Actor sues over Pentagon film

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32659, 15 July 1971, Page 11

Actor sues over Pentagon film

(N.Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright) LOS ANGELES, July 14. The American actor, Robert Stack, today filed an action against the Columbia Broadcasting System, alleging that it had falsely depicted him as a supporter of the Vietnam war by the deceptive editing of a propaganda film.

Mr Stack complains in the suit, which will be heard by the Los Angeles State Superior Court, that the C.B.S. used part of a film he made for the United States Air Force, and, by using it out of context in the controversial television documentary, “The Selling of the Pentagon,” depicted him as a “hawk,” though he regards himself as a “dove” in his attitude towards Vietnam. Mr Stack is best known for his role as a Federal agent, Eliot Ness, in “The Untouchables,” a television series about the Battle against organised crime in America in the 19305, and as a star in “The Name of the Game.” He (has also appeared in films. I Mr Stack alleges that the I programme, purported to be

a news documentary, was actually a “dramatised, editorial, cinematic presentation of a biased and slanted point of view.”

The Attorney-General (Mr John Mitchell) has demanded that the C.B.S. hand over edited sections of the documentary, in his investigations of allegations that the network distorted information to make the film about the Pentagon’s vast publicity machine.

By 226 votes to 181, the United States House of Representatives today shelved an attempt to bring an unprecedented contempt of Congress charge against the C.B.S. and its president, Dr Frank Stanton, for their refusal to surrender the editedout portions.