The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 64

i 1 tt 1 I i STAGE, SCREEN A HID MUSIC (Efte Jpfulabclplua 3lnquircc 12 ab SUNDAY. JULY 17,1949 THE CALL BOY'S CHAT Director of Dramas Today Is Playhouse Prima Donna By Linton Martin An actor who need not be named and he's NOT our famous friendfc George Spclvin! recently rebuked your Call Boy for considering him miscast in a play production which had Its tryout la this town. "I was not miscast, it was the director who was," he declared, commenting, "If I had been permitted to play the part as I saw it, it would have produced a totally different impression, but the director reversed my views, and I was panned for his lit 1 4 i i fiffjf lA '-VV1 vf" 4-." i A I 4 two top tuneless dramatic hits: "Death of a Salesman" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Whether he thinks the rave reviews have anything to do with the box office business of these plays is not a matter of record, but if so it must be embarrassing for him to have thes productions acclaimed by the critic -he derided and denounced, in paid advertising, as haviftg a dramatic standard which excludes just about everything except neatness and belly laughs, and which takes no cognizance of what a play tries to say." A DASH OF THE OLD TECHNIQUE Ray Boiger and June Haver In a scene from "Look For The Silver Lining," a the Mastbaum Friday. THE LADY IS VERY SERIOUS Clark Gable takes an armful of Audrey Totter in 'Any Number Can Play," Goldman, Wednesday. YOUTHFUL SINGER IS SOLOIST Kirsten Kenyon who will appear with Slgmund Romberg at the Robin Hood Dell on Thursday evening.

HollywooD In Review BACKSTAGE Ernest Truex To Star at Bucks County By Marion Kelley By Edith CAMERA ANGLES 'Home of Brave7 Presents Race Prejudice Problems By Mildred Martin Since everything about "Fome of the Is a daring departure from sleek, cut-to-meesure Hollywood standards and conventions, it is appropriate that this extraordinary picture should make an equally Philadelphia debut. Beginning this afternoon tnd continuing through the evening, "Home of the Brave" will be given an all-day premiere at the Earle here. on Aug. 5, it is scheduled to begin its regular engagement. HOLLYWOOD, July 16.

Paramount i3 preparing an original story this studio bought from Wm. Saroyan and George Auerbach some time ago. It's called "Ex-Hero" but has nothing to do with war stuff. It's about a onetime football star and what goes with his life after the glamor of the gridiron publicity, is gone. Paramount would like to borrow Vic Mature from Fox once more to star in this.

Jane Russell may not be in "Christmas Gijt" with Bob Mitchum Well, that's a rather original reason for inept acting. But whether it's merely another, if novel note, in the ancient art of buck passing, or" the business of blaming somebody, it does raise a question which never can be completely clarified for the cash customer, or even the critic, in evaluating the acting in a play per formance. It is a somewhat complex ques tion, too. For it involves the author ship, as well the acting, in attempting to determine the degree of the director's creative contribution to the footlight force, effect and flavor of a stage performance. whether it be a serious drama, farce, musical show.

Only those who are inside observers when a production is being preened for its premiere can be qualified to know the answer, and they are often likely to disagreee. Tagged by Type The plain playgoer if there is any such animal knows the fellow who staged the show merely as a name printed in the program, since he is seldom seen, and rarely participates in the public presentation of a play. in contrast to the old days of actor-impresarios, with their famous rep ertory groups. True, certain celebrated directors of the moment have achieved prima donna prominence as "specialists" in some particular footlight field this one for putting pace and pep into comedies about adolescent amours, that one for col orful quality, another for packing the punch of dramatic dynamite, this little laddies for his flair for fantasy, and some, perhaps, simply for their overweening and inflated self-esteem. Ahl there! George Abbott.

Rou- ben Mnmoullan and Ella Kazan. And let's stop right there, for the sake of discretion, in particularizing on this little list, which could be come a big list. Shadowy souls, most directors may be, for the typical theatergoer, who may be more interested in the lis some lines of a capering chorus cutie than in whether the spoken lines are delivered as demanded by the director. But for the actors, and even authors at times, the men who stage the shows may seem like ver itable Simon Legrees, and there are terrfying tales of their tough tac tics and temperamental tantrums. Pungent Opinion Considering the salaries some dl rectors draw, probably they can't be blamed for feeling as they do about themselves and their services.

