediocrity can be avoided; certain independent producers and other genuine talent have modern-era freedom of expression and in many instances have instilled production with fresh thinking. No apology is intended herein for the irritating cases of theatricals which hit a nadir in taste of those which sim¬ ply for whatever reason are inex¬ cusable. The point is that there are many interesting and mature pictures coming from Hollywood and, indeed, from around the world, the public has acknowl¬ edged this at the boxoffice and some of the most erudite of the | professional pundits have said amen to the thought. Thus there was the aforemen¬ tioned pain in Crosby’s program. Both he and Hecht launched the [attacks, Crosby starting them off, and apparently trying to steer the tenor of the dialog, with such cracks as three occurences of adul¬ tery in a picture means three times the money potential. Hecht made with his familiar broadsides about pictures being a “group product” yielding only unimaginative assem¬ bly-line culture. He said the func¬ tion of the writer is “almost negli¬ gible.” “Ben has a theme he has re¬ peated over the years,” rejoindered Crowther. Very true, Hecht offers the same tired cliches with which he was identified in the years ago. His familiar comments no longer have “authority," particularly when spoken rather than in permanent print. Crosby could hardly be argued with in his observation that certain films are loaded with adult mate¬ rial. “From the Terrace” was among those cited. But on what grounds could he rap pictures in general when, as he himself said, ’T stand on my American' rights not to see movies?” "Authority was to be found in the remarks made by Crowther and Preminger. The man from the Times noted that film criticism pos-* sibly has gotten better since the diys when pictures were like a car¬ nival—this being-the time “when Ben Hecht got his’education.” To statements about money, Premin¬ ger submitted that an expensive picture need not be good just be¬ cause it’s expensive, and an inex¬ pensive film is not necessarily a poor entertainment because of budget limitations . And what about homosexuality among film people? PTemlnger said he found it no more prevalent than in any other business. Sunday’s exposure of the Crosby show was disturbing in that fre¬ quently more than one of the ora¬ tors was speaking at the same time. This might have been corrected. Crosby’s and Hecht’s contempt for the picture business was given only shallow expression, was not at all so provocative as evidently* in¬ tended. Gene. Sunday Sports Spectacular CBS-TV’s Sunday (5) 90-mlnute sports special was an absorbing ex¬ position on road-ti£ck racing filmed in the sunny Bahamas by Bud Palmer and Dick Lemer’s PGL Productions, Show neatly established the at¬ mosphere of Nassau’s car racing fever with an\ investigation of “Karting,” the racing of the stripped-down bugs with roaring two-cycle engines that has taken over whole families, husband, wife and child. How seriously the Kart competition is taken was clearly shown as two zealous fathers leaped out of their bugs after a turn and started belting each other with “small” baseball bats. They were lectured by a track official, and PGL crew caught the whole thing in closeup. From Kart racing, the show moved into an hour build to the climax of the Bahamas’ Racing Weeks, the 250-mile Nassau Trophy Race over the twisting coral race¬ way at Oakes Field. Bud Palmer handled commen¬ tary and interviews on a fascinat¬ ing tour behind scenes that graphi¬ cally spelled out the month of prepping for the main event. There were interviews with drivers, me¬ chanics and close shots of both dry- runing the track and tuning the close-tolerance engines of the .$12 to $15,000 heaps that require “sur¬ gical precision” for every major race. Palmer took a turn himself in a Formula Jr., then a pro took over and easily cut a minute off the emcee’s time. Race itself was filmed with a lot of excitement via tight shots of the race, and cut-in closeups of the drivers. Howard Reifsnyder’s direction was top notch, with the only lull in some rather dull moments with the drivers and their wives on the eve of the race. Frank Herman: produced. Bill. Open End A group of top Broadway press agents did something worse than making the publicity racket dull on David Susskind r s WNTA-TV talk shop Sunday (5); they tried t® make it respectable. Of course, -Susskind was either optimistic nr innocent in believing that press agents would or could talk openly about the techniques and philoso¬ phy of their trade. Essentially un¬ derground men, who frequently perform essential services to news¬ papermen, press agents are men dedicated to cadging frpe space for their clients with any means under the proposition that the end justi¬ fies the fees. Quite a different conception [emerged from this exchange be¬ tween Susskind and press agents [Jim Moran, Betty Lee Hunt, Bill iDell, Eddie Jaffe, Mai Braveman, [and Harvey Sabinson. Against Susskina’s skepticism towards the [social utility‘and journalistic hon¬ esty of publicists, the press agents reacted with the piety of clergy¬ men in the presence of an atheist. “Did you ever make up an item out of the whole* cloth for on* of your clients?” Susskind asked. “Never,” was the reply. “Well, hardly ever and we never lie; th® most you can call it is an exaggera¬ tion.” Susskind asked: “Did yo* ever ghost-write a full column for a newspaper columnist?” The de¬ nials were agonized, but unanimous. The gossip columnists were defend¬ ed as if they