Should-have-been contenders: Old-time radio listening, 22 November

The Marriage: Fred Hertzell Visits from Kansas (NBC, 1953)

Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy should have been radio naturals. Their diction and articulation were among the best the stage had to offer; their ease in shuffling between drama and comedy was enviable.

And, their knack for understatement is precisely the sort of thing necessary to make a success out of a sophisticated, drawing-room comedy about tony attorney Ben Marriott whose wife, former department store buyer Liz, was trying to adjust to life as a housewife of a sort—a housewife who just so happened to share a taste for theater, art, letters, and philosophy with her wry husband.

Perhaps part of the problem is that The Marriage hits the air as network radio is lapsing into its coma. Perhaps part of the problem, too, is that the show may be a little too sophisticated for the audiences who aren’t yet certain whether to betray radio for television entirely.

Taken on its own terms, The Marriage should have been a radio hit—Ronald and Benita Colman have proven already (with The Halls of Ivy) that sophisticated, tony comedy could work on radio. But Cronyn and Tandy aren’t blessed with writers of Don Quinn’s uncommon deftness, even if their show’s writing is well above the situation comedy norm. The show lapses into a kind of stasis, following a promising beginning, that can’t be overcome even by the relaxed performances of its cast.

Tonight is one of the most relaxed of the run: Never say "If you're ever in New York, look me up" casually, even from gratitude, as Ben (Cronyn) is reminded the hard way, thanks to an old acquaintance (Wendell Hall) who once helped Ben and Liz (Tandy) out of a nasty jam, and who's just telegrammed that he's coming to town . . . on Thanksgiving.

Pete: David Pfeffer. Emily: Denise Alexander. Announcer: Bob Denton. Director: Edward King. Writer: John McGifford.

FURTHER CHANNEL SURFING . . .

The Whistler: The Other Woman (CBS, 1942)—Olivia Martin (possibly Betty Lou Gerson) isn't the only one in her indifferent husband's life with an interest in obstructing his romance with a comely advertising colleague (possibly Lurene Tuttle), but she's the one planning an elaborately deadly resolution. Stay with it. Additional cast: Unknown. The Whistler: Joseph Kearns. Music: Wilbur Hatch. (Whistling: Dorothy Roberts.) Writer/director: Possibly J. Donald Wilson.

Boston Blackie: Blackie Kidnapped (Syndicated, 1945)—A rival mob wants the jailed Johnson mob's missing bank haul . . . and hopes an anesthesiologist drugs Blackie (Richard Kollmar) into revealing the haul's location, which he learned from a jailed Johnson sister. Better than the synopsis sounds at first sight. Shorty: Tony Barrett. Faraday: Maurice Tarplin. Mary: Jan Minor. Additional cast: Unknown. Writers: Kenny Lyons, Ralph Rosenberg.

The Durante-Moore Show: Casanova Moore (CBS, 1946)—Jimmy (Durante) is held up making it to the studio; the grand turkey is raffled and then some; Garry (Moore) and Suzanne (Ellis) mull the pending death of etiquette; and, Garry recalls the inventor of the kiss—his own Uncle Cas. There are reasons why some aficionados think Durante was never better on radio than this. There are also reasons why some feel likewise about Garry Moore. Announcer: Howard Petrie. Music: Ray Bargy and his Orchestra. Writers: Sid Zalinka, possibly Sid Reznick, Jack Robinson, Leo Solomon.