That is, if they feel as they are said to feel. It might make a few readers rub their eyes with amazement, if not incredulity, to hear the pay pulled down, for instance though very special instances by Elia Kazan and Sidney Klngsley. Unfortunately, these figures cannot be quoted here, since they came to your Call Boy confidentially, and are un official, though they are undoubted ly entirely accurate. Kazan, as undoubtedly nobody need be reminded, is the big boy on Broadway as director right now, with his name tagged triumphantly to the Army surveyor, has returned from a mission to a Jap-held island, the only Negro in a group of five volunteers. The terrible events that took place on the island, the emotional explo Gwynne berg and Shelley Winters? Even though "My Friend Irma" won't be out for couple of months yet, Hal Wallis already has picked the sec ond picture in which to flaunt those zanys, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, who support Marie Wilson in.

Irma." The follow-up will be "The Stooge" and the comics will be the stars of THAT one. Marie Wilson, incidentally, will be missing from the cast of Ken Murray's "Blackouts" when it opens in New York in September. Marie has been with the show in Hollywood for seven years! Tat Williams replaces for Broadway. Frank Morgan has to give up his vacation in Alaska because Europa," the new Greer Garson picture, in which he's featured, starts sooner than first scheduled' Tempus fugits note: Sara Marshall, daughter of Herbert Marshall and Edna Best (now Mrs. Nat Wolff), just debuted in the stage show here of "The Property is Condemned." a Tennessee Williams opus.

She's 16. With Lassie, the Metro dog-star drawing Ave thousand a week they're calling him the canine Milton Berle. You'll hear much more of that coaxial cable" soon. may not lc the prettiest thing on tele vision, but he's the biggest attraction on video at present. And since he's about to emerge as a movie star too, why don't Warners dub him Continued on Page 14, Column 1 The Truex family are together again in the theater of course, for domestically they are seldom apart.

And this time they have Barry, the youngest of Ernest Truex's three sons by a former marriage, sharing the glow of the footlights. The play is Eugene O'Neal's "Ah Wilderness which opens at the Bufiks County Playhouse tomorrow night. Young Barry, a handsome lad pushing 15 now. does have to turn the clock back a few years to play the part of a boy of 11. But he can take that now since he just completed the juicy part in "The Winslow Boy," on a Straw Hat Cir cuit.

And playing a tale of family life along with actual members of his household adds a realistic touch. As papa Ernest expressed it in his humorous fashion, "In this comedy my 16-year-old stage son is having his first fling, so I find it expedient to give him a a little talk on the facts of life. Privately I have had to say similar lines twice now to my two older sons as they grew, to manhood and now Barry is eligible. Only Eu gene O'Neal has saved me the trouble this time, and he expresses it so much more beautifully than Real and Stage Wife Sylvia Field, his wife in real life is also his stage spouse and in some of the serious moments of the comedy they frankly admit they are not talking stage chatter, they not only feel it, they menu it. It hits home The elder Truex pointed out in the last act when their young son has his first romance they stand together watching the youthful lovers Continued on Tage 13, Column 1 Today or a few weeks from now, this is a film no one who believes in motion pictures as an adult medium of expression can afford to miss.

02eringr incontestable proof ttat art and intelligence take precedes ce over lavish spending, brilliantly backing up the theory that there is room for the new, small produciig company as well as the long-established giants in the screen wor. d. "Home of the Brave" is important on many scores, by no least of is its honest handling of a cruciil, painful, difficult subject anti-Negro prejudice and discrimination. Important Problem Producer Stanley Kramer, the 25-year-old guiding light of Screen Plays Corporation, undoubtedly ret 1-ized the challenge he had accept when he chose to transfer Arthur Laurents' stage play to the scran, its central character changed frcm that of a Jewish I. to a painfu ly race-conscious Negro soldier.

id he. or Adaptor Carl Foreman, male the mistake of sensationalizing tie material, had they lacked Intel i-Kfnce. taste or hart, and had either Director Mark Robson or the sm (11 but superlative cast faltered anywhere, the result would have been something we'd rather not even contemplate. As "Crossfire" set the pace a id remains the best of the subsequent films dealing with anti-Semitis so the already completed and planned pictures dealing with the problems of Negroes will find it difficult to match, let alnng surpass, "Home of the Brave." For. neither inflammatory nor sentimental, it faces facts honestly, dissects prejudice with surgical impersonality, incorporates its message of tolerance in a drama which, itself, is grippiig from start to finish.

Psychological Slant At once psychological melodrama and hair-raising war story, the racial theme is woven like a dark thread through the account of an Army doctor's desperate attempt to the cause i.f the paralysis and tate of shock in which Peter Moss, In the same New York newspaper advertisement, Kazan carped that Our theater is strangled in a bot tleneck" by reviewers who "are not qualified by their training or by their taste" to exercise tha power they possess. Contrasting Cases Those animadversions wert in spired by the rather rough reviewa accorded Maxwell Anderson's fiop- eroo, "Truckline Cafe" in February, 1946, when Kazan was co-producer. but did not direct the play. That was when the playwright himself also took paid advertising to call tha critics "a sort of Jukes family of Journalism" the same critics who. this past season, heartily hailed and huzzahed his "Anne of the Thousand Days." Oddly enough, neithar Kazan nor Anderson took paid advertising space to berata the reviewers for their comments about these later productions, respectively.

Which 1 what they aurely should have done. to be quite consistent and conscien tious. Or perhaps they have special, if flexible, standards of fairness and graclousnesss. Actually, of course, there la really no reason why a drama director or an actor, author, or impresario, for that matter should express appreciation for praise in the presa. For the reviewer does not expect it, but simply does his duty as he aee it, though at times it may mean fine words for foes (if any), and flip phrases for friends (if any).

It'a all in the exercise of fairness in footlight affairs. But your Call Boy must admit that he has personally appreciated some nice letters from players and playwrights. However, and for whatever reason, nary a note from any drama director has ever arrived in his mail. Prima Donna Prominence However opinions may differ about the proper place of the play director, there can be no doubt that he or she is constantly increasing la importance. Featuring or billing the director above even the principal players of a production has been exemplified in several exceptional instances recently.

Most recent, so far as Philadelphia Is concerned, was the engagement of "Miss Liberty" at the Forrest. For the regular advertising featured Moss Hart, who directed the book. with the names of the author and the composer, his co-producers. though the actors were not even mentioned. This seemed the more astonishing, since no blinding brilliance was displayed in staging the banal book, and it was easily overshadowed in the dance direction by-Jerome Robbins.

The old gag line about "Hamlet without the Prince" had its almost literal exploitation equivalent in the Margaret Webster production of that play which was paired with her presentation of "Macbeth," and trouped around the country as twia attractions during the past season. Though never seen by audiences, the distaff director was indubitably the star in publicity promineriCe. Example to Emulate Some of the boys who stage playt grimly guard their rehearsal meth ods from outside observers, as if they were secrets of the sultan's harem," the crown jewels, or an atom bomb formula. The mere thought of a dramatic critic as an enterprising Peeping Tom" may be almost enough to give them an attack of heeble-Jeeblo Jlttera. They have quite tion," as it is termed in the trade.

though that myth haa been demolished many times. Former newspaperman though he is well, anyway, he waa once a trade paper reporter the veteran Herman Skumlin is reluctant and leery about preview 'press peepers. But his footlight formula proved far from infallible in the casea of quick closers like "The Biggest Thief in Town" and "Jeb." Delightfully different was Sidney Kingsley, who both wrote and staged the current Broadway hit. "Detective Story." Just before the play'a premiere here last March he com- mented to your Call Boy, "If I have something worthwhile, I don't think it has to be hidden until opening night." There's an example to emulate! Naturally, play directors hare their contrasting quirks and caprices, like other It's a good thing, too. That is one.

