''Dial Iw" Tvith a Touch of Hamlet

23 act scene when Treplev must stand mute during the long speech in which SR GOES TO THE MOVIES Nina confesses her continued love for Tiigorin. Judith Evelyn is an ac ceptable Arkadina, capturing the van ity of the actress even if not suggest ''Dial iW" tvith a Touch ing her glamour, and John Fiedler is touching as the ineffectual school of Hamlet teacher. By all odds the best per formance of the evening, and an ex NE of the piquant turnabouts of If Evans had a touch too much of cellent performance it is. is Maureen our time is Frederick Knott's Wendice to be Hamlet, it is fair to Stapleton's warm-hearted and very O "Dial \I For Mulder'" (Warner say that Milland has a touch too much human playing of Masha, the defeated Brotheis). which was first seen as a of Hamlet to be Wendice. He is too young woman who wears black be play for television and has now turned troubled by psychological insight, too cause she is in mourning for her life. up on the movie screen. The sturdi- unhappy that he is going to have his Then and there, to my way of ness of Knott's tidy thriller results wife murdered. His failure to catch thinking, the virtues of the revival from the fact that he has managed the crispness of Evans's stage per come to a full stop. I could find only to plaj- a full-scale chase in mental formance is largely the reason why utter inadequacy in Will Geer's carica terms within the confines of a single "Dial M For Murder" on the screen ture of the estate manager, in June room. Under Alfi-cd Hitchcock's never catches the cosy excitement Walker's playing of his wife, and in knowing direction, the film version of the production on 45th Street. Sam Jaffe's characterization of the of "Dial M For Mui'der" retains most actress's invalid brother. I cannot of its entertainment values. If it falls short of the Broadway incarnation imagine a more negative Trigorin Like many Americans over the age it is because of the casting of the than Kevin McCarthy or a less sat of thirty, director Richard Brooks central role. isfactory Nina than Mira Rostova. has not forgotten the moment in 1937 Everyone knows it takes time, and Evelyn Waugh. in "The Loved when Lana Turner first walked across a lot of it, for a group of actors to One," assured us that a hardy band the screen in "They Won't Forget." master Chekhov. All too plainly the of British mummei's w"as stoutly pre In that chin-lifted, high-heeled, production at the Phoenix has been serving the sahib tradition under the sweater-straining strut lay the es thrown together in a hurry. This, foreign palms, yet from this gallant sence of high-school sex, and Brooks however, is not the only trouble. The group Hitchcock could give us no has pleasured himself by beginning ' styles of playing are as mixed as the one better than Ray Milland for the and ending "Flame and the Flesh" accents of the players. Worse still, role of Tony Wendice. the would- (M-G-M) with the same bewitching Norris Houghton's direction is guilty be uxoiicide. Milland in the past has amble. Unhappily, Lana Turner is of an equal uncertainty. It establishes shown himself a capable farceur and now lending her embonpoint and her no clear line, creates no cohesion, a mettlesome dramatic performer, but waggle to what might very well have and misses nuance after nuance. he is cleai'ly the wiong choice for been the script for an Italian movie The Phoenix's first season has been this role, on which the entire piece about one of those torn-chemise ad an excitingly distinguished and con- depends. That it is the pivotal part venturesses who is all bad but all tributive one. No doubt, after such is demonstrated by the fact that in woman. She is succulent; but seven successes as "Madam, Will You the Broadway production the roles teen years and possibly as many Walk," "Coriolanus," and "The Gold of Mrs. Wendice and the American pounds have not altered her quality en Apple," T. Edward Hambleton mystery writer were quite poorly as the high-school bad girl, and the acted without dragging the evening and Mr. Houghton are entitled to a immaturity of her playing combined down, while Grace Kelly and Robert failure. The pity is this failure had with a rough-hewn, cliche-laden Cummings arc pei-fectly fine in the to be "The Sea Gull," a play which script serves to make "Flame and the motion picture without lifting it up. many of us hold in the same affection Flesh" a heavy-breathing, lightweight as do those participating in its pres Milland does all that he is asked drama. ent revival.