"Rumors of Evening" is an American

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

broadcast on May 1, 1958, as part of the second season of the CBS television series ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology dr ...

''. John Frankenheimer directed.

Barbara Bel Geddes Barbara Bel Geddes (October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005) was an American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author whose career spanned almost five decades. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the t ...

, John Kerr, and Robert Loggia starred, and The Kingston Trio also appeared as Bob, Dave, and Nick.

Plot

A married American bomber pilot, Capt. Neil Dameron, is stationed at an air base in England during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He falls in love with an English entertainer, Sidney Cantrell, and they find "a few moments of happiness in the midst of the grimness of war." In order to avoid being returned to the United States, and hoping to see the woman again, he volunteers for a dangerous mission.

Cast

The following performers received screen credit for their performances: *

- Sidney Cantrell * John Kerr - Capt. Neil Dameron * Robert Loggia - Major Woulman * Robert F. Simon - General Strayer * Pat Hitchcock - Irma Jean * The Kingston Trio - Bob, Dave and Nick * Ron Soble * Mimi Gibson * Leonard Davison

Production

Martin Manulis Martin Ellyot Manulis (May 30, 1915 – September 28, 2007) was an American television, film, and theatre producer. Manulis was best known for his work in the 1950s producing the CBS Television programs ''Suspense'', '' Studio One Summer Theatre' ...

was the producer, and John Frankenheimer directed. Leslie Stevens wrote the adaptation based on a story by F.W. Durkee Jr. It was originally scheduled to be broadcast live from Television City in Hollywood on April 10, 1958, but it was postponed due to a strike against CBS by its cameramen and technicians. It was ultimately broadcast on May 1, 1958, and later rerun on July 30, 1959. It was part of the second season of ''

'', an anthology television series that was voted "the greatest television series of all time" in a 1970 poll of television editors. The Kingston Trio performed in the background, including the songs " Scarlet Ribbons" and " When the Saints Go Marching In".

Reception

William Ewald, television critic for the

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

praised the performances of

and Robert Loggia. He also found the love scenes to be "as alive as any I've ever seen on TV". However, he found the overall production to be formulaic: "Some superb acting and a slick production, but all of it stuck on a vehicle cut out of a familiar pattern that managed only to jog along when it should have soared." Jack O'Brian of the

International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.

praised the "stickout" performance of Robert Loggia and predicted that stardom as likely; he was lukewarm about the overall production, calling it "a fair play with fine performances."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rumors of Evening 1958 television plays 1958 American television episodes Playhouse 90 (season 2) episodes