Thu 7 May 2015
A TV Musical Review by Walter Albert: THE MOTOROLA TELEVISION HOUR “Thirteen Clocks” (1953).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV musicals[7] Comments
“THIRTEEN CLOCKS.” An presentation of The Motorola Television Hour, ABC-TV, 29 December 1953 (Season 1, Episode 5). John Raitt, Roberta Peters, Basil Rathbone, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Alice Pearce. Based on a story by James Thurber. Director: Don Richardson. Shown at Cinefest 18, Liverpool NY, March 1998.
Somebody attempted to make a case this year for including early TV shows on the program, but the case was not made for me by this offering. According to the notes, this adaptation of James Thurber’s children’s book was the “first full-length play with music ever done for live television.”
The music was undistinguished and although I have a great deal of tolerance for whimsy, it was sorely tried by this musical. Rathbone looked old and tired, and Hardwicke’s character frequently dozed off. I’m not sure he was always dozing off in character.
May 7th, 2015 at 9:29 pm
I’ve never seen this,
John Raitt was a great singer. One can be glad, at least, that a performance of his has been preserved. Even if the work as a whole is apparently not so hot.
May 7th, 2015 at 9:35 pm
I haven’t come across its existence on YouTube or DVD, so far, but there’s a nice pictorial review of the presentation from LIFE magazine online at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=vkgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=thirteen+clocks+motorola+hour+dvd&source=bl&ots=LXb4MHSWBO&sig=fUOlo94cS_r1_exrvbRGOUKphlY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XiBMVanNNNLdoATtiYCAAw&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=thirteen%20clocks%20motorola%20hour%20dvd&f=false
May 7th, 2015 at 9:39 pm
I haven’t come across its existence on YouTube or DVD, so far, but there’s a nice pictorial review of the presentation from LIFE magazine online at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=vkgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=thirteen+clocks+motorola+hour+dvd&source=bl&ots=LXb4MHSWBO&sig=fUOlo94cS_r1_exrvbRGOUKphlY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XiBMVanNNNLdoATtiYCAAw&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=thirteen%20clocks%20motorola%20hour%20dvd&f=false
Another short article about the musical taken from a book published in 2008 does not know of its existence, although it was presented at that NY State film festival 10 years earlier:
https://books.google.com/books?id=XbBz3C4Gr0EC&pg=PA743&lpg=PA743&dq=thirteen+clocks+motorola+hour+dvd&source=bl&ots=9mOkdzVq1E&sig=SrKo60ty7gSQ0y4Bx14sxuiEvEk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KyFMVd3hLpGwogTayYHACw&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=thirteen%20clocks%20motorola%20hour%20dvd&f=false
May 8th, 2015 at 5:59 am
Here’s Jan Clayton and John Raitt doing a scene from “Carousel”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfCyUugiWm8
Golden voices!
May 8th, 2015 at 6:23 am
Here Raitt and others explain Show Business to Mary Martin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbnKXzR2-nQ
May 8th, 2015 at 3:58 pm
It looks as if The Thirteen Clocks hasn’t held up well after all these years. In spite of good reviews in the 1950s it was perceived as rotten in 1998. No wonder no copies still exist.
May 9th, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Early television often seemed to have come out of vaudeville or burlesque or even Broadway more than movies. Acting was broad and dialogue delivered incredibly stiff and unrealistically, especially if there was a touch of fantasy. Actors who were incredibly comfortable on screen often weren’t on the small screen, especially if they were performing live. That’s one reason the medium quickly developed its own stars and acting style more natural and more intimate than stage or screen.
I wonder if Raitt showed this to daughter, Bonnie?
From the sound of it no wonder Hardwicke was napping.