Old films start off New Year badly

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34042, 5 January 1976, Page 4

Old films start off New Year badly

(By

MARGARET CHAPMAN

Saturday night’s television fare had one redeeming feature—unexpected visitors. They enlivened what otherwise would have been one of the great early nights of the very New Year.

Television One depended heavily on a double bill—- — the Good Old Summertime” with Judy Garland, and the 1958 horror movie ‘The Fly.” Both movie musicals and horror stories have developed considerably in the years since these two were made, and their age was showing. The first would have been a bonus for Judy Garland fans and as I am not one of them I opted for the other channel’s premiere movie “Danger Has Two Faces.” Here Robert Lansing on the run from East German agents saw his double emerging from a bar and immediately managed to take advantage of the situation. Unfortunately the situation was really not worth the trouble and one hour and 40 minutes later, apart from getting the girl and seemingly defeating the opposition, it all ended. Incidentally this piece of run-of-the-mill movie-making took six writers to create. I wonder what they all did.

Then it was back to “The Fly." Set for no apparent reason in France, this tale of the man/fly genetic mix-up was quite well-constructed and at least ended tidily, with both the mutations dying. In 1958 there were no quasi-mystic solutions in science fiction, after all they hadn’t even made it to the moon then, so the plot really rested on a murder inquiry. Eighteen years of scientific discovery have made movies like •‘The Fly” hardly worth a shudder even if viewing on your own.

Both channels have made very little attempt in this first week-end of 1976 to attract viewers. The old assumption that everyone is on holiday and doesn’t care is not good enough when there is a choice of channels, although they have worked it out well enough — neither channel gives you much choice.

Fortunately Friday nights seem to be developing into one of the week’s best. TVI offered a new series of “Special Branch” and although there is apparently an overlap in time between the channels this in fact did not happen on Friday so I was able to swap channels quite happily, and see the best of what was offered.

My family are great fans of “Kung Fu,” an aberration I do not share but on Friday night it wasn’t a bad yarn with a tale of Pinkerton detectives, outlaw farmers and a railroad. It is always better when the leading man is rather the background character. David Carradine’s blank delivery and even scruffier appearance tend to annoy rather than endear, but he throws a nifty foot to disarm the baddies at least once an episode and Friday’s was no exception. Barry Sullivan as the detective and John Anderson as the outlaw farmer gave strong performances.

A glimpse of the end of the documentary “Man on the Move” on TV2 made me

rather sorry that I had not seen more. There were some stunning aerial views of roads and in particular, the Severn Road bridge, and I was left with the feeling that I had missed an excellent programme. However the final of “Within These ■ Walls” made up for it. Once again a compelling storyline was married to fine acting. Throughout this series there has been a feeling of reality especially in the relations of the staff at Stone Park Prison to each other: The scene of the staff conference in Friday’s episode with the bickering and barely concealed rivalry was beautifully done, with Google Withers as the Governor ending it with a display of authority right or wrong. One of the strengths of this series has been the acting of Mona Bruce as Mrs Armitage, the head prison officer. She has conveyed the difficulties of the position, the conflicts of old-style training with the new ideas of prison work, without ever overacting the part. Some of the best scenes in the series have been between her and Godgie Withers as Faye Boswell, and here I am afraid I cannot be as complimentary, as Googie Withers with the annoying habits she invested the character with has never been the strong lead she should have been. Over all, however, this has been an excellent series and if nothing else it has given a lot of actresses work in a world where parts for men are in much greater supply. Because TVI were as usual running a little late I man-

aged to pick up the thread of “Special Branch” without too much trouble. This is still a fairly ordinary series with its two leading men, George Sewell and Patrick Mower, vying for the title craggy-face of the year. Like most British series its strength lies on the quality of the supporting actors, this week Ronald Radd.

Such was the case with "Hadleigh.” Gerald Harper has not yet managed to bring James Hadleigh to life, and on Friday night he was very much the support to a virtuoso performance from Kenneth Cranham as the fatallyinjured pot-holer. This was a performance entirely in close-up and entirely facial. The actor had to convey everything with his eyes and voice, which he did magnificently. This is an area where television scores, neither the stage nor films capture emotions as intimately as the TV camera can. "Hadleigh” bore out my theory that on most nights there’s a performance or show worth watching. Such was not the case with the film "Roustabout.” One cannot help feeling sorry for Elvis Presley who was caught up in a contract which limited him to performing in a series of idiot films and singing a series of idiot songs. Even in 1964 these films were puerile fare and it was only the Presley mystique that made them a success. In 1976 they are strictly late-night fare for the devoted, who have been kept up often of late. Was it quite necessary to run all these films within such a short span of time?