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RADIO CITY . !< MUSIC HALL

SR Goes to the Movies Shuwulact uf the N;U Rockefeller Cente]

Eye-filling, ear-thrilling AND LYDIA ... a delightfully different story set to 's HERE was a line in the 1935 story line, is that it doesn't work out memorable melodies. RKO musical "Roberta," as I very well. T recall it, that Randolph Scott By splitting up characterizations no repeated from time to time as he one is left with very much to chew floundered through the Paris high on. Even the Russian Princess that fashion world: "I'm strictly a meat played has been changed and mashed potatoes man, myself," he to one of those sweet-pretty-little- lillW would say. The new M-G-M musical thing-who-sings parts that Kathryn "" is based on "Ro­ Grayson plays in all her musicals. berta," and one point of distinction She tries very hard and sings very that immediately comes clear when nicely, however, and you can't really comparing the progenitor and the off­ not like her. She has , spring is that M-G-M wanted none of again, to romance her and sing to * 1^ m}}l the wit, charm, and even a certain her. Thank heavens, very little of the ratchety elegance that clung to the score has been tampered with; that fm^^^^ original Jerome Kern piece, and de­ remains, and it still glows. Marge and cided to dish up some ordinary meat handle the dancing and potatoes instead. In order to turn adequately, but with no real flare, "Roberta" into an unexciting musical and. there is the fashion show, natu­

it was necessary to switch a pretty rally, with Adrian running wild and color by [l J ^\ good story line into an extremely dull trying to show that he's every bit as TECHNICOLOR 4)1 . . one. George Wells and Harry Ruby good as those Parisian designers. My An MGM Picture have accomplished this. It then needed impression is that he would have been I THE GREAT STAGE '"^oimc/ioliAiti' some unimaginative directing, and hooted oil the Place Vendome. To back Mervyn LeRoy supplied this element. Lavish revue featuring the Corps me up on this I have the opinion of de Ballet, Glee Club, Rockettes Perhaps this handling of the fine old the woman in the seat behind me, and Symphony Orchestra. musical was due to the frank admis­ who kept muttering: "Who could wear sion that neither Fred Astaire nor such a thing? Who?" Ginger Rogers could possibly be re­ * * * placed. Following this line of reason­ "Lydia Bailey" (20th Century-Fox) ing further we may now enter the is one of those old-fashioned, techni- producers' minds and watch the for­ colored costume dramas that used to mulation: "Why not lick it by having come around just about as frequently two guys for the Astaire part, and as M-G-M musicals do these days. two girls for the Ginger part?" Why Blood flows like water in it, the vil­ not indeed? Thus we see Red Skelton lains are indeed villainous, and the and Gower Champion handling vari­ hero and heroine are uhtainted, ous aspects of Astaire, while Ann courageous, and weak with love for Miller and share each other. I have had no acquain­ Ginger Rogers. The only thing wrong tance with the Kenneth Roberts novel with the idea, besides wrecking the that spawned the film, but I don't T m