reason why we have diversity In oar footlight fare. sions, the conflict of personalities, the surging to the surface of prejudices of men under intolerable pressure, are pieced together by the doctor through interviews with the survivors and "Mossy's" corrosive recollections going hack to childhood while undergoing narcosynthethlc treatment. If it were only Mossy's story of bitterness, resentment, self-distrust that "Home fo he Brave" was intent upon telling, the picture would not be nearly the memorable drama it is. But reaching over and beyond the personal history of one man, it draws through the other characters an almost symbolical study of human decency and its converse, making it painfully plain that while some are capable of profiting from experience there are also the stupid and the insensitive who cannot and will not learn. Dramatic Merits It should be emphasized that there Is nothing of soap-box rant or pulpit preaching to be found in this tougli-ly, expertly written drama.

Had there been, it would not be the picture it is or, apart from its courageous statement of matters never be fore broached on the screen, one of the most exciting war dramas eve made. Technically and financially "Home of the Brave" is an astounding feat, having been brought in under the ropes in less than two months from the time rights to the Laurents play were bought to the day the completed film was ready for release. And for the most un-Hotlywood-like sum of $525,000. Is it any wonder, then, that with "Champion and "Home of Ihe Brave" to its credit and despite th false start made with "So This Is New York," the eyes of the industry and the high hopes of the picture public are turned upon this new little company and its greatly gifted, happily unfettered, unpredictable producer? FILM TIMES TODAY What Picture Houses Offer; Coming Bills I ALDINE "The Lost Patrol," 1934 revival, with Victor McLaglen, Borsi Karloff. 2.30, 5,55, 9.15.

-aunga Din," 1939 revlvnl. with Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen. 3.45, 7.10. 10.30. ARCADIA "The Secret Garden," Frances Burnett story, with Margaret O'Brien, Dean Stockwell, Brian Ropor, Herbert Marshall.

2.20. 4.15, CIO, 8.05, 10. BOYD "Take One False Step," melodrama, with William Powell, Shelley Winters, Marsha Hunt. James Gleason. 2.35, 4.25, 6.20, 8.15, 10.05.

EARLE (Today only) "Home of the Brave," drama, with James Edwards, Douglas Dick, Lloyd Bridges. 2.50, 4.40, 6.30. 8.20, 10.10. "Make Believe Ballroom," radio musical, with Jerome Courtland, Ruth Warrick, Ron Randell. Den nis Day stage show.

FOX "House t)f Strangers." melo drama, with Edward G. Robiftson. Richard Conte, Susan Hayward. 2. 3.45, 5.35.

7.25. 9.15, 11. GOLDMAN "Neptune's Daughter," musical, with Esther Williams. Ricardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, Red Skelton. 2.05.

3.50. 5.40, 7.20, 9. 10.40. 12.20 A. 2.05.

KARLTON "Edward, My Son," drama, with Spencer Tracy, Deborah Kerr, Leueen MacGrath. 2.05. 4.05. 6.05, 8, 10. MASTBAUM "The Fountainhead," drama, with Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Robert Douglas.

Kent Smith. 2, 4. 6. 8, 10. NEWS "Radio City Revels." 1938 revival, with Milton IJcile.

Jack Oakie. Ann Miller. 2, 3.45, 5.30, 7.15. 9. 10.45.

all night. PIX "City Across the River," drama, with Stephen McNally, Peter Fernandez. Jeff Corey. 2.35, 4.30. 6.25.

8.20, 10.20. A "Sorrowful Jones. comedy, with Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Mary Jane Saunders. 2.30 4.20. 6.15, 8.10, 10.05.

STANTON "Johnny Allegro," melodrama, with George Raft, Nina Foch, George Macready. 2, 3.35, 5.15, 6.50, 8.30. 10.05. STUDIO "Burma Victory." 1945 British documentary revival. 2.15 4.50.

7.20, 9.55. "The True 1945 U. S- documentary revival, 3.15. 5.50. 8.20.

10.50. TRANS-LUX "The Red Shoes, drama, with music and baHet, star ring Moira Shearer, Anton Wal brook, Marius Goring, Leonide Massine. 2.30. 5.30. 8.30.

TOMORROW BOYD "The Girl from Jones Continued on Tage 13, Column 3 after all, so H. Hughes and (RKO to you) is extensively test ing Faith Domrrgue for the part. Gary Cooper has- been going in for a new sport water-skiing. And he has plenty of scars to prove it I Fayme Emerson Roosevelt is going to have to lose lots of pounds before she does that picture "Guilty Bystander," which we told you about. It will be filmed in New York and Zachary Scott treks east soon to be the leading man in it.

Joyce Reynolds, who quit Warners and gave up movie-acting altogether when she married a couple of yean ago, is back in movies with both fret. She's just bfrn given the femme lead in "Girls' School" at Columbia, with Wallace MacDonald producing A chum of ours quips that with the Hollywood economy wave still on, a lot of producers who used to pad payrolls with relatives have stopped putting on heirs! Here's a switch: The feller who starred in the big northern epic, "Eskimo," a few years ago, was Malu, if you remember. Well, he gave up acting for a technical job and has been an assistant camera man at 20th-Fox. Until the other day, when the studio was casting an "Indian" for a role in Jimmy Stewart's "Arrow." Now Malu, the Eskimo of "Eskimo," gets that part and another bid for fame as a redskin. With "Cover Girl" (star ring Rita Hayworth) doing such terrific business in its current re issue around the theatres, has any one noted that two of the bit play ers in the picture are Jinx Falken DELL'S FOURTH WEEK Old Classics Vic With ISlcxv This week, Robin Hood Dell again illustrates the pattern and policy for Summer musical programs which have proved so popular to date.

It is another blend of the established classics and the more modern favorites of the musical comedy stage. Both be linked by a program of symphonic tousle which features the melodies of Johann Strauss. Programs in Detail MONIT, JUI.T 1 Artur Kublnatffln, BAlnta! Wllllm fftelttborc, conductor Fourth Symphony Tchaikoviky KuDin tinoq iu orrnesira First Plana Concerto In flat Minor. Opun an Tchalkovaky TIT.SnAY. JULY 19 William Stclnberc, conductor Fourth Symphony Brahms Prelude, third act.

"Die Melaterslnger" Warner Overture. "Die Fledermaua" Johann Strauu Pizzicato Polka Johann BtrauRS Perprtuum Mobile Trllnch-Trawch Polka Emperor Waltz Johann BtrauK Johann Btrauaa Johann. Straus THURSDAY. JULY 11 Birmand Romberg, conductor and piano so lolst; Gene Marrey and Kirsten Kenyon, vo calists, Overture, "Merry Wives of Windsor" Nlcolal waltz. "Gold and Sliver" Lehar National Emblem March Bagley Selection.

"Gypsy Baron." Strauss "Hejre Rati" Hubay Robin Hood Dell Orchestra "Wandering Minstrel" Irom "The Mikado" Sullivan "The Lord's Prayer" Malotte Gene Marvey Selection. "My Maryland" Romberg "American Humoresque" Romberg Military March from "Desert Song." Romberg Impromptu (Romberg at piano Romberg Robin Hood Dell Orchestra Songs from "The New Moon." "One Kiss." "Lover Come Back to Me" Romberg Kirsten Kenyon Songs from "The New Moon" "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise," "Stouthearted Men" Romberg Gene Marvey Song from "The New Moon" "Wanting You" Romberg ttls Kenyan and Mr. Marvejr saassBBBBBBBoi HMaaMBaaaa or 'SMSSWSSSSj T- Jt i I Ja i j' ff I a fs tassssssl 'im- sssa'' t-ri-wisia RELAXING IN APPROPRIATE COSTUME FOR SCREEN ROLE Mayo who stars in "The Girl From Jones Beach," will appear in person with husband. Michael O'Shea, at opening tomorrow at Boyd. GUN TOTING GALS WHO CAN HANDLE THEIR WEAPONS Mona Freeman means business in "Streets of Laredo" coming to Earle Friday, and Marta Toren is not fooling in "Illegal Entry" at Karlton, Wednesday..