Evening star., 1954-07-13
On the Air
By Harry Macarthur

Barry Nelson, with CBS-TV's
my Favorite Husband" on for
the summer, is not vacationing
as some other television actors
are. He has moved to another
network, NBC-TV. and another
show, a telefilm series titled
"The Hunter" (WNBW-Sun-
day, 1890 p.m0, which was
around last year as a hot weather
entertainment.
This is not quite a busman's
holiday for Mr.. Nelson. how
ever. It is a dream role any
actor would call a vacation.
After spending a number of
months being Joan Caulfield's
likable and credible husband
every Saturday night, Mr.. Mel
son now is allowed to be fairly
incredible in number of diff
ferent roles every week.
He played three on Sunday
night, which, if memory serves.
is about par for the course. The
basic character in '"The Hunter"
lis a character, all right. Here
Mr.. Nelson plays Bart Adams, a
playboy saddled with about 500
million and a more than mod
erately insufferable manner.
Z Bart is more than a wealthy
bore. though. From time to time
he deserts the plush Fairgrounds
of the cabaret set to- turn UP in
Europe and bedevil the Com
munists as ''The Hunter" He is
so effective, in fact that they
deny his existence.
4 X 4
In last Sundays opening cha
rade. Mr.. Nelson started out as
the playboy. He had just run
down to Trieste to sell to some
Italians a shipping line located
in the Yugoslav zone and he was
an international incident, COM
plete with rioting in the streets.
A Communist commentator on
Radio Bucharest was failing
away at him from all angles and,
an American general in Trieste
said he'd give the star on this
| shoulder to get Bart out of town
and his other star to get his
hands on the commentator. This
| was enough for THE Hunter"
In no time at all he was
aboard a Rumanian train imper-
sonating a patriotic c>peasant in a
disguise that wouldn't have
| fooled a 2-year-old. It did not
fool girl named 1t. Redescu.
either. She was hot on his trail.
He lost he, though, by throttling
| an NKVD man and donning his
uniform.
AS a man from. Moscow, he
charged into the radio station,
grabbed the commentator, stole
the lieutenant's jeep and set out
for Trieste. Made IL. too. despite
several road blocks thrown up
by Communists, who fired at
point blank range without even
shooting the grin of of Bart's
face.
/ This seems even less credible
on second thought than it did at
the time, but it was brought on
with considerable success. 1t was
slickly filmed and a considerable
notch above a lot of half hour
TV films, in that some credibility
was achieved by the players even
though their deeds were far
| fetched. Director Oscar Rudolph
kept it moving at goodly clip.
too.
/ Your enjoyment of "The Hunt
er" will depend upon how COM
/ pletely you want to abandon be-
| lievability in the warm weather.
There is Just one word of warn
ing. Don't go so far to believe
that all Communists are inept at
intrigue and poor shots.
j RURAL SUNDAY-The mod
ern generation has it all over
the older ones. Time was when
the urge to visit relatives or
friends on the farm on a Sum
day afternoon was answered by
Ipiling everybody into the family
car and driving out there. None
/: of that nonsense any more.
Thanks to NBC-TV, you now can
go rural on q Sunday without
taking your feet down OF the
. hassock. the only ideal way for
trafic refugees and hay fever
4 sufferers.