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