Return of the Oldtimers

Will topnotch oldtime movies on TV screens enrich or degrade U.S. television? CBS, which recently paid $20 million for 725 M-G-M classics (including Little Women; Mrs. Miniver; The Philadelphia Story; Camille; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Mutiny on the Bounty) appeared overconfident. "Our audiences will be assured many additional hours of great entertainment to complement the regular schedule," boasted the network. But what TV chains have apparently overlooked is that some of the "great" oldtimers may not look so shiny today. Last week's big TV movie, Top Hat, for example, did not look as good as it did in its heyday (1935). The Irving Berlin-Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers combo was still sprightly, but technically Top Hat showed its age.

Since the '30s, America's tastes and talents have changed with the social whirlwinds, and David Copperfield may not have grown up with them. The M-G-M films, largest of a staggering assortment purchased by all three webs for fall release, are pre-1949. If they seem dated to an audience brought up on more sophisticated stuff, the networks can only hope to fall back on their nostalgic value.

In Hollywood, outraged Newshen Hedda Hopper decried the fact that Clark Gable's contract had a clause inserted in 1935 (before TV was born) permitting the studio eventually to release all of Gable's movies to TV, tut-tutted: "How will our motion-picture theaters compete with TV showing Garbo, Gable, Garland and all the Barrymores in the greatest pictures ever made?"

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