p.otoctd b, CASEY ROBINSON Oirectri b, HENRY HATHAWAY ^ Screen Play by CASEY ROBINSON >nd JTX LIAM O'BRIEN . B.>.d o. m. „o..i ..~...T..O. Id" by Peter Cheyne» OK Sta^f— GALA NEW ALL ^-jf STAR REVUE! ^ ••#% ^ ^^ Scene from "Lydia Bailey"—"the hero and heroine are untainted.' 3QC CMUna Hriir 12 it in tins B««'9e««»»*»'<^ PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 34 think it matters just what book the screen play was built from. The plot would have been the same. A good TV and Radio deal of the filming was done in Haiti, some interesting native faces were I LIKE LIKE used in a number of the scenes, and the colors of the foliage—including HE conceivers of television pro­ So, if you happen to know a couple those glaring reds and greens one sees grams are planning now for whose life is one comedy situation in Haitian "primitive" paintings—are Tnext season's entertainment. The after another, get in touch with your pleasant. period of gestation is the summer nearest television station. As- a mat­ The substance of the picture has to months, and a natural delivery is ex­ ter of fact the couple doesn't have to do with the Haitian fight for inde­ pected by Labor Day. I have had my be married, just so they look com­ pendence from France during the eye to the keyhole and I can report patible and don't mind being sepa-- early eighteen hundreds, also with a that the expectant fathers are confi­ rated for a half-hour every week by pretty blonde girl, Lydia Bailey, dent it will be a girl and a boy. a short misunderstanding and a long ward of the powerful d'Autremont "What we want is another Lucille commercial. family. A young American, Albion Ball and Desi Arnaz," is the prayer of Finding a show LIKE another show Hamilton, arrives in Haiti at an in­ every network and advertising execu­ is not an easy task. This past season opportune moment in search of tive. we noted the pitiful attempts by some Lydia's signature for some kind of of the ineffectual mystery shows to document. We see him braving jungle And so television, like radio before emulate the crisp dialogue and sharp­ and fierce Haitian renegades to get to it, has haplessly, and so quickly, fallen ly-etched character closeups of "Drag­ her and to persuade her to sign on into the futile trap of building shows net," produced and starred in by Jack the dotted line. She will sign, if. . . . LIKE other shows. Two years ago it Webb. The call evidently went out Then he rescues her, while all hell was: "What we're looking for is an­ for shows LIKE "Dragnet," and for breaks loose. (The French have ar­ other quiz master LIKE Groucho a couple of weeks they made a col­ rived in ships.) They fall in love. Marx." Last year it was: "We want a lege try for it on a show called "The There are other things mixed up in mystery show LIKE 'Dragnet.' " And Web." It was quite obvious they had it too, like a voodoo ceremony, some this year the story is: "The people the wrong Webb. conferences with the magnificent want a situation comedy LIKE 'I Love Toussaint, Pauline Napoleon, and Lucy.' " some fine talk about freedom and This comedy situation of creating EFORE that came the "furniture" equality, but I couldn't quite unravel a plethora of situation comedies is B shows—a table and three or four it all. Nevertheless, everything works brought about by the fact that "I Love chairs, in which sat three or four peo­ out quite well, and there is a lovely Lucy" has garnered what in the tele­ ple trying to guess something or other. last line, reminiscent of one in "Quo vision business is considered a Pulitzer "What's My Line?" became eminently Vadis," that has Albion inviting King Award—a high rating. As a matter of successful and the search was on for Dick, a Haitian general, to come visit fact, a Nobel Prize, since it has en­ shows LIKE "What's My Line?" One him and the wife in the States when joyed the highest rating of any pro­ of these is "The Name's the Same." things quiet down a bit. Anne Francis gram on the medium; a footnote to Others followed, and if they haven't is Lydia, Dale Robertson is Albion, our times which I leave to the less yet, they will. There is always a de­ and William Marshall portrays King impatient to examine. mand for shows LIKE any successful Dick; all three do well enough, con­ But for weeks now the men in high show. And don't think it's an easy sidering the circumstances. Come to office have been calling for shows operation, this "What's • My Line?" think of it, Lydia never did sign that LIKE "I Love Lucy." Their logic is One of the features of this show is to document. Never any time for it. simple—nothing succeeds like success. guess the name of a well-known per­ And so far that's the way it has been. sonality who is appearing on the pro­ —HoLLis ALPERT. Absolutely nothing they have tried to gram that night. And it's not easy to date has succeeded like the successful pack a w.k. personality into a trunk SR Recommends Lucille Ball show. Not even the better and deliver him to the television the­ written, more slickly-produced situ­ atre so the panel of experts can't see Ivory Hunter: Kenya Colony, Africa, ation comedy which predates "Lucy" him backstage before the show. But provides the background for a British- they do it every week over on Panel made film about animals. (,SR June 7.) by a good year, the George Burns and Under the Paris Sky: Some "snatch-of- Grade Allen program, which has been Two. life" episodes welded by Duvivier into a handicapped in the ratings by appear­ It is only natural, perhaps, that tele­ highly scenic apotheosis of Paris. (SR ing every second week, and in the vision with its rapacious appetite for May 24.) unenviable time spot opposite the one material and ideas should seize upon Outcast of the Islands: Conrad's early novel transformed by Carol Reed into a and nobody LIKE Groucho Marx. the easy way out and build shows film with a full quota of authentic at­ LIKE other shows. More often than mosphere. (.SR Apr. 26.) not the original remains the more The Man in the White Suit: Alec Guin­ successful, while the show LIKE it ness invents a fabric that will never struggles along until option time and wear out—with hilarious consequences. (SR Apr. 5.) is heard of no more. The only show 5 Fingers: L. C. Moyzisch's "Operation which comes to mind that no show has Cicero" turned into a spy film that avoids been built LIKE is "Those Two," star­ all the usual cliches of the genre and includes an abundance of th? Mankiewicz ring Pinky Lee. Every time I watch it I sophistication. (SR Mar. 8.) get the feeling that the whole thing African Fury: A rather bizarre retitling is a typographical error. They thought for U.S. distribution of "Cry, tl;ie Beloved they were getting Peggy Lee. Now Country," with screen script by Alan Paton and starring the late Canada Lee. that's more LIKE it. (SR Feb. 2.) —GOODMAN ACE.

PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED