Old Plot, New Angle

For the first time, an outstanding Hollywood star has made a movie designed especially for television. Cowboy Hero Gene Autry, second most popular western actor in the U.S.,*has finished six half-hour westerns for weekly release on CBS-TV. He plans to chain-produce at least 20 more in the next year.

The first of the Autry TV movies, seen this week (the Gene Autry Show, CBS-TV, Sun. 7 p.m., E.D.T.), offers nothing new in plot or characterization. Titled Head for Texas, it tells a story of how a good ranch boss foils some bad cattle rustlers. Its novelty is its attempt to relieve the eyestrain of horse-opera addicts.

The westerns that TV has been showing were made originally for movie theaters. Autry and his associates, in designing films for the smaller television screen, have made some long-needed technical changes. Long shots have been all but eliminated. In the hard-riding scenes, the horsemen are photographed at closer range, and ride across the screen rather than toward the camera. There are more whites in Autry's TV films than in the old movies, and the darker colors are a blend of greys, which are easier than black on a televiewer's eyes.

Working more than twelve hours a day, Autry made each of his first six TV westerns for Phil (Doublemint) Wrigley, owner of Autry's radio & TV contracts, in 3 1/2 days, at a cost of around $17,500 a picture.

*In Fame magazine's movie poll, Roy Rogers has been first since 1943.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.