Evening star., 1952-01-09
Ion the Air:
lis the Man
For O'Huru
By Harry Macarthur

III
John O'FIara's errors In 1.-The
Farmers Hotel are not the ones
which might be suggested to. you
by q reader Of the book. The only
mistake O'Hara made was in try
L ing to pass this of as novel in
stead of writing it in the first
place as a television script for
Robert Montgomery. AS the lat
ter. it served very well on Monday
might when Robert Montgomery
Presents" (WNBW-9:30) became
a weekly rather than a biweekly
show. -
Thanks to some people named
Thomas Phipps, Thomas Mitchell,
Joseph Bailey and Dan Petrie, Mr..
IO'Hara looked good. Mr.. Phipps,
who adapted the novel. cleaned
up the story line a bit without
altering it materially. Mr.. Mitch
ell, playing the leading role, and
John Marriott, Faith Brook, John
Newland and Joshua Shelley in
lesser ones. breathed some life
into innkeeper and first-night
guests, which is what O'Hara
never did for this reader.
Mr.. Bailey and Mr.. Petrie, as
production supervisor and di-
rector respectively for Mr.. Mont
gomery, gave the whole thing pace
and used their cameras adroitly.
A not-very-satisfactory novel was
turned into a quite satisfactory
teleplay, which probably makes
television even moro of a wonder
than it has been called.
The adapters wisely did not
dwell on the allegory purportedly
in the novel. but rather set forth
a straightforward story of some
lives crossing in the night. The
cameras concentrated on Mr..
Mitchell's warm portrait Of the
master of 1.-The Farmers Hotel"
and brought a lively and winning
exercise in acting into the living
room.
Another Hit-Joan McCracken,
who won her first fame in the
theater as the falling down girl"
in oklahoma" quite probably
has another long-running show on
her hands now. Claudia, the Story
of a Marriage" in which Miss
McCracken and Hugh Reilly play
leading roles on television
(WNBW-Sunday, $50 p.m0, :,
has every look of success about it.
1t won't be the first successful
venture since "Oklahoma" to
occupy Miss McCracken's alert
and engaging talents. She has. in
fact, had quite a full career since
her first fall in that Agnes De-
Mile ballet. "Oklahoma" led to a
couple of movie roles and to a
starring role in ''Bloomer Girl, -
where she impressed the man from
the New York Times as "prac-
tically a musical comedy in her.
self" After "Bloomer Girl" came
Billion Dollar Baby" and the
Donaldson Award to Miss Nc
Cracken as the best dansellse of
1916. lis
Miss McCracken became a
straight actress in 1947 in Charles
Laughton's Experimental Theater
production of ''Galileo," followed
a bit later with "The Big Knife, %
starring Nancy Kelly and John
Garfield. She won some more
praise in Angel in the Pawn
shop" and turned to television on
ACTORS Studio" of early TV days.
Last spring she replaced Jean
Arthur in the leading role for the
road tour of Peter Pan"
! If ever there was a git1 (other
than Dorothy McGuire) to play
Claudia, Joan McCracken is the
one. Her fresh young appeal is a
sparkling thing and she has a
deft way with a line.
The look of success on her new
television venture, which had its
premiere this week, is made I'D of
several things. The NBC-TV pro-
ductiOn is a slick one with evi-
dences of advance planning. Miss
McCracken and Mr.. Reilly are at
tractive people and able perform
ers. And Rose Franken's Claudia
stories have proved their durability
In magazines, on stage, on screen
and back in magazines again.
These are the type of stories
men are always referring to as
"Women's magazine fiction" but
along with their romantic mag
MITIGATION Of minor problems into
major problems there is a certain
amount Of charm. The TV show
SENS bent upon retaining the fla-
vor which has made the original
Claudia popular. The silver chord
lis out of the way with the first
episode (though it undoubtedly