CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER .. NBC.. USA 1972 ..

 

NBC
Presents

A Hallmark Hall Of Fame Presentation.

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER 

Starring

ORSON WELLES as Sheridan Whiteside
JOAN COLLINS as Lorraine Sheldon
LEE REMICK as Maggie Cutler
DON KNOTTS as DR Bradley
PETER HASKELL as Bert Jefferson
MARY WICKES as Nurse Preen
MARTY FELDMAN as Banjo
MICHAEL GOUGH as Beverly Carlton

EDWARD ANDRWWS as Ernest W Stanley

KIM BRADEN as June Stanley

TUTTE LEMKOW as Zoltan

AL MANCINI as Westcott

ELIZABETH WELCH as Sarah

Directed by Buzz Kulik

(c) 1972  NBC  90 MINS .. COLOR ..

Joan sidles up to Orson with Don Knotts checking if the coast is clear!

When international orator Sheridan Whiteside accepts an invitation to dinner with the Stanley's, a prominent Ohio family, the scene is set for upheavel of the highest order! Whiteside slips on some ice approaching their house and apparently breaks his leg, thus threatening a lawsuit. With Whiteside, is his faithful but tolerant secretary Maggie Cutler, who sparks up a friendship with local newspaper editor Bert Jefferson, to the annoyance of Whiteside, who is now confined to a wheelchair and decides to upset the whole household for devilment and fun! When the doctor calls and tells him his leg is fine, the old goat bribes him to say otherwise, so he can continue with his mischief making! Into the scene comes sex-pot actress Lorraine Sheldon, who is more than a match for Whiteside and the fun and games really begin, with the family regretting inviting - The Man Who Came To Dinner!!

 This 1972 TV production, although set in America, this was filmed in England by ATV as part of the long running "Hallmark Hall Of Fame" strand of movies and specials, which first appeared on American television at Christmas 1951 with the opera, " Amahl and the Night Visitors", and by 1955 it began it's regular series of 90 to 120 minutes movies/specials. "The Man Who Came To Dinner" first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1939 and was written by the legendary duo of George S Kaufman & Moss Hart, as a comedy in three acts. Orson Welles heads the cast in this production and he claimed to have been offered the role of Sheridan in both the stage version and the now classic 1942 film. But he rejected them and Monty Wooley played the part in both. Welles commented that he was glad he had not done either, of the film he said it was "Awful".. 

Joan was asked to play the role of Lorraine Sheldon by director Buzz Kulik, whom she knew since they worked together on the David Janssen thriller "Warning Shot". Joan was delighted to take the role as a wonderful cast was assembled. However much as she was delighted to be working with the legendary Welles, she was also in awe of his great presence. However as Joan recalled, Orson was not the easiest to work with..

" Orson and I were rehearsing one scene which included a longish speech, which he had to preform to me. I was standing on my correct mark when all of a sudden he ended the speech with ... ' I cant read the rest of the lines because Miss Collins is standing in front of the damn cue cards!'
I was mortified! 'But I am standing where I am supposed to be!'
It was pointless arguing as Orson was the star and made sure everyone knew it, even poor Don Knotts had his best scenes cut, as not to upstage the great Welles!"

Joan perfects her look before shooting..

The cast rehearsed for three weeks and Orson insisted on reading all his lines from large cue cards which two students from RADA had to hold up for ages..Welles was also fond of red wine as he consumed endless cups of the stuff..Taping of the show was slated to last only three days but as Welles was difficult and still consuming the red wine even during taping, the shoot lasted almost six days. Joan was delighted when Kitty Carlisle paid a visit to the set and told her how she loved Joan's performance as Lorraine and she had seen every actress who played the part since it's original run from Carol Goodner in 1939 to Ann Sheridan in 1942 and other over the years... Actress Mary Wickes who plays Nurse Preen, also appeared in the original stage version and the film playing the same character...

