Word: colman
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...Halls of Ivy (Wed. 8 p.m., NBC). New day and time for Ronald Colman series...
With a Clifton Webb playing the lead and some bright scripters on the job, the picture might have turned into a devastating satire of radio's foolish age. Veteran Colman does well enough in his orotund English style, but the writers fail him almost completely. Basically, they miss the vital point-which Miracle on 34th Street caught so well-that the story's fantastic premise should be played out as if the impossible were really happening. Instead, the film has been pitched on a wobbly note of broad burlesque with overtones of self-conscious whimsy, e.g., the soap...
...Ronald Colman plays Beauregard Bottomley, an omniscient bookworm who is convinced that radio's money-splurging quiz shows threaten the U.S. with "intellectual destruction," and sets out to strike a blow for intellectual salvation. An expert who can't be stumped, he appears on Soap Manufacturer Vincent Price's double-ornothing program week after week, letting his winnings pile up with the plan of taking over the whole $40-million soap company. When the alarmed hucksters try to give him what he has already won and get rid of him, a hero-loving public refuses...
...remainder of the picture is taken up with the successive weeks of victory for Colman until he eventually is trying for the $40,000,000 question, the one which will put Milady Soap Company, the sponsors, out of business. Vincent Price, company owner, has tried to keep him off the program by paying him and stopping the show but it doesn't work. The public is behind Colman, and when he doesn't appear, no soap is sold. Price tries to muddle his mind, by sending Celeste Holm after him; he has tried to find his weak spot by getting...
...long-time. A lampoon of this industry has been a long-time in coming but director Richard Whorf, known to some as a Shakespearean actor, has allowed the direction to get out of hand. There are too many irrelevancies and not enough of the quip situations in which Mr. Colman can handle himself best. The picture should have run an hour and it ran for two hours and 18 minutes...