practice MIMS at a. }LIG. SUED 011 the desert. The filmiu.L opened ADS ,here yesterday at the Coronet 1, Titeitier. • FORKENEDY Fl Protest Explained Charles Boasberg, 'Makers of 'Executive Action' of National General presidentPictures Ask Cancellation Damages Corporation,' through which the film is being released, ... said that if television stations were allowed to approve or By LOUIS CALTA disapprove of television com- The distributor of "Execu , mercials "no one will he able • tive Action," the movie by to make a motion picture Dalton Trumbo about a "con- without first clearing its sub- , spiracy" to assassinate Pres- . , ject matter with television •. :ident Kennedy, filed a $1.5- executives." ' Million breach-of-agreement Edward Lewis, producer of suit yesterday morning in the film, which co-stars Burt New York State Supreme Lancaster, the. late. Robert , Court against the National Ryan and Will Geer, called - 'Broadcasting Company for • N.B.C,'s action canceling a television com- censorship. television rnercial promoting the film. Ira Teller, director of ad- Arthur Watson, executive vertising and publicity for „Vice president of N.B.C. and --, National General Pictures, ex- general manager of WNBC- plained that after N.B.C. had , TV, said that the spot adver- turned down the commercial tisement was turned down "We went to the American "on the basis of not meeting Broadcasting Company and N.B.C.'s standards. The vio- , the Columbia Broadcasting ,lence portrayed in the System to seek available commercial was excessive time, but were told that none was available." and was done in such detail • as to be instructional or to The distributing Company, invite imitation," he said. however, was successful in N.B.C.- took exception to obtaining television time on the portrayal of President. WPIX-TV (Channel 11) with a :Kennedy's riding in a motor- version that Leo Pope, WPIX vide with a telescopic gun- executive vice president, said sight superitanwect on his had been edited to remove 'face. The network also oh- Unacceptable portionS. The jected to a scene in which a spots are being broadcast marksman is shown firing over Channel 11 all this week. A review of the film ap- norms on POPP 60. ..••••■■ says with a small smile, fold- exercising,"var. she says.stscy ,'I grru- do self—is like the conelitioff pr-glems -these days, ing and unfoldinv. 'ner fine believe that these novels will , that dog." — -Or Suspense Film Dramatizes Kennedy Assassination By. NORA SAYRE pearance of the three marks- If disbelief is one of our The Cast than Kennedy's, And that is calthiest national reflexes, EXECUTIVE ACTION, directed by Davie men, also the calculations to Miller; screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, the problem lurking in this _t least it has been well ex- story be Donald Freed and Mark Lane; "have the F.B.I. watching the rcised in the years between director of photography, Robert Stead- C.I.A." and vice versa, while •movie. Television footage is man; film editor, George Grenville and he Warren Report and the Irving Lerner; music. Randy Edelman; relying on the inefficiency of used to paw at the public's test protestations about the Producer, Edward Lewis; released be sentiments; we see Kennedy National General Pictures. At the Coro- the, Secret Service. - :mbeing of those President- net Theater, Third Avenue at 59th The conspirators are smiling and golfing and kiss- tapes. The only danger is Street. Running time 91 minutes. This film is classified PG. cleverly cloaked in the style ing his children, as well as at fact Itself can be a vic- Farrington Foster Sort Lancaster of Camelot itself.- Lancaster making speeches. But "Ex- .ri of disbelief: Ugly news Robert Ryan and Ryan appear as pensive, at happens to be true be- IF9larutig't Will Geer ecutive Action" is emotional- •Hallidar Gilbert Green practical semi-academics, ra- mes easier to ignore, and John Anderson • ly disconnected from history Gunman tionally planning an act as ,od news gets rejected with Tim Paul Carr Colby .Chester bloody as a small foreign in- to the degree that those with vasion. (They admit that they an affection for suspense "Executive Action," which ably pull out of Vietnam. The sometimes "sound like gods," can enjoy the build-up of the ,ened yesterday at „the last two points may give you since they are also planning plotting — even though we >ronet, offers a tactful, low- the world's future — "Well, y blend of fact and inven- the hiccups, but that is what know how the assassination these characters say. somebody's got to do it.") -in. The film makers do not Both have ere confidence and turned out, sist that they have solved • the casual class that we re- • Ain Kennedy's murder; in- Like calm businessmen, call in many Kennedy' ap- Despite the flags crawling sad, they simply evoke pointees. Lancaster, looking down flagpoles and the drum- at might, have happened, they organize the event. beats, a national trauma has While three talented marks- miraculously young, overdoes cording to various re- the "sincerity" at moments— become a competent thriller. archers, including Mark men rehearse by shooting at dummies in a car driven an old habit of his. And there And it is just as well. Re- ane. are too many shots of the living the shock of that kill- The result Is a cool, skill- through the desert, the con- ing would hardly benefit any spirators search for a nut to conspirators smiling ironical- 1, occasionally confusing ly at once another. But Ryan kind of1audience now. -ginnent for conspiracy. use as a patsy. So whether you chime with Throughout the stress is on is wonderhilly benign and eaithy rightwingers (Burt wry, wisely underplaying this interpretation, or, like a -Incaster and Robert Ryan) technology — even Oswald's few I know, decide to em- name comes out of a com- where others might have -_nted Kennedy removed be- gone all out for evil. brace all the conspiracy theo- :se he waa puter. The movie follows the ries of the assassination, the going to sign "second Oswald" theory, and However, it is far more test-ban treaty, "lead the painful to think of Ryan's movie is useful in rousing ck revolution" and prob- this part of the plot is deftly the questions once again. The constructed, as is the disap- death — a few weeks after this movie was finished — film's sternest and strongest point is that only a crazed person acting on his own would have been acceptable . to the American public — which, at that time; certainly ,did not want to believe in a conspiracy. .