were the press agents? own life 7 blood, which, in fact, they are. Except for Moran, who deliber¬ ately cultivates _ the manner of * genius and thus has a self-pub¬ licizing personality style, the other press agents discussed their pro¬ fessions, as they called it, with a sober conventionality. Doll told a couple of amusing stories about his days with the late Michael Todd; Jaffe emerged as the psycho¬ analysts theorist of press agentry; Sabinson as a clear-headed and high-minded drumbeater for legit shows; Mel Braveman as a stout champion of the constitutional right of a publicist to inflate the egos of no-talents; and Betty Lee Hunt, as a hard worker amidst the brambles of off-Broadway. Herm. Bell Telephone Hour As a peg for last Friday’s NBC- TV outing, this Henry Jaffe Enter¬ prises production came up with a quartet of- birthday salutes that added up to a pleasant hour of viewing. Some zealous researcher recalled that Victor Herbert was bom on Feb. 1, the term “vaude¬ ville” was first used Feb. 23, 1871, and the preem of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” occurred Feb. 12 , 1924. The fourth tribute — Valentine’s Day — was an obvious one. Grouped under the overall tag of “Almanac for February,” the [events were an admirable frame for the talents of Polly Bergen, ^ (Continued on page 86) liam Holden’s Hong Kong as shown on CBS-TV last Thursday night <2> and the ABC-TV weekly adventure series just doesn’t exist. The Hol¬ den-narrated entry out of the CBS Public Affairs shop was for real; a wholly obsorbing and revealing documentary of shocking contrasts and the struggle to survive in the swarming, incredible and fantastic harbor city on the fringe of Com¬ munist China. This was the hour report on Hong Kong made a year ago when Irving Gitlin mow NBC* was still riding herd on CBS pubaffairs and which remained unspooled pending a propitious hour opening and some sponsorship coin. Both became available last week with the sud¬ den demise of “Witness.” This was anything but a super¬ ficial sightseeing trip. In vivid nar¬ ration. continuity and camera treat¬ ment, it explored the socio-political aspects and the economic patterns of a 12-mile area jampat-ked with 3.000.000 people '99 °c of them Chinese) and absorbing 100,000 new refugees who flee Red China each year “for a little rice, a little hope.” It explored the squalor of the tene¬ ments. the communities afloat on sampans, a day in the life of a typi¬ cal refugee — a tenant farmer- turned-carpenter who calls it a lucky day when he earns $1.50 for eight hours work. They’re one of the lucky families, resettled in one j of the new, teeming apartments j where, for $2.50 a month, three j adults and three children share a ! 12 x 10 ft. room. i But there’s also the story of the • rich—and when they’re rich in j Hong Kong they’re very rich, as! exemplified by Y. K. Kan, Hong! Kong attorney, and Michael Tur-j ner. British banker. For them Hong ’ Kong’s a boom town, the good life ■ spanning a day at the Happy Val-! ley races, dining amid the splendor ■ of their homes-with-a-view high in j the Victoria hills and dancing later; at the Carlton overlooking thej breath-taking harbor. ! The cameras were searching and; rewarding in the disparate pictures; j the comments telling and meaning- i ful, as in the wealthy Hong Kong! attorney’s observation that our re- \ fusal to recognize Red China (“one fourth of the peoples of the world”) Is hardly practical. NBC-TV (tape; color) (Grey) Bobby Darin, who finally stepped out as the star of his own show after training in guest appearances, permits no doubt albout his profes¬ sional standing. A youngster who broke out of the contemporary pop singing ranks, Darin works with the aplomb of a stage-scarred vet¬ eran. He’s all savvy and, if a lot of his “business” is incongruous for a singer of his age, his precocity is definitely preferable to the callow¬ ness of so many rocking vocalists. On his own show, Darin carried the ball with a display of vocaliz¬ ing, hoofing and comedy, the whole performance super - charged with his self-assured air. He used his talent to the hilt and gave this variety hour the benefit of his sharp personality edge. The show itself was an entertaining parlay of music and comedy, well-mounted and smoothly paced within a more or less standardized format for this type of presentation. In the vocal department, Darin handled upbeat tunes and ballads and was given good support by Joannie Sommers. Darin and the songstress were spotlighted in a long and cleverly constructed med¬ ley of standards tracing the rise and fall of a romance. Darin’s standout solo was his “Lucky Pierre” routine in which he essayed the roles of a Frenchman, a Briton and an Italian. The Jud Conlon Singers and a ballet troupe were slickly blended into the song pro¬ ductions. Bob Hope was on for one of his gag-loaded monologs. This one was pegged to the new administration in Washington and Hope came up with a series of topical and funny one-liners about Pres. Kennedy and his family without ever losing his friendly tone. Hope also joined Darin in an old-fashioned vaude routine in which the youngster again fully demonstrated his pro calibre vis-a-vis one of the slickest comics In the business. The script called for some in¬ formal intro remarks by Darin and it was only at this point that he permitted himself to lapse into a juvenile guise with his comment: “It’s gonna be a heck of an exciting evening.” If Darin wants above all to 'be classy, he should pay more attention to his lingo as well. Herm.