Holbrook Stars Tonight in ‘Pueblo,' Saga of Ship

·By William Hickey

Television-Redio Editor

Hal Holbrook, a native Clevelander, has that rare quality among actors that enables him to raise everything he touches to the highest level.

HICKEY

He does it again tcright in the American Broadcasting Co.'s "Pueblo." which will be seen here on Channels

5

and 23 at 9. "Pueblo” is the dramatization of the seizure of the U.S. spy ship by North Korea and features Holbrook as Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, the ship's captain.

Most theatergoers and television viewers remember his near-perfect re-creation of Mark Twain. in which he captured the very soul of the famed American humorist, first on Broadway and then in a television special.

In fact, it was this air of prestige about Holbrook that raised a regular television series, "The Senator." to a level unfathomable to network brass, with the result that they canceled it. They simply were not accustomed to such quality and openly admitted the same later to newsmen.

Hal Holbrook

This season. Holbrook starred in an ABC-TV "Movie of the Week" entitled. "That Certain Summer," which dealt with the plight of a homosexual forced to reveal his nature to his teen-age son.

It is highly doubtful that anyone except Holbrook

could have accomplished the difficult double task of making it palatable to the average viewer, while not demeaning homosexuals.

That he did it, and did it successfully. is attested to by the fact that the program received critical acclaim and a large measure of acceptance from the viewing public. which is no little feat. considering that America's hinterland natives take an exceedingly dim view of such goings on.

The powerful "Pueblo" script tells the story by recreating the two courts of inquiry, one by the Navy and the other by Congress, which delved into the ship's struggle to survive under attack and the horrors suffered by its crew while prisoners in North Korea.

The focal point is Buch

er's dilemma whether it is more praiseworthy to save the lives or his men or to obey Navy tradition and refuse to give up his ship.

The circumstances that led to the capture of the Pueblo, and all that happened afterward, is told through flashbacks, with the action shifting from the court. to the ship, to the prison and back again.

It opens with the lonely figure of Bucher telling of his love for the Navy and

the days of his youth. Bucher was always the lonely figure, orphaned twice by the age of 7 and shunted from foundling home to foundling home.

"Pueblo" builds slowly from the quiet opening scenes and before it concludes. it states unequivocally that the lonely man who captained the vessel was the victim of a careless Navy high command, one which allowed the ship to go to sea in inadequate condi-

tien to fulfill its mission.

While that point of view inay upset some old salts among the viewers, the squeamish will find the realism of the prison scenes far too disturbing to their

senses.

To those of you, however, who have hungered for a dramatic presentation on TV, especially one that is brilliantly acted, by all means catch Hal Holbrook this evening in "Pueblo."