Jump to: navigation, search

Variety (06/May/1959) - Radio-Television: Tactic

Details

Links

Article

Television Reviews

TACTIC

With Ben Grauer, host; Dr. Charles S. Cameron; Alfred Hitchcock, Hanya Holm, William Shatner, Diana van der Vlis, Sondra Lee, Don Redlich, guests
Exec Producer: Malcolm MacGregor
Director: Lynwood King
30 Mins., Sat., 1 p.m.
WRCA-TV, N.Y.

Under the overall title of "Tactic," a series of six half-hour tv shows is attempting to set the public straight on the proper attitudes toward cancer. Programs with a medical message too frequently are dryly presented and fail to hold their intended audiences. But "Tactic" has seasoned its warning with showmanship and the opening episode on WRCA-TV, N.Y., Saturday (2) was fascinating viewing.

For this series is calling on America's "great, creative people" to help fight cancer. Participating on the initialer were director Alfred Hitchcock and choreographer Hanya Holm. One of the attitudes which prevent a patient from submitting to early diagnosis, said cancer expert Dr. Charles S. Cameron, is fear. As a man who's made his living through fear, Hitchcock was an admirable choice to direct a dramatic scene illustrating the folly of neglecting an early warning.

In this sketch, Miss van der Vlis portrayed a fashion model faced with breast cancer which requires immediate surgery. Naturally, she fears disfigurement. Shatner, as a physician, eases her anxiety and convinces her of the operation's necessity. What made this differ from a routine scene were Hitchcock's occasional interruptions designed to heighten the dramatic effect. Here viewers had the rare experience of seeing first hand what the "Hitchcock touch" can do.

Similarly compelling was a dance sequence devised by Miss Holm and performed by Sondra Lee and Don Redlich. On the set was an arch which Miss Holm said was symbolic of reality. Movements of the dancers depicted people obessed with fear. They suspected something was wrong, yet couldn't immediately step through the arch of reality.

Slated to appear in subsequent "Tactic" programs are Celeste Holm, Wally Cox, Ilka Chase and Steve Allen, among others. Along with Dr. Cameron who is former medical and scientific director of the American Cancer Society and now Dean of the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, they loom as an important aid in helping save 75,000 American lives annually lost to cancer through fear and ignorance.

Series, incidentally, was produced by NBC in cooperation with the American Cancer Society and the Educational Television and Radio Center. Gilb.

Retrieved from ‘http://the.hitchcock.zone/w/index.php?title=Variety_(06/May/1959)_-_Radio-Television:_Tactic&oldid=183152’