{"id":9052,"date":"2012-08-13T06:34:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T11:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=9052"},"modified":"2024-06-27T10:00:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T14:00:36","slug":"oceania-is-the-place-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/08\/13\/oceania-is-the-place-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Oceania is the place to be…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>While rooting around the Internet Archive<\/a> channel on my Roku<\/a> box, I found this curiosity from 1953 – Westinghouse’s Studio One presentation of George Orwell’s 1984<\/strong><\/em> starring Eddie Albert!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It looks to be a stage-play version of the book shot live for television and this kinescope survives.<\/p>\n

Norma Crane<\/a><\/strong> pictured above played Julia<\/em> and in an unusual and wonderfully sinister turn, O’Brien<\/em> is played by none other than Ben Cartwright<\/em> or Admiral Adama<\/em> – Lorne Greene!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Greene’s mellifluous baritone voice and his imposing stage presence made him an excellent O’Brien. If it was a less condensed version of the book, he would have done a hell of a job with the role. He does very well with his limited screen time, and I wonder why he didn’t play more villains. He was really good at it. After Bonanza<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, it was all patriarchs for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n

If you pay attention and don’t blink, you may see a familiar face during The Two-Minute Hate…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It’s an impossibly young Martin Landau<\/strong><\/a> decades before his brilliant Oscar winning performance in Ed Wood<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>and more than a decade before Mission: Impossible<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em> He just has a bit part in this one, but I recognized him immediately. He looks so youthful and vibrant here. Sort of like a cross between a young Iggy Pop<\/strong><\/a> and Robby Benson.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Besides from condensing the book into an hour-long teleplay, the show takes some interesting liberties with the story. Emmanuel Goldstein<\/em>, the enemy of the people, becomes Cassandra<\/strong>. Maybe Westinghouse got nervous and the writers decided to ply the character with a less ethnic sounding name. Heading back to the classics and giving the character the name of the prophet nobody believed was a sly move. So it didn’t strictly adhere to the book. So what? The eggheads who read the book probably wouldn’t own televisions anyway. No angry letters meant a happy sponsor which meant everybody keeps their jobs. Everybody’s happy. Win-win!<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the strange things about this production is the depiction of the iconic image of Big Brother. Rather than go with a blown up headshot of some actor from central casting or maybe a halfway decent graphic illustration, they went sort of avant garde, off-off Broadway and somewhat loopy for this image of the most important character in the book.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s bad. Real bad. High school cheerleader painting posters for the pep rally bad. This production was probably shot in New York which was crawling with illustrators and artists back in the ’50s. This was the best they could do? What did the guys from Westinghouse think?<\/p>\n

Embedded below for your viewing pleasure is this production of 1984<\/p>\n