—JOHN MASON BROWN. to do, yet he projects a sodden, un pleasant quality. In the Broadway After her opening stroll through show Maurice Evans exhibited a the streets of Naples, Lana Turner characteristic bounce that may have moves in on a good-hearted musician. been somewhat alarming in "Hamlet'" Bonar CoUeano, but soon casts her but was eminently suited to the vil incendiary glances at his roommate. lain in the British game-of-murder. Carlos Thompson, a cafe singer who The point about Tony Wendice is is ready to abjure the rake-hell life not merely that he is a thoroughly for the true love of the patron's bad lot. a tennis bum who married daughter. Pier Angeli. The rest of the an heiiess and then proceeds to plot story, a stormy and predictable es her violent demise. The point is also capade for Turner and Thompson, that he is a rakish, charming, sardonic is marked by such dialogue as "Don't sort of cad who accepts himself com own me, just love me," and "How pletely and enjoys mailing up his can I love you when I don't even grisly puzzle as much as the ti-adi- like you?" tional detective inspector relishes Joseph Pasternak, the producer, has finding the key. Evans played him delighted the eye with some authentic as the perfect sharper, with a smile exteriors of Naples, and some inter on his face and an ace up his sleeve, esting on-location interiors of a num altogether a cut from the same cloth ber of Neapolitan restaurants, which as the scapegrace he tempts into tick —I was mildly disappointed to learn— ing ofT the beautiful Mrs. Wendice. do not exhibit murals of New York Miss Evelyn and Mr.Clift in "The Sea Gull.' Bay. —LEE ROGOW. PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 24 "SuftenJi^ Ufnlti*t^ TV AND RADIO Suft€/t4- cOtama TV and the Hearings- Sufrenji^ 64^t6n4^' An Interim Report T IS TOO early to assess either 1.) Would all the networks be justi The the effect of television on the fied in refusing to carry the proceed I McCarthy-Army hearings or the ings? effect of the televised hearings on 2.) If not, aren't the ones who re the public. It is not too early to enun fuse taking advantage of the fact that ciate the questions raised by the poli someone else is doing the work? In cies of the networks in regard to the this particular case, aren't the richer hearings as a whole—the questions, networks throwing the burden on the but I'm afraid not the answers. poorer? The background of network policy 3.) Is the cost of canceling spon CECIL WOODHAM-SMITH is the sharp battle over the exclusion sored programs plus the cost of car author of FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE of television cameras from hearings rying public events too great for the at which the press is welcome. This industry to bear without sponsorship The extraordinary story of the issue did not come up in this case and or is this cost part of the price which personalities behind the ill-fated charge of the Light Brigade. in fact may never come up again ex stations pay for their license to broad cept where criminal cases are in cast? In other words, isn't this part "One of the most electrifying and volved. Having won the right to be of their contract to operate "in the dramatic exposes ever written on the history of the Victorian age." present, the networks used it in dif public interest"? —*GEOFFREY BRUUN, ferent ways. CBS announced that it 4.) How big does an audience have N. Y. Herald Tribune was not good public policy for all to be to justify the cost of broad Book Review networks to carry the same program— casting to it? (From the figures re "As enthralling as a fine novel, a principle learned, apparently, after leased, I should estimate that between as closely reasoned as a good de CBS had carried the sponsored all- seven and ten million people watched tective story... a masterpiece of station Rodgers-Hammerstein show. the hearings at some time of the day. creative history." Consequently, CBS offered a copious This is certainly not a negligible audi —Saturday Review excerpt on film to all who stayed up ence from the point of view of a spon Illustrated • $4.00 at all bookstores until about 11 P.M. NBC carried the sor.) = McGRAW.HILL S=S proceedings direct from the com 5.) Why didn't the networks get mittee room for two days, then an together and create a pool, dividing nounced- that the cost was excessive "GAYER THAN A DAYDREAM." the time so that no single one took —WaXtm WincheU and the public response insufficient a disproportionate loss? "0RI8INAL AND FUNNY." to justify it.

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