Box Populi Pure Soap Opera

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 7

Box Populi Pure Soap Opera

“Peyton Place” has to be noticed, and not only because it has been a highly successful TV serial in the United States. It has been a long time coming here. Many viewers familiar with the novel by Grace Metalious had been waiting to see whether the screen version also laid bare the dark and secret life of a small American town. Others, grown tired of the drab reality of “Coronation Street,” wanted something stronger and more exciting. Because so much money and talent have been poured into “Peyton Place,” it may seem unfair to condemn it on the first screening. No doubt there will be some valid themes and situations in later episodes; the cast is talented enough to rise above the intimate plots and dreary lines. But “Peyton Place” must be convicted on its first appearance because it is a meretricious production presented with such skill that many viewers are likely to be convinced that what they are shown is life. “Peyton Place” gained some of its success in the United States because of the notoriety of the book of the same name. The TV serial uses the general theme of the novel; the first episode suggests that the continuing story of the small town will bear little resemblance to it Everything has been reduced to the innocuous level of a pulp magazine, and the dark and murky waters that flowed through the original "Peyton Place” have been cleansed by a liberal quantity of soap flakes. * • • There has been a certain Mwunt of soap opera on our TV screens In the past None

of it has been quite as pure soap as the first episode of “Peyton Place.” The resemblance to radio soap opera was obvious. The tone was the same, the voice which began and ended the episode could have come straight from a ZB commercial, and the preview at the finish was just like the radio invitation to listen to the next exciting epidsode. Pure soap like "Peyton Place” was once confined to radio. We had “Dr. Paul” and "Portia Faces Life” with us for a long, long time. They were bad enough but, like other radio soap operas, were presented in the mornings or afternoons, not in prime viewing time. There is only one consolation for viewers here; they will have the TV soap opera once a week, not twice as in the United States. • * *

The arrival of “Peyton Place” makes me wonder why the rich field of their own literature has been disregarded by American TV producers. British producers have given their viewers and us Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Bronte; the Americans have distorted “The Virginian” almost beyond recognition, and now have taken the theme of what “Time" called a “peeping tome” by a second-rate writer. An American has said that the public itself will determine the degree to which it accepts television as a cultural and educational force. But if most of the viewers prefer “Peyton Place” to Shakespeare that is what they wiU get. and that is what they ”• B®tttag in the United States. Here we have no

has given us “Peyton Place.” But to its credit It has given us Shakespeare, and Dickens, and de Maupassant • * * The N.Z.B.C. no doubt has its reasons for giving us “Peyton Place.” There seemed no good reason for presenting on Sunday evening a New Zealand film called “Take a Ship." The title came from the advice given in travel folders, and the film depicted life aboard ship on a voyage from Auckland to Southhampton by way of Panama and back to Wellington by way of SuezIt did not tell or show us anything new or exciting about travel by sea, the photography was patchy, and a dull, uninspired commentary was relieved only by an attractive musical background. Philip Holloway was named as the executive producer in the list of credits: the same Mr Holloway has done much better in politics and the shipping business.

“Take a Ship” could be dismissed as a tourist film of only average quality, and a poor choice for a Sunday programme. But it made me wonder why the N.Z.B.C. accepted for screening a film which publicised—end not very subtly—a particular shipping line. The ship’s name was mentioned frequently, and the name of the line to which it belonged also appeared more than once. Travellers can “Take a Ship" when they go overseas. Is there anv reason whv the NXB.C. should influence their choice? And is there anv reason why the New Zealand National Film Unit ehrnld lend its eoopantion to the making of a Aim which does nothing for New Zealand?