Evening star., 1954-09-22
| On the Air

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down and due consideration
points the finger at the casting
directors. The men who hire
the actors, of course, may be
doing the best that can be done
with the talent available at the
price allowed by the budget. But
somebody apparently is being a
little careless with the credi-
bility.
Two Of this weeks victims have
been a television dramatist and
an esteemed playwright turned
to televiSion to raise it's general
tone a little bit. The TV drama
tist, Paddy Chayefsky, was rep
resented on '"Television Play
house" Sunday night by Middle
of the Night" The esteemed
playwright, Robert E. Sherwood,
provided the drama with which
Robert Montgomery Presents"
started its new season on Mon
day night, a play titled Diary"
Each OF these (both were pre-
sented on NBC-TV) treated some
OF the less fortunate aspects of
life with more candor and per-
ceptiveness than we are accus-
toned to on television. Both had
some moments of touching au-
thentlclty, but neither came off
as a complete success.
The two plays, though con-
siderably different in theme, had
something in common beyond
the literate approach of writer's
who can fashion dialogue with
a natural sound. At least their
central figures did.
In Chayefsky's Middle of the
Night" Eva Marie Saint played
an emotionally immature 22-
year-old who had wed and di-
vorced a musician, whose pres:
ence still affected her disturb
ingly. In spite of this, she man.
aged to make her decision to
marry her employer, a 49-year-
old widower played by E. G.
Marshall. who could give her the
kindly paternal affection she
needed, or wanted.
The Sherwood play, 'Diary,"
told in f1ashback the story of the
unfortunate end which overlook
a young innocent played by
Janice Rule. She came to New
York, full of high hopes for her
writing future, had them dashed,
ran afoul of a young hoodlum
in cafeteria and wound up dead
when the police closed in on him.
Both of these received near
fatal blows in the casting Office.
Miss Saint and E. G. Marshall
did exceptionally well by their
assignments in Middle of the
Night" but the young man cast
as the piano-playing ex-husband
proved no asset.
He may be an, able actor in
the right spot, but this was not
the right spot. He sounded more
than a little like a comedy char
acter created by George. Gobel
or Wally Cox, which hardly
could have been Mr.. Chayefsky's
idea. It was inconceivable that
he ever could have made the
blood turn to superheated steam
in Miss Saints veins and the
problem the author thought she
had just plain dissolved.
Mr.. Sherwood's motivation
suffered much the same fate. Miss
Rule is a sensitive young actress,
she did well by Diary and any
playwright should be happy to
have her around his premises.
The thought that this radiant
lass should be so lonely in New
York that she would get into all
this trouble, however, was, as a
noted phrasemaker recently said,
the most unheard-of thing ever
heard of.
Here again the casting of a
supposedly spell-casting actor
left its mark. 1t was hardly
credible that the most wide-eyed.
loneliest small-town girl would
have attached herself so whole
heartedly to this boy.
Mr.. Sherwood, incidentally.
was a lot closer to the mark in
DIARY" than in the first televi-
sion play he wrote under his
pact with NBC. He was dealing
in character study, which usu-
ally provides better television
drama than complicated plots.
In 81 minutes you can't get too
complicated and then uncompli-
cate things and Mr.. Sherwood
clearly now knows that, about
television.
He seemed to one viewer, how
ever. to be trying, in Diary"
to write for the television audi
ence rather than for the tele-
vision medium. The coming to
grief of a young woman taken
in by cad is not new to tele-
vision nor does it present a
particularly lofty theme. For all
of the Sherwood craftsmanship,
Diary still seenled-and this
is still only one mans opinion
somewhat shallow for man of
Sherwood's stature.
Still, we are not treated to an