Goodyear Theatre (TV Series) Hello, Charlie (1959) User Reviews

A clunker

[lor_ · 19 November 2023]

There's no denying the talent of writers Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur, whose list of screen classics include the likes of "The Front Page" and "20th Century", but this tribute to MacArthur by Hecht is a complete dud. Steve Martin's famous tagline "Comedy is not pretty" does not apply -this is a case where comedy is not funny.

Story is set in the 1920s when MacArthur was a newspaper reporter for the Chicago Examiner, with Tony Randall starring as Charles and John Dehner as his irritable editor. He's assigned by Dehner to cover a story about a little girl accidentally locked in a safe, with air running out soon, and the whole town going crazy. This situation, similar to the story of Billy Wilder's classic movie "Ace in The Whole" is merely an excuse for a cynical Hecht script that is meant as satire, but so broad and corny as to be barely watchable for its 20-odd TV minutes of running time. Not helping is Tony Randall's uncharacteristically hammy performance. Wilder coincidentally remade "The Front Page" in 1974 unsuccessfully, but to quote Billy's most famous line: "Nobody's perfect".

This was dated filler when broadcast in 1959 and more than six decades later is completely stale.

Amusing stuff

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7 December 2012]

Sidney Landfield, the director, worked most of his career at Twentieth Century Fox, making especially comedies - except HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLE and an interesting and offbeat western in the line of WILD WILD WEST TV show: STATION WEST. I was not very mad for this guy.

Well, after his movie career, he turned to TV industry, as many of his fellow directors. And almost comedies, or sweet dramas. This one is a comedy episode, not my cup of tea. The story of a newspaper man who's in charge by his boss - John Dehner - to find two safe crackers in order to save a bank vault where a little girl was been locked up. Our lead goes to prison, to find the "specialists" for this kind of unusual job. Everything here is turned in very light situations, as you may guess.

Nothing to add more to this gentle little tale. I will not say stupid...