Joan on set ready for her close up

Although the production has a stagey feel, the excellent cast makes it an interesting view and Joan is in sparkling form as the selfish, vain Lorraine, with the late Lee Remick as Maggie, the complete opposite in temperament to the vampish Miss Sheldon.... This has not been screened on tv for many years, althought The Paley Centre screened it as part of an Orson Welles season in 2015.. It is not available on dvd, I was luck to get a copy of it years ago and it's well worth viewing if you happen to come across it!

Rare shot of Joan with producer Sam Denoff

REVIEW :

THE NEW YORK TIMES -

Last night's “Hallmark Hall of Fame” production, pre sented at 8:30 on the Na tional Broadcasting Compa ny network, was “based on the play” called “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” The play, which opened on Broad way in 1939 and starred Monty Woolley as Sheridan Whiteside, was written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The TV production, which starred Orson Welles, was updated by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, the special's producers. That was its first mistake.

Rare shot of Joan on set with Orson

The play comes out of the once popular American tradition of “debunking” comedy. Sheridan Whiteside is a critic, and part of the origi nal fun was knowing that the characterization was based, none too subtly, on Alexan der Woollcott. Whiteside is the compleat egomaniac, humbly bamboozling his pub lic and mercilessly dominat ing anyone and anything un fortunate enough to stray near his private life.

In this new production, Whiteside remains a critic, but now he is also a TV per sonality, a strong threat to Johnny Carson as “televi sion's one‐man cultural revo lution.” And with Whiteside confined after an accident to the home of the Stanley fam ily in Ohio, the comedy con tinues to rely on a rapid‐fire succession of wisecracks. The single, spurious element of sophistication is attempted through the device of name‐ dropping.

The phone rings, and it's Princess Margaret from Lon don. The dazzled Mrs. Stan ley (Marcella Markham) does a reflex curtsy. The mousy doctor (Don Xnotts) is dis missed by his ferocious pa tient as a “road‐company Marcus Welby.” Whiteside orders that his accident be reported to “Spiro—he'll pass the word to Sinatra.” Sitting in his wheelchair and plot ting new schemes, the critic cautions, “Shh, Ironside at work.”

Sometimes the updating worked. More often, it didn't, especially when Mrs. Stanley anticipated that “he may even read ‘Valley of the Dolls' to us” or when White side lapsed into singing “Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.”

The characters surround ing Whiteside were given uniformly effective perform ances. Lee Remick‐ as White side's super‐secretary and Joan Collins as a super‐sex‐ pot actress were splendid. And Peter Haskell, Edward Andrews and Mary Wickes (again repeating the nurse role that she did in the orig inal stage production) were outstanding.

And then there was Orson Welles. That would seem to he the production's second mistake. Following several outstanding stage and film achievements in his early career, Mr. Welles has ac quired through the years an immensity both of girth and of reputation, which itself could do with considerable debunking. Consider merely the overacted, overproduced, overbearing productions of Shakespeare and Kafka com mitted to film in his name.

As Sheridan Whiteside, Mr. Welles emerges less the amusing egocentric than a monstrous fake, Part of the problem stems from the di rector, Buzz Kulick, who keeps the actor in domi neering closeup. Whiteside is funny in context. Alone and in close quarters, he tends to be suffocating.

In addition, comedy is not one of Mr. Welles's stronger points. His timing is dull and heavyhanded. Take a simple line. Whiteside hisses at his nurse: “Where do you disap pear all the time, my Lady Nausea?” With Welles, the “great actor” syndrome takes over: “Where do you disap pear all the time (pause), my Lady (pause) Nausea (voice rising to a shrill pitch on last syllable)?” The laugh is buried in the reading.

At its best—Whiteside's Christmas Eve TV message of peace as chaos erupts in the Stanley home—“The Man Who ‘Came to Dinner” hit its proven farce‐comedy stride. Unfortunately, too much of the rest consisted of